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As the market demand for drones grows, there is a need for technologies able to produce repeatable, scalable, high-performance — and often complex — drone components including their frames.  

One new company entering this market is (Newark, Del., U.S.), a spin-off of the University of Delaware that is currently located within the school’s Center for Composite Materials (CCM), aiming to move into a dedicated facility as business grows.

Co-founded by University of Delaware faculty member Kelvin Fu, CarbonForm aims to commercialize its patented, continuous fiber composites additive manufacturing (AM) technology for applications requiring low-volume, on-demand, high-performance, complex parts. In addition to Fu, the team also includes Ismail Mujtaba Khan, Md. Habib Ullah Khan and Kaiyue Deng.

According to Ismail Khan, the technology grew from the goal of combining the high mechanical performance of continuous fiber thermoset composites with the speed and automation of AM, while eliminating the through-thickness limitations that undermine conventional 3D-printed laminates.

The 3DFiT process

CarbonForm’s automated 3DFiT — short for 3D Fiber Tethering — process involves depositing a continuous fiber thermoset material onto a 3D scaffold. The process was co-developed by the CarbonForm team with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) ARPA-E OPEN’21 program.

“This process gives us 3D spatial placement to make actual 3D monolithic structures — not ply-based 2D structures — that are high strength. And since it is automated, production is in minutes, not hours as in some processes,” Khan says.

How does the technology work? Topology optimization, fiber orientation and path planning are done with an in-house-developed integrated software platform. To build the actual part, a specially designed printhead on a robotic arm extrudes dry continuous fibers with in situ impregnation — “this gives you a high fiber volume fraction [FVF],” Khan notes — onto a scaffold designed with anchor points onto which the fibers can hook and change direction. The system is material agnostic, capable of printing with any open-source continuous fibers or resins.

“The entire part is made from continuous fibers, so there’s no mold or joints or need to glue or fasten parts together,” Khan says. “Once the part is finished and cured, the scaffold is removed and can be reused.” This technology was nominated for an Award for Composites Excellence (ACE) at CAMX 2025.

First demonstrator: Topology-optimized aerospace bracket

To demonstrate its technology on a real-world application, CarbonForm began by recreating and optimizing a jet engine bracket, based on a machined titanium alloy design by GE Aerospace (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.).

The bracket was topology optimized to determine the most efficient load paths for the lightest possible weight. A beam adaptation model was then applied to precisely align the fibers along these paths.

“Topology optimization, of course, is often done to figure out the best design to minimize weight while maintaining strength. However, with many composite processes the optimized structure isn’t possible to make in practice — it’s too complicated of a design. But our technology allows us to actually build it,” Khan says. 

The bracket was made from 50K carbon fiber tow impregnated with epoxy with an FVF of 50.9%, and was able to be manufactured in about 35 minutes.

How did it perform? In a tensile test, the composite bracket was demonstrated to withstand up to 45 kilonewtons (kN) of tensile load versus 36 kN for the original titanium alloy design. The composite part only weighs about 0.13 kilogram versus the 2-kilogram metal version — a weight savings of about 93%. In terms of cost savings, Khan estimates that the original would cost about $5,000 to produce one bracket, while the composite version cost them about $500 — a 90% reduction.

Entering the market: Drone frames

Having tested and demonstrated its technology, CarbonForm now aims to grow its business as a parts manufacturer, starting with optimized .

“Current drone frames are already being made from both composites and metals, but there are limitations. Metals are heavy, requiring more energy from the drone to be able to fly. Composites made using traditional ply stacking methods can be labor-intensive and slow to produce, and result in weaknesses in the Z-direction. So, we used topology optimization and 3DFiT to improve the crash resistance and develop a lighter, faster-to-produce frame,” Khan explains.

Inspired by current multi-material designs from camera drone manufacturer DJI, CarbonForm has developed multiple continuous carbon fiber composite frame options manufactured in about 10 minutes per part.

“It’s quick to make, it’s lightweight, it’s very strong, it survives multiple drop tests,” Khan notes. In flight tests, the composite versions also demonstrated a 15-20% improvement in flight endurance, as the light weight requires less energy to maintain. They are also durable: In repeated 15-meter drop tests, the frame is reported to show no visible damage to the structure, electronics, battery or motors (see video below).

Plus, the simple, joint-free design is ideal for small drones like those used to carry cameras and other small field equipment. “Traditional drone frames on the market, even composite versions, have several joints which make the frames weaker. In this process, you don’t need any joints — it’s easy to carry, you don’t need to disassemble it. This technology works very well for smaller drones,” Habib Ullah Khan adds.

Portable, in-field fabrication

Robotic fabrication is ideal for scalable, automated, repeatable manufacturing. For military applications or other use cases, however, it can be necessary to quickly make a small drone frame in the field. CarbonForm has also developed a portable, manual version of its 3DFiT process enabling fabrication and assembly of a glass fiber composite drone that’s ready to fly in less than 30 minutes.

In this version, fibers are wound around a simple, easy-to-assemble wooden scaffold by hand, using a portable resin impregnation device and UV-cure resin. The frame and scaffold can then be cured in under 10 minutes placed in the sun, followed by assembly with the motor and propeller via nuts and bolts, and preassembled electronics and battery modules that attach magnetically.

See the video below for a demonstration of this system:

“Entering the drone market is our main goal right now, but this process is designed to help replace small, complex metal parts that are used in very load-based, high-stress areas. We’re open to new opportunities in the future,” Khan says. Potential additional applications include bicycle frames, automotive B-pillars, lunar habitat shields and more.