Composite sandwich structures present a lightweight alternative to metal components on Spanish bus manufacturer Ayats’ double-decker buses, starting with prototype window frame cover components (bus shown is not an Ayats vehicle). Source | Getty Images

Aiming to keep up with ever-evolving European Union (EU) regulations as well as customer needs, double-decker bus designer and manufacturer (Ayats, Arbúcies, Spain) aims to strategically reduce weight on certain components of its vehicles.

Ayats, which operates in more than 20 countries and has been manufacturing vehicles since 1905, claims a history of innovation in the bus and coach industry and continues to push the boundaries of performance in its vehicle designs.

While the company has traditionally focused on steel and aluminum structures, Ayats has recently begun work in composite structures including its acquisition of the company Karbon Design, a Barcelona-based carbon fiber composite padel racket manufacturer. New to the composites space, Ayats sought technical expertise to aid in the process of transitioning Karbon Design’s composite techniques to its applications.

The company naturally turned to resin and foam distributor (Barcelona), which has supported Karbon Design for more than a decade and helped it to develop and scale up efficient in-house press molding techniques for its rackets.

Mel Composites, whose founder and CEO Eduardo Galofré came into the business after years of experience in naval architecture, is known by its customers for not only supplying materials but also contributing technical support in vacuum infusion-based composites processes. Much of the company’s work includes supply of custom-shaped foam, resins, fiber reinforcements and consumables used to infuse marine or sporting goods components. More recently, Mel Composites has begun translating its experience in these industries for infused parts in transportation and even aerospace applications.

Mel Composites’ and Ayats’ collaborative bus application project began with the analysis of the window frame cover’s four components — an evaporator drain, upper upright, lower upright and horizontal upright beams. The latter two components were selected for development in composites.

Mel Composites engineered bespoke tooling, including aluminum and tooling board molds, and developed a process for combining the two distinct parts into a single mold to increase manufacturing efficiency. The initial prototype parts were produced using resin infusion, comprising solid laminates made from glass fiber reinforcement from Gavazzi (Calolziocorte, Italy) infused with either GreenPoxy 33 from Sicomin (Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, France) or HQ800 vinyl ester from Sirca (San Dono di Massanzago, Italy), and cored with a 1.2-millimeter-thick Rohacryl recyclable, acrylate-based foam core from Evonik (Essen, Germany) sliced in-house by Mel Composites. 

Ultimately, the foam sandwich composite window frame covers are said to be up to 80% lighter than a traditional rubber elastomer. According to Ayats, weight reduction in the bus contributes to greater overall efficiency of the vehicle as well as increased capacity for carrying passengers while still meeting weight requirements.

As Ayats transitions the parts from prototype into production volumes, the company is expected to adapt the process for either light resin transfer molding (RTM) or press molding.

Throughout this collaboration, Mel Composites has provided technical input, suggesting improvements in part design, tooling surface quality and manufacturing workflow — guiding Ayats toward a more automated, cost-effective and scalable production process.

“This project is a testament to how proven composite technologies from other sectors, like sporting goods, can be adapted to meet the unique challenges of the automotive industry,” says Mel Composites’ Galofré. “It has been a pleasure working with Carrocerías Ayats to develop components that are lightweight, low-risk and suitable for future automated production. We’re excited about the potential for further collaboration and expanded composite integration in their next-generation vehicles.”

Bucci Composites operates two facilities focused on producing high-quality carbon fiber composite parts for the high-end automotive market. In 2024, the company completed an 80,000-square-foot extension to its main facility, shown here as the white rectangular building attached to the back of the original building. As part of its sustainability initiatives, Bucci has also installed solar panels on its facility roofs. Source (All Images) | Bucci Composites

Automotive composites fabricator (Faenza, Italy) was founded in 1988 in Italy’s “Motor Valley” — an area of the country known for its high number of high-end vehicle OEMs like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani, Dallara, Ducati and more.

ÂÌñÏ×ÆÞ (CW) brand VP Jeff Sloan visited Bucci Composites’ facility in 2021. More recently, Bucci Composites was also recognized as a 2024 CW Top Shop, meaning the company had one of the highest scores on a variety of performance metrics compared to other companies that take the annual benchmarking survey. 

Given this recognition, CW checked in with Bucci Composites to learn about the company’s latest accomplishments and plans.

End markets served and production capabilities

Today, Bucci Composites employs 360 people — 290 blue collar workers and 70 white collar workers — working in two facilities.

With a focus on carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) components, the company’s production capabilities include compression molding, high-pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM), vacuum-assisted RTM (VARTM), sheet and bulk molding compound (SMC, BMC), hand layup and autoclave cure. For larger-series parts, Bucci uses compression molding with or without its HP-RTM capabilities. For limited series production runs of 2,000 or less where investment in tooling for the press doesn’t make sense, autoclave technology is used.

Bucci also offers finishing operations such as milling and painting, as well as ultrasonic nondestructive testing.

Bucci offers serial production services from layup to finishing and inspection, and for both out-of-autoclave and autoclave (top image) manufacture. The company incorporates automation where applicable, including the pictured (bottom image) bonding operation of front hood components. 

As Sloan reported in 2021, Bucci Composites got its start producing CFRP components for Formula 1 vehicles, and has grown to produce parts for a variety of automotive OEMs and even other end markets like aerospace, marine and industrial.

According to Andrea Bedeschi, general manager at Bucci Composites, the company’s bread and butter continues to be the high-end automotive market, with much of its business in producing CFRP exterior automotive body panels for high-end vehicle series of 4,000 to 10,000 cars per year. Serving the high-end market, he notes that Bucci does not try to compete on price — but has established its reputation in providing the best quality and reliability.

“Our customers are well-known Italian and European OEMs, and they trust us, which is really important. We’re in a very nice place in terms of location because our customers are here, and we’ve been able to grow — not just as an automotive supplier but as a composites company here in Europe. But we want to be better-known in the U.S. and around the world as well,” Bedeschi says. It’s worth noting that Bucci Composites is part of the larger Bucci Industries group, which operates a U.S. site in Charlotte, North Carolina, that develops automation for CNC machines.

Bedeschi adds, “To be recognized as a Top Shop is important for us to be recognized in the U.S. market.”

Double the facility size, three new high-ton presses

In 2024, Bucci Composites completed a 2-year building expansion. Previously, the company operated two 80,000 square-foot facilities about a kilometer apart from each other — after doubling the size of the main facility, the total is now up to 240,000 square feet.

In its new facility expansion, the company added two additional compression presses based on customer demand, bringing its total to five. 

Three new high-tonnage compression presses with injection capabilities for HP-RTM have been installed in the new space, bringing the company’s total to five presses currently, all supplied by Cannon (Caronno Pertusella, Italy). The new equipment includes two 1,500-ton presses and one 2,500-ton press. “More and more customers are asking for parts manufactured with press technology,” Bedeschi explains.

The new facility also features an 800-ton preforming press to support medium- and high-volume production. For smaller-volume production runs, or any situation in which the presses do not make sense, the company also operates seven autoclaves.

Carbon fiber wheels

One of the developments Sloan reported on in 2021 was Bucci Composites’ work toward carbon fiber wheels. Over the last year, Bucci has continued this development, launching a 20-inch center lock wheel for Porsche aftermarket vehicles in October 2024. The company is also developing a 21-inch wheel expected to launch to the European market by summer 2025, and a 22-inch wheel is currently in production for the “Apex” special edition version of the Bentley Bentayga.

Bucci continues to work on production and development of its fully CFRP wheels for limited series and aftermarket vehicles, aiming for larger series production in future.

“Carbon fiber wheels are very difficult, sophisticated, critical components to manufacture,” Bedeschi says. “We’re targeting the aftermarket segment at the moment to start out with, and specifically Porsche since there are so many vehicles already out there on the road.”

He notes that the company is in talks with OEMs to produce wheels for series vehicles. “The fact that we are having these conversations at all shows that we’ve achieved a level of knowledge and reputation in this market, which is really important.”

Future potential: EVs, eVTOLs

Bucci Composites, like many in the automotive market, is also looking to the potential growth of battery-electric vehicles (BEV or EV) and opportunities for composites in battery enclosures and other components.

However, Bedeschi acknowledges, “It’s a strange period for the EV market. In Europe, the automotive market is struggling in this sector, because customers do not want to pay for a more expensive vehicle. I think we’re not quite at the development level that the market expected at this point, in terms of battery life and other things.”

Despite current challenges, “I still believe the EV will be the future, though maybe we as an industry will need to change some things in its development,” Bedeschi says.

For companies like Bucci Composites, opportunities in EVs are not limited to electric cars — Bedeschi sees a lot of potential for growth in the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) market as well for automotive suppliers. “I think in the next 5 years we’ll see big changes — we might be at a slow point in this moment, but it won’t last forever,” he notes. “Which means we need to continue to develop and to put more technology into it.”

Growing sustainability initiatives

Sustainability has also become an important part of Bucci Composites’ growth the past few years. “In Europe, OEMs are asking us to communicate for each quotation the carbon footprint of the parts we are manufacturing, because they have zero CO₂ emissions goals to reach by 2035 and so they are asking their suppliers to follow the same rules and to be as green as possible,” Bedeschi explains.

As part of these efforts, the company has installed 1.5 megawatts of solar panel capacity on its facility roofs. This measure also reduces electricity costs — “finding ways to reduce both your carbon footprint and costs is key,” Bedeschi adds. The company plans to switch to biofuel power for its heating by fall 2025.

Energy-efficient processing is also a strong focus. Bucci Composites uses HP-RTM as an alternative to high-energy traditional compression molding where possible.

The company is also investing in technologies for recycling composite material scrap, working with local waste management treatment company Herambiente and other partners. Natural fibers such as hemp or flax, or resins derived from renewable sources, are also used where it makes sense to do so. “These materials are not only biodegradable, but often require less energy to produce,” Bedeschi adds.

Importance of education and collaboration

Education is also a key focus, and Bucci Composites has developed partnerships with local universities and research centers to work on projects and training programs that both increase the company’s knowledge and help train tomorrow’s workforce.

“Sometimes it can be difficult for companies to talk with universities, because industry and academia speak different languages, but it’s important to strengthen this connection because we need that knowledge base and education in our workforce,” Bedeschi says. “We need engineers, scientists and chemists so we have a good cooperation to increase our knowledge.”

Bucci Composites is also one of the main sponsors of the C-HUB, an infrastructure that, in cooperation with the regional High Technology Network, brings together the research expertise in the area and acts as a single point of reference for companies aiming to work with Motor Valley companies.

What makes Bucci Composites a CW Top Shop? The company has been growing significantly in size, capabilities, applications, sustainability initiatives and partnerships in recent years — but ultimately, Bedeschi emphasizes, “We’ve discovered that the secret is the people. We work with technology and we manufacture high-quality products, but we need to invest in people and teaching people to solve problems, use the technology and develop that passion for the products we produce.”

May’s Composites Fabricating reading shows some movement toward expansion since its drop in February. Source (All Images) | Gardner Intelligence

The Gardner Business Index (GBI) is an indicator of the current state of composites fabricating considering survey responses regarding new orders, production, backlog, employment, exports and supplier deliveries. Over 50 is expansion. Under 50 is contraction.

Gaining 2.1 points in May, the Composites Fabricating Index rebounded from a tough April to a reading of 49.4. The drop and recovery reflect the back-and-forth changes to tariff policy and shows that fabricators are adjusting and moving forward despite this volatility. Monthly gains in most components were not enough to lift many three-month averages, but nearly all components are in a better position than a year ago. An improvement in the Future Business Index kept the average from falling further, placing May results back in the familiar range of optimism that we saw before the spike at the start of 2025.

The GBI Future Business Index is an indicator of the future state of the composites fabrication market industry respondents regarding their opinion of future business conditions for the next 12 months. Over 50 is expansion and under 50 is contraction.

Find the latest composites fabrication market research and reporting at GardnerIntelligence.com

Source (All Images) | Azista USA

is the U.S. subsidiary of Azista Industries (Hyderabad, India), a diversified conglomerate with roots in (Ahmedabad, founded in 2014) and (Hyderabad, founded in 2020). The company’s U.S. operations, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, are focused on expanding partnerships and domestic capabilities in support of both defense and commercial aerospace markets. “Azista Composites is India’s partner for hypersonic technologies,” says Jairam Chintalapati, business development manager for Azista USA.

The company supplies a variety of high-temperature materials to global markets. These include bismaleimide (BMI), cyanate ester and hot-melt phenolic prepregs and phthalonitrile (PN) resins and prepreg.

These are also offered as pre-ceramic polymer systems, part of its portfolio enabling ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials and parts. This portfolio also includes PN and carbon foams, 3D woven and 2D stitched preforms, and a variety of process capabilities, including polymer impregnation and pyrolysis (PIP), liquid silicon infiltration (LSI), chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) — including a patented film boiling CVI process — as well as initial pyrolysis/graphitization and final machining for a complete process chain.  

“We have demonstrated our capability to make carbon/carbon [C/C] parts and also have systems to make silicon carbide [SiC] CMC as well,” says Chintalapati. Currently, these materials and parts are manufactured in India, but Azista USA is exploring domestic capabilities as it works to expand applications and partners in the U.S.

Hot-melt phenolic prepreg

Phenolic resins have a long history in fire-resistant and high-temperature composites, including automotive and aircraft interiors applications. “Phenolics have always been solvent-based resin systems, with a cure process that generates significant volatiles,” notes Chintalapati. Phenolic cure typically involves a condensation reaction where phenol and formaldehyde molecules link together, releasing water as the primary byproduct. This results in processing challenges, including how to minimize porosity in finished laminates.

“Azista has developed a solvent-free phenolic system, with a formulation that has close to 0% volatiles,” he adds. “It is processed in a way that is very close to addition polymerization, similar to epoxy. So, it is much easier to use, to make aircraft interior panels, for example, eliminating traditional porosity issues while retaining the good thermal and mechanical properties of phenolics.” The glass transition temperature (T_g) is around 160°C and typical cure is at 170°C.

Azista USA is supplying customers with hot-melt phenolic prepreg that handles more like an epoxy prepreg. It is safe to use, a nonhazardous material to transport and eliminates the extra precautions typically required to work with phenolics. Azista can also supply phenolic film that customers can use to impregnate their own fiber reinforcements.

“Another advantage of this prepreg is that we are able to make extremely thick ablative components without using a hydroclave,” says Chintalapati. A hydroclave is similar to an autoclave, but uses pressurized water instead of pressurized air and much higher pressure — typically 6.9 megapascals (1,000 psi) compared to 0.3-2.0 megapascals (50-300 psi) for autoclaves — which produces high-quality, void-free, thick laminates. “These ablative components are typical in thermal protection systems [TPS] for space and defense applications,” he explains. “We are working on advancing this technology in a program with the Indian government.”

Phenolic resins are also a workhorse system when creating carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites that are then graphitized to form C/C composites for brake pads and discs, rocket nozzles, radomes and other spacecraft structures, for example. We’ll come back to this in a minute.

PN prepreg

Another key material that Azista USA offers is PN, a thermoset composite matrix said to provide not only the fire resistance of phenolics, but also the excellent heat resistance and mechanical properties of polyimide (PI) resin, plus the machinability and low water absorption of cyanate ester. “PN was originally developed by the U.S. Navy in the 1980s,” says Chintalapati, “but today, we are one of only two or three players in the global market providing commercial-grade PN resin systems, which offer the highest temperature resistance in thermoset polymers. Ours is designed to have a T_g of 435°C with long-duration in-service capability of 350-400°C.”

He notes these resins meet MIL-STD-2031, which outlines the stringent fire, smoke and toxicity requirements for composites used on submarines.

“Our PN also has good dielectric properties for high-temperature radomes,” says Chintalapati. “We are offering prepreg as well as liquid resin for resin transfer molding [RTM] and infusion processes. The resin has a viscosity of 75 centipoise at its cure temperature of 180-200°C. We have found use cases around aircraft engines and have worked in a project to replace titanium engine pylon parts with PN composites.”

What about PN’s traditional downside of brittleness? “It can be an issue at room temperature,” Chintalapati concedes. “For certain applications, we use optimized cure cycles or add fillers to help avoid microcracking.”

Work with NLR

The (NLR), headquartered in Amsterdam, with significant composites capabilities also in Marknesse, has also worked with Azista’s PN resins. In one project, NLR had already demonstrated the feasibility of manufacturing high-quality PI laminates using a powder coated semipreg and wanted to use the same approach for PN.

“Similar to the PI resin, the Azista PN is solid at room temperature and can be ground down to powder and applied on the dry reinforcement,” explains Ronald Klomp, R&D engineer composites at NLR. “Using this approach, we manufactured the dry semipregs and manufactured test laminates with up to 24 plies as well as a manufacturing demonstrator component. The low initial cure temperature of the Azista PN allows the use of standard autoclave bagging and also 3D printed tooling. We presented the results of this work at SAMPE Belfast 2024.”

The 3D printed tooling came into play in 2023, when NLR completed its work on the Clean Aviation project . With the objective to design and manufacture a high-performance, low-cost and lightweight nacelle structure for next-generation tilt-rotor aircraft, a complex-shaped scale model of a nacelle structure was vacuum-injected with BMI resin using a 3D printed tool. Klomp notes the tool was printed using a CEAD (Delft, Netherlands) 3D printer and Dahltram tooling resin from (Springfield, Tenn., U.S. and Luxembourg). This tool was then used to cure an eight-ply carbon fiber-reinforced PN component made with the Azista resin. “An ultrasound C-scan of the cured part showed that the laminate had good quality,” says Klomp.

“NLR has continued further investigation and development of PN composites,” he continues, which includes flexure and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) testing at elevated temperatures (320°C).

“PN resins are known to be quite brittle and a key aspect in the development of high-quality laminates seems to be tuning the post-cure cycle to avoid premature microcracking,” explains Klomp. “NLR is investigating the use of this specific resin for various high-temperature applications and also intends to investigate the fire performance of this resin, which has a proven high char yield.” He notes that NLR has performed in-house thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) tests to 900°C to confirm this and that it is also investigating the potential of graphene-modified PN resin, including manufacture of several test laminates as part of the ongoing .

Converting polymers to CMC parts

The phenolic and PN materials that Azista USA is offering are being used not only for CFRP and other fiber-reinforced polymer composites, but also to create pre-ceramic preforms that are then pyrolized and densified into CMC. Although phenolic, with a char yield of ~60 wt%, is the traditional pre-ceramic resin matrix used for C/C composites, PN offers a char yield of 72%.

“This enables us to reduce densification cycles from five to three,” says Chintalapati. Here, he is talking about creating C/C using the PIP process, where high char content resin is used to infiltrate a fiber preform at room temperature and is then pyrolized at high temperatures (e.g., 900°C). However, to reach the required density and lack of porosity in the final CMC, infiltration and pyrolysis must be repeated as many as 10 times. Chintalapati is noting that by using PN, Azista has been able to produce C/C parts with only three densification cycles.

“And the microstructure of the resulting C/C is very close to that obtained using CVI,” adds Chintalapati. CVI was one of the first processes used to create CMC and involves injecting a reactive gas like methane (CH₄) into a reactor at high temperatures, resulting in the formation of a carbon matrix — an SiC matrix is also possible depending on the gas used — all through the porous preform, eventually building a dense CMC. Although CVI is an extremely slow process, taking weeks to months, it does avoid problems associated with liquid processes such as microcracking and damage to fibers. Traditionally, PIP and other liquid processes have produced a less dense and pure matrix compared to CVI. Thus, Azista’s ability to use PN to achieve a CVI-like microstructure in C/C but with a much faster and less expensive process is indeed very interesting.

Azista also converts PN into a porous foam used to produce composite parts and can do this with its other high-temperature resin systems, for example, using its hot-melt phenolic to produce carbon foams. 

Chintalapati points to a CMC cylinder made with PN foam and carbon fiber/PN prepreg.  This lightweight part (0.3 grams/cubic centimeter) measures 300 × 300 millimeters with a thickness of 20 millimeters. “This was made to demonstrate our CMC capabilities,” says Chintalapati. “We used PN foam and two plies of carbon fiber/PN prepreg for the skins. There were bonded together using PN that we formulated as an adhesive. We then cured the layup in a mold at 180-200°C followed by a 2-hour freestanding post-cure at up to 350°C. We then converted into a C/C using a carbonization furnace at 1000-1200C.” Azista is currently performing tests on these and other C/C parts, he adds.

Azista has also developed a polycarbosilane polymer used as a precursor for SiC matrix. “We have a formulation that produces SiC matrix composites and a high molecular weight variant for making SiC fibers,” says Chantalapati. “We currently have four variants and are looking for partners to help us evaluate these materials.” Polycarbosilane has been available in the U.S. for decades from Starfire Systems (Glenville, N.Y.). “The advantage we offer is that we can tailor the polymer chemistry according to the needs and end goal of the user,” notes Chantalapati.

Full CMC process chain

The full process chain that Azista has developed for CMC parts can start with design capabilities, including FEA and thermo-structural analysis. It then produces a wide rage of raw materials, as discussed above. “Thanks to our sister companies, we have a huge amount of infrastructure to produce resin systems and control purity levels to 99.9% purity,” says Chintalapati. “And we also custom formulate and tailor resins.”

“We have also invested in equipment, from prepreg and towpreg manufacturing, to RTM presses, autoclaves, filament winding machines and ovens,” he continues. “We have a needle punch machine to produce 2.5D and stitched preforms, as well as a carbonization furnace, graphitization furnace and our LSI and CVI equipment. Thus, we have everything under one roof, which significantly streamlines our parts production and development.” For CMC, these have mostly been used for small products and internal R&D, admits Chintalapati, “but now that we have characterized our materials and processes, we are scaling via programs with the Indian government. We are continuing to invest and have already set up large-scale equipment, including ICVI and carbonization, capable of processing C/C components up to 3 meters in dimension for aerospace and defense applications.”

Regarding the current concerns about security, Chintalapati points out that part designs do not have to be transmitted. “We can produce 3D blocks or shapes and send those to the U.S. for machining into parts.”

Film boiling CVI

Film boiling CVI is a CMC production technology that Azista has developed in-house. “It increases the densification rate for CVI,” explains Chintalapati. “For example, a typical rate for isothermal CVI is 0.015 millimeter/hour, but film boiling CVI can achieve densification at 1.5 millimeters/hour. With this 100-times increase, we were able to the reduce cycle time for manufacturing high-quality C/C by about 10 times.”

Azista also found using film boiling CVI produces a quite different microstructure and coefficient of thermal expansion compared to C/C made using traditional isothermal CVI. “Although this might not be optimal for all applications, we know the properties that are required or wanted for certain systems, and we can see there is an opportunity. We are in the process of completing a full characterization of CMC produced using film boiling CVI.”

Continued development, future growth

Azista Aerospace is manufacturing satellites at its Ahmedabad facility while Azista Composites has constructed two large facilities in Hyderabad. “The first one contains all of our R&D capabilities,” says Chintalapati. “The second facility is for parts production, including high-pressure, filament-wound hydrogen tanks and large polymer composite and CMC components.” So far, the facility has produced CFRP-skinned/aluminum honeycomb panels for satellites, CFRP pressure vessels and prostheses as well as carbon fiber/PN radomes, C/C rocket nozzles and jet vanes and carbon fiber/C-SiC brake discs.

Azista USA is actively expanding its presence in North America to support domestic partnerships, joint development programs, and U.S.-based manufacturing. With continued investment in advanced materials, scalable processing, and collaborative research, Azista is positioning itself as a global supplier of next-generation high-temperature composite solutions for aerospace, defense and space systems.

Attendees at SAMPE 2025 Advanced Materials Conference and Exhibition. Source | CW

The SAMPE Advanced Materials Conference and Exhibition is an annual opportunity for industry leaders, researchers, students and innovators within the advanced materials community to come together to shape the future of composites. Held this past May in Indianapolis, Indiana, the event placed an emphasis on connectivity, sustainability and workforce development as the organization launched new platforms for fostering connections.

Rebekah Stacha, CEO of SAMPE, reveals new tools from the organization aimed at strengthening connections across academia, industry and government. Source | CW

Kicking off with a forward-looking general session, Rebekah Stacha, CEO of SAMPE (Diamond Bar, Calif., U.S.), emphasized the urgent need to strengthen connections across academia, industry and government. Attendees were introduced to two major digital initiatives designed to expand the organization’s reach and utility year-round:

• , a centralized digital platform featuring training webinars, videos and the latest “State of the Industry” report.
• , an online matching tool aimed at connecting seasoned professionals with emerging talent.

The new platforms reflect SAMPE’s growing commitment to workforce development and community-building — a theme that resonated throughout the conference. Additional examples of this dedication arose through a student posters showcase and SAMPE’s annual bridge-building competition.

Jennifer Buchli, chief scientist for NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) program, offers the keynote address at SAMPE 2025. Source | CW

Adding an inspirational note to the conference, Jennifer Buchli, chief scientist for NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) program, looked to the stars in her keynote address. Buchli detailed important work being done by the ISS and ways the microgravity environment is enabling groundbreaking research in fiber optics, nanomaterials and biofabrication (the 3D printing of organic tissue). Also discussed was the shift toward in-space manufacturing and the role of public-private partnerships in supporting innovation. As NASA looks ahead to the decommissioning of the ISS in 2030, its Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development program is laying the groundwork for next-generation space labs that will continue advancing material science — with composites poised to play a central role.

Technical conference highlights automation, sustainability

Each year, the SAMPE conference and exhibition offers access to hundreds of technical papers. This year’s program was no different, providing insight into a range of topics including high-temperature composites, automation trends and additive manufacturing. Sustainability and smart manufacturing emerged as dominant themes, with sessions and panels emphasizing closed-loop systems, recycled carbon fiber (rCF) and scalable reuse strategies.

A circularity panel, featuring speakers from TPI Composites, Vartega, Rivers Edge Composites and Rise Building Products, tackled the practical barriers to scaling recycling. Economics remain a key hurdle, with speakers noting that transportation costs, cleaning processes and lack of company-wide commitment often hinder success. Nevertheless, the companies also gave examples of progress, and discussed opportunities to focus on regional circularity and marketing the performance benefits of recycled materials.

Meanwhile, a technical presentation from Dr. Joseph Deitzel of the University of Delaware detailed advances in the tailorable universal feedstock for forming (TuFF) process — a method that aligns chopped carbon fiber into tapes or sheets for reuse, offering a potential path forward for turning today’s waste into tomorrow’s high-performance parts. TuFF’s commercial partner Composites Automation, and prepreg collaborator Axiom, are actively developing rCF-based prepregs, a promising sign of momentum toward circularity.

SAMPE 2025 offered several Indianapolis-area facility tours including a peek inside IDI Composites’ new global headquarters in Noblesville, Indiana. Source | IDI Composites

Facility tours put spotlight on Indiana innovation

Highly anticipated tours gave attendees the opportunity to see cutting-edge composites manufacturing in action. SAMPE toured Dallara’s IndyCar Factory and Purdue’s Sports Engineering Center, Rolls-Royce, IDI Composites International and Purdue’s Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center.

CW technical editor Hannah Mason toured Rolls-Royce Indianapolis to see its growing investment in advanced materials and manufacturing. While historically focused on metal components, the site is expanding its capacity with new engine assembly lines, test cells and lab capabilities for composites and CMC.

SMC production at IDI Composites. Source | IDI Composites

Meanwhile, I attended the IDI Composites tour to see the company’s new 120,000-square-foot global headquarters in Noblesville, Indiana. The site combines SMC and BMC production with advanced automation, raw material handling and R&D capabilities, while doubling production capacity.

Progress through collaboration

As the composites community works to navigate economic hurdles, shifting supply chains and forward workforce development efforts, events like SAMPE continue to play a pivotal role in uniting stakeholders around a shared mission — advancing the science and engineering of advanced materials for a better, lighter, stronger world. With an emphasis on new tools to foster industry connections, SAMPE 2025 served as a vivid reminder that the future of advanced materials lies at the intersection of innovation, collaboration and inclusivity.

If France shows how institutional-scale and deep tech entities drive national ambition, then Switzerland demonstrates the power of a tightly connected, high-trust innovation ecosystem where precision and collaboration meet.

With a population smaller than that of many other European regions (about 240 times smaller in area and nearly 38 times less populous than the U.S.),  Switzerland might seem modest at first glance — but when it comes to (composites) innovation, it punches far above its weight. There’s also a unique feeling of home for me here — Zürich is my birthplace, and I’ve been living here again for the past six years.

Bcomp and the Alpine tech spirit

“While our original dream was to launch a ski company, we soon recognized that the true innovation wasn’t just in the skis but in the core material we had developed. Instead of starting a ski brand, we decided to focus on refining and commercializing this core technology.”

These words from Christian Fischer, CEO and co-founder of Bcomp, highlight how smart, strategic pivots can be a crucial element in a startup’s path to success.

Bcomp, based in Fribourg, exemplifies Switzerland’s distinctive approach to deep tech in composites. Known for its high-performance natural fiber composites, Bcomp has scaled from lab idea to industry supplier — making inroads into mobility, sports and aerospace sectors. Its flax-based solutions are not only lightweight and strong, but also bring sustainability to the core of product design.

What makes Bcomp especially remarkable isn’t just the tech — it’s how Swiss infrastructure supports companies like it from idea to impact.  Fischer himself is a great example of this system in action. An alumnus of both EPFL and the University of St. Gallen, and now an entrepreneur and an Innosuisse coach, he embodies the diversity of Switzerland’s innovation pipeline, from academic excellence to entrepreneurship.

Polytechnics as innovation engines

At the heart of this technology innovation system are ETH Zürich and EPFL in Lausanne — two of the most respected technical universities in Europe, if not globally. These institutions have been instrumental in advancing composites technologies, from simulation to material design, automated production and now AI. Every time I’m at ETH Zürich, I’m reminded of its incredible legacy. Knowing that Albert Einstein once studied and taught here makes the experience feel quietly meaningful and inspiring.

But perhaps even more importantly, these universities have institutionalized the spin-off process. Dedicated transfer offices, structured incubator pathways and deep corporate collaborations mean that high-potential ideas don’t get trapped in academia — they become startups.

And it doesn’t stop at the federal level. Switzerland’s Fachhochschulen (Universities of Applied Sciences) play a critical role in bridging theory with industrial application. Their strong links to SMEs and regional clusters create an applied research environment well suited to scaling manufacturing technologies, including in the composites domain. Grateful thoughts go to Christian Brauner, professor at and a valued board member of , for his continued commitment to the composites community.

Complementing this technical foundation is the University of St. Gallen, a global leader in business education. With its focus on entrepreneurship, strategy and innovation management, it provides Swiss founders with the business acumen to scale technically sound ventures into commercially successful companies. This synergy — between world-class engineering and world-class business education — is a defining strength of the Swiss innovation landscape.

“The secret sauce of the Swiss startup ecosystem lies in the strong foundation provided by its universities — not only through cutting-edge research, but also through the talent, global networks and collaborative mindset they cultivate,” says Amaël Cohades, co-founder and CEO at . “This combination of academic excellence and international connectivity creates a fertile ground for innovation.”

A dense network of support

Switzerland’s small size fosters something powerful: proximity. Here, researchers, founders and funders are never more than one or two connections apart. This has cultivated an unusually tight-knit ecosystem, where trust is built early — often before a startup is even formed.

This closeness is further enabled by a vibrant and active angel community — an angel investor being an individual who provides early stage funding to startups, usually in exchange for ownership equity or convertible debt. From high net worth individuals backing the next generation of founders, to syndicate platforms like (where I’m fortunate to be a member of the syndicate investment team) and SICTIC — capital meets curiosity in a founder-friendly way.

“The Swiss startup ecosystem thrives on a combination of world-class education, especially from institutions like ETH and EPFL, a strong focus on quality and precision and an increasingly visible group of successful founders who serve as role models,” notes Silvan Krähenbühl, managing director at Swisspreneur. “This, paired with a maturing network of investors, creates the perfect secret sauce of the Swiss startup ecosystem.”

From there, a robust layer of early stage capital steps into the startup process, including Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) with its innovation fund, forward-leaning venture capitalists like Founderful, Verve Ventures, Redalpine, and impact-oriented family offices and foundations. Together, they provide not just money, but mentorship and strategic guidance.

What makes Switzerland different?

Switzerland doesn’t compete by being the biggest. I regularly observe that it competes by being the most aligned. Technical excellence, financial discipline and cross-sector collaboration converge here with extraordinary cohesion. As reliable as Swiss clockwork, some might say.

Consistently ranked among the most innovative countries in the world, Switzerland has built an environment where research, entrepreneurship and investment reinforce one another. From startups like and , to automation providers and tooling experts, to academic–industry research consortia, the Swiss ecosystem shows that meaningful impact in composites begins with focus, and that it is strengthened by the right fundamentals to scale globally.

At the same time, there’s a growing recognition within this ecosystem that, while Switzerland is highly effective at supporting early stage innovation, it still faces a shortfall in growth-stage capital, particularly from Series B onward. This challenge, common across Europe, is being proactively addressed through initiatives like . This strategic public–private program aims to mobilize CHF 50 billion (~$60 billion) in venture capital over the next decade to fuel Swiss deep tech startups and scale-ups. Its focus is enhancing access to capital, increasing regulatory flexibility and strengthening international investor ties to ensure that promising ventures can scale from local champions to global leaders. I’m looking forward to seeing the results!

Switzerland exemplifies how a country can drive innovation in advanced materials through a blend of scientific excellence, institutional clarity and tightly connected ecosystems. This isn’t a story of isolated breakthroughs, but of consistent, high-quality execution — from lab to production line, from CAD model to final part. It offers a compelling case study in how small but coordinated ecosystems can define their own way of doing things... their own façon de faire.

As we continue the Tour de Composites series, Switzerland stands out not just for what it builds, but how it builds it: carefully, collaboratively and with a clear purpose.

About the Author

 

Yannick Willemin

Yannick Willemin has an engineering degree in materials and mechanics from École Polytechnique de l’Université d’Orléan in France. Over the course of 13 years, he has held multiple positions at SGL Carbon, gaining deep expertise in the composites industry. At the same time, he earned two EMBAs with a focus on finance and entrepreneurship. Afterward, he joined ETH Zurich spinoff 9T Labs as head of business development. Since January 2025, Willemin has been working independently, positioning himself at the intersection of startups, industrial players and investors to drive innovation across the composites landscape with the founding of Catalysium. 

Source | Arceon

Since its founding in 2018, (Delft, Netherlands) has been delivering on its technical prowess in carbon-silicon carbide matrix (C/C-SiC) composites.

Working alongside space, hypersonics and other industry players, the Dutch startup continues to test and validate its Carbeon family of ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials, which are designed to handle complex engineering challenges such as extreme temperatures and thermal shock.

Arceon leverages the melt infiltration (MI) process to achieve materials and components like this solid rocket nozzle cone. The process, put simply, involves manufacturing of a CFRP part, pyrolysis to form a porous carbon fiber-reinforced carbon (C/C) preform and infiltration of molten silicon to form the C/C-SiC composite. The final part, which initially appears metallic, gives more of a matte appearance after machining.

Read more about Arceon’s technology and future plans, “Carbeon C/C-SiC ceramic matrix composites without fiber coating.”

As the and the technology for urban air mobility (UAM) continues to be developed, there is a growing need for higher-rate production of related aerospace components, including propellers — for which there are typically four or more per aircraft.

(Brno, Czech Republic) is one manufacturer that has specialized in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) UAV propellers. Anticipating an increase in future demand for both the UAV and UAM markets, in 2024 Mejzlik installed a new compression molding line, aiming to significantly increase its output and the quality and consistency of its parts production.

This is the latest evolution of the company’s techniques, but Mejzlik has been producing CFRP propellers since it was founded in 1989 by Tomas Mejzlik Sr., who built the business originally to sell propellers for model airplanes. As the UAV and drone market began to develop, and under second-generation leadership of Tomas Mejzlik Jr. and Jan Hruška, the company has transitioned to producing propellers for commercial and defense UAV customers.

Today, Mejzlik offers services including design, simulation and finite element analysis (FEA); prototype and serial production; and inspection and testing. The company also cooperates with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for additional testing.

Using either traditional wet layup, oven cure or its newer compression molding line (more on these below), Mejzlik currently manufactures 150 off-the-shelf designs ranging from 0.3 to 2 meters in diameter. The company also makes custom propellers up to 3 meters in diameter and as lightweight as 0.3 grams.

“Many customers start with our off-the-shelf products for the first iteration of their system, and then when they realize what exact parameters they need they come back and we have discussions about how to customize the propellers to fit their specific needs,” explains JiÅ™í Bukvald, head of technology.

He adds that most customers start with an order of four or eight propellers for testing, eventually increasing to up to several hundred per month. “The UAV market is still developing. A customer might order 100 propellers one year, and then ramp up to several hundred after a few years.”

The company also helps customers develop full UAV propulsion systems with partners such as Maxon Motor (Sachsen, Switzerland) and Plettenberg (Baunatal, Germany). “Our job is propellers, but we are cooperating with our partners to offer the right combination and bundles for UAV manufacturers,” Bukvald says.

Manufacturing CFRP propellers

Before deciding on a manufacturing process with a customer, Mejzlik aids in the propeller design and engineering process. For this, the company uses standard FEA software and has also developed its own in-house software for aeroacoustic design and for simulating and verifying various performance metrics including efficiency and thrust.

“If a customer brings us a new propeller design, we are able to analyze the data in our software to compare it to other props in the real world, and to ultimately select the best solution,” Bukvald adds.

Over time, Mejzlik has developed three manufacturing processes it uses to manufacture propellers: wet layup, prepreg out of autoclave (OOA) and its newest compression molding technology.

Wet layup

The wet layup process — also known as wet lamination — is the company’s original production method, and has been honed over many years. In this process, plies of dry carbon fiber are first cut via a Zünd (Altstätten, Switzerland) digital CNC cutting machine. These are laid up by hand with liquid epoxy on upper and lower half molds built in-house using glass fiber/epoxy and featuring internal heating systems. The mold halves are assembled together, internal heating is activated and then the mold is closed using a pneumatic press that Mejzlik developed. Internal heating cures the part.

Prepreg OOA

More recently, the company has developed capabilities for manufacturing propellers from carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg. Plies of prepreg are cut and then laid up on carbon fiber/epoxy molds manufactured in-house. These molds do not feature internal heating, but are designed with specialized systems for creating pressure within the laminate. After layup, vacuum bags are applied to the upper and lower mold halves, the molds are assembled together and then the entire mold is placed into the oven where the part is cured under vacuum, heat and pressure.

The ovens and CFRP molds enable the manufacture of larger propellers up to 3 meters long. “The oven is able to cure larger parts than the presses, and we use carbon fiber composite molds for large parts where thermal expansion plays a significant role and where aluminum or standard epoxy molds don’t make sense,” Bukvald explains.

In-house mold manufacturing

To support its manufacturing operations, Mejzlik manufactures a variety of specialized molds in-house, including its glass or carbon fiber composite molds with internal heating and/or vacuum systems, as well as cast silicone preform molds and aluminum cure molds for the compression press.

The CFRP molds pose a particular challenge because of their complexity. “Our propellers need to be molded from every side, and to accomplish this, we need to exert high forces on the molds,” explains Michal Grunt, composites engineer at Mejzlik. This necessitates composite upper and lower molds up to 10 millimeters thick and reinforced with internal rib structures to maximize stiffness and avoid any distortions in the final part.

These CFRP molds are manufactured via a specialized vacuum-bagged infusion process (see sidebar on use of this process for underwater UAV propeller manufacturing). “It’s a challenge to infuse a laminate at that thickness because there is a higher risk of exotherm, and you need to get your ratio of carbon fiber as high as possible and also make the structures quasi-isotropic so there are no distortions in the mold when it’s heated,” Grunt says. “We’re proud of the process we’ve created to do all of that. We can also achieve really tight tolerances, even with 3-meter-long molds, because we have a lot of steps in place during cure and post-cure to avoid any shrinkage.”

Adding the capability to manufacture propellers from prepreg enabled more consistency and repeatability compared to a wet layup process, but even then the company was still facing demand for higher volumes.

Prepreg compression molding for higher-rate manufacturing

Consequently, Mejzlik developed its newest manufacturing method, a prepreg compression molding line that went online in January 2024 after about 3 years of development.

 “Two years ago, nobody needed several hundred props per month. Now, we have customers who need a few hundred per month or even per week, and [with the new production line] we are able to produce it,” Bukvald says.

For the compression molding process, Grunt explains that there are three main steps: Lamination, preform preparation and cure.

First, as in the wet layup process, prepreg plies are cut on the Zünd CNC cutter (Step 1). For these parts, Mejzlik uses a carbon fiber prepreg with a toughened, snap-cure epoxy formulation. “We need to be able to cure parts very fast and to demold them from a hot mold easily,” Grunt says.

What Mejzlik calls its lamination step involves the creation of two preforms for each propeller — upper and lower halves that will be co-consolidated in the press. Cut prepreg plies are laid up on top of CNC-machined PMI foam core, spars and/or metal bearings — for attachment to the hub or as a local reinforcement — per the specific part design onto silicone molds cast in-house (Step 2). Grunt explains, “We need to make preforms because typically our workers are laying up several of one type of propeller at one time, and so we are not going to cure each part immediately. We need a separate preforming mold, but the tricky part is that we also need to be able to extract it easily to transfer it to the heated aluminum mold in the press. There aren’t many materials you can use where prepreg will only adhere partially to it.” Silicone was chosen as the best option.

Regarding the metal-composite combination, Grunt adds, “It’s always a complex thing when you mix metal with carbon fiber because of the risk of galvanic corrosion. We have select materials, like aerospace-grade aluminum and ensure the metal has appropriate surface preparation so that it’s insulated from the carbon [fiber] and there is no electric bridge between the materials.”

After layup, the two halves of the part are aligned, and the assembled preform is debulked under vacuum bags to ensure consolidation of all layers and that all air has been extracted (Step 3).

Once removed from the silicone molds, the propeller is pressed into the aluminum mold mounted on one of three Meccatronica (Preganziol, Italy) electric presses, with the help of specialized jigs that ensure precise positioning of the preforms into the molds. The presses are different sizes, able to press parts from 0.7 to 1.1 meters long. The press is then closed and the part cured under high heat and pressure under vacuum (Step 4). “We carefully control the closing of the mold in a two-step process, because we are timing when there is a viscosity drop in the epoxy. It’s really efficient to consolidate the laminate and extract air inside,” Grunt says.

He adds that the molds the company uses are the culmination of about 3 years of development. “With each mold, we added something or improved something,” Grunt says. “Most recently, we’ve added vacuum channels into the molds themselves to improve the quality of the laminate.”

How long does the cure step take? Grunt explains that with the snap-cure epoxy-based prepreg the company uses, a cure cycle of 3-4 minutes is possible, but that Mejzlik typically cures parts in 7-10 minutes at a slightly lower temperature of 135°C to ensure a higher quality visual surface and more precise dimensions that what would be possible at a higher temperature, shorter cure cycle. “For comparison, the wet lamination process involves a cure cycle of 8 hours. An oven cure takes between 6-10 hours. With infusion, we demold after 24 hours,” he adds.

After cure, the consolidated propeller is demolded (Step 5). “We’re able to demold the part while it is still at a high temperature, because the epoxy system has a high T_g [glass transition temperature], so the part is not soft and is very precise in shape when we demold it,” Grunt says.

Once demolded and cooled, the part is trimmed in the company’s in-house machine shop, which has two CNC machines supplied by KoneÄ�ný (Boršice, Czech Republic) and Haas Automation (Oxnard, Calif., U.S.) for machining molds and for trimming and drilling propellers.

The company also has inspection equipment including a Zeiss (Oberkachen, Germany) Atos 3D scanner and a Dolphitech (Gjøvik, Norway) Dolphicam2 ultrasound imaging system. “The optical 3D scanner allows us to do measurements on the exterior of a part, the ultrasound system on the interior,” Bukvald explains. The company also operates several testing rigs for performing overspin tests and measuring other performance parameters (Step 6).

Finalized propellers can be sent to customers individually or assembled together before delivery (Step 7).

How does Mejzlik decide which technology to use to manufacture propellers for a customer? “Wet lamination is our heritage, and we have a lot of molds already made for this process. We still do most of our props using this process today,” Bukvald says. “If a customer needs props that are too large for the wet lamination molds, then we use other technology like prepreg compression molding and oven cure. In the very close future, our main technology, from my point of view, will be the compression press. I think we’ll begin to switch current customers to this as their volume needs grow, and we’ll eventually start all new customers with the hot press.”

Working toward capability expansion, new certifications

What’s next for the company? Mejzlik currently operates three compression presses, with plans to add a fourth. With its current presses, Mejzlik has capacity to produce 2,500 props per month operating one shift per day.

Aiming to support the growing UAM market, Mejzlik is also working toward AS9100 certification for aerospace manufacturing, and ultimately design organization approval (DOA) from the EASA. “It all depends on how the market goes, but we try to be ready,” Bukvald says.

The company also continues to expand its capabilities, working on new simulation software, impact resistance solutions and anti-icing solutions to improve functionality of UAV propellers. “We want to always be a step ahead,” Bukvald says.

Composites have long been used in energy-related structural applications like wind turbine blades and various components in oil and gas extraction. New materials and innovations in composites are also helping to power next-generation energy, including offshore wind, industrial solar farms and satellite-based solar arrays, river and marine energy systems, and pipelines for green hydrogen transport. Sources (clockwise from top left) | Getty Images, Kerberos Engineering, ORPC, Hive Composites

Global energy demand grew by 2.2% in 2024 (almost twice the average rate over the past decade), led by higher electricity demands for cooling, industry, electrification of transport and the growth of AI data centers, reports the International Energy Agency (IEA, Paris, France) .

While the IEA reports that demand has risen for all fuels and technologies (renewables, oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear), 80% of the growth in global electricity generation in 2024 was provided by renewable sources and nuclear power, making up 40% of total generation for the first time.

Many of these energy and electricity generation technologies are enabled by composite materials in various ways, and this report, while not comprehensive, summarizes the landscape and recent technologies for composites in these industries.

Wind energy market and composites innovations

Wind turbines are the largest application for composite materials, incorporating significant amounts of glass fiber per blade as well as, increasingly, carbon fiber for reinforcing spar caps. Many wind turbine nacelles are also manufactured from composites.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC, Brussels, Belgium) “Global Wind Report 2025” released in April, 117 gigawatts (GW) of new wind energy was installed globally in 2024, about the same as global installations in 2023, which was the best year for wind yet recorded. This is all despite significant challenges to the industry, including interest rate increases, inflation, supply chain pressures, trade barriers and tariffs, and political uncertainty.

In 2024, China led global installations, followed by the U.S., Germany, India and Brazil. Though GWEC reports a decline in new installations in North America, Latin America and Europe compared to 2023, there was also “record growth” in several regions, including 7% year-on-year growth in the Asia-Pacific region, and 107% year-on-year growth in the Africa and Middle East region led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

It is worth noting that  that six of the top 10 global wind turbine manufacturers (Goldwind, Envision, Windley, Mingyang, Sany and DEC) are Chinese and provide turbines mostly for installation in China, though these companies are also starting to move into other regions such as Europe. The other listed top turbine manufacturers are Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, and Nordex, all headquartered in Europe, and GE Vernova, based in the U.S.

In addition, Stratview Research (Raipur, India) explained on the Indian composites landscape that wind blade spar caps are currently the largest application of carbon fiber composites in India and growing, with demand expected to more than double by 2030.

Currently, GWEC forecasts a compound average growth rate of 8.8% for the wind industry, meaning another 981 GW of capacity globally by 2030. However, Jonathan Cole, chair of GWEC, writes, “We are not going fast enough — the rate of installation of wind energy needs to continuously increase, not hold steady or decrease, if we are to hit the important 2030 tripling up target [to meet global decarbonization goals] … We need to keep pushing to go faster.”

Research and innovation in wind turbine technology

To support this growth, there are many innovations in development in the field of wind blade technology, from optimizing manufacturing methods and materials to more efficient or higher-capacity designs.

A few examples reported in the past year include:

Larger turbines and longer wind blades. The longer the blade, the more wind energy can be captured. Wind OEMs globally have been introducing larger-capacity wind turbines featuring increasingly long blades for both onshore and offshore turbines, despite .

The pace of scale-up has been particularly fast in the Chinese market, GWEC reports, with six Chinese OEMs having launched 20+ megawatt (MW) offshore models as of the end of 2024. This includes DongFang Electric (Guangdong), which  that it had produced its first 26-MW offshore wind turbine, reported to be the largest yet built. The company says that a single turbine can produce 100 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean electricity annually at a wind speed of 10 meters/second, meeting the annual electricity needs of 55,000 households.

Global OEMs continue to launch larger, higher-capacity turbines for onshore and offshore use, like MingYang’s latest 18-20 MW and future planned 22-MW turbine. Source | MingYang Smart Energy

In August 2024, MingYang Smart Energy (Guangdong) is reported to have installed the first of its 18- to 20-MW offshore wind turbines, called the MySE18.X-20MW, in Hainan, China. The platform is expected to be able to generate 80 million kWh annually. The company has said it is also working on a larger 22-MW turbine. Hengshen Co. Ltd. (Danyang City) has announced that it is the exclusive carbon fiber fabric supplier for one of MingYang’s ultra-large offshore wind turbine platforms, the 143-meter-long blades for the MySE292.

Aiming to compete with China, Siemens Gamesa (Zamudio, Spain) is reported by multiple sources to have installed a prototype 21-MW offshore turbine in Denmark. Meanwhile, Vestas’ (Aarhus, Denmark) V236-15.0MW model has secured more than 6 GW in confirmed orders globally so far, GWEC reports.

Onshore turbines are also getting larger, and their blades longer. For example, Chinese wind blade manufacturer Sany Renewable Energy (Beijing) announced the 2024 rollout of a 131-meter wind blade for its SY1310A. Sources have reported that the blades will be used for the company’s 10-MW onshore turbines, and later potentially for its announced 15-MW turbines, said to be the largest onshore turbine yet developed.

The blades are said to be manufactured from fiberglass pre-quilting technology, carbon fiber composite spar caps, long-distance automatic infusion technology for large composite blades and 3D design for blind bonding inserts used in the blade’s trailing edge. Polyurethane structural parts have also been incorporated to enhance the recyclability of the blades.

GWEC also reports new onshore upgrades over the past few years by Nordex (Hamburg, Germany), Vestas and Enercon (Aurich, Germany).

Innovations in spar cap materials. One enabling technology for longer, more efficient blades is carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite spar caps, offering lighter weight and higher stiffness and strength compared to glass fiber composites.

We4Ce's blade prototype, shown here in a test rig, features an infused carbon fiber/epoxy spar cap as a lower-cost alternative to pultruded profiles. Source | We4Ce

Typically, these CFRP spar caps are made via pultrusion, but other material options are also being developed. For example, rotor blade design and technology supplier We4Ce (Almelo, Netherlands) has developed a 2.5- to 3-MW rotor blade prototype for wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon Group (Pune, India) that includes a spar cap made from dry carbon fiber infused with epoxy as an alternative to a more common pultruded profile. According to We4Ce, the use of infusion offers uniform material distribution that reduces risks of cracks and delamination, and also enables use of more cost-effective dry fabrics.

As of January 2025, We4Ce reported that a prototype blade had passed final validation testing for IEC61400-5:2020 certification, the production standard for engineering integrity of wind turbine blades.

Optimizing wind blade manufacture. To increase wind turbine production and installation, many companies are working on more efficient manufacturing processes for wind blades, including application of machine learning or automation.

Researchers used RFID-based temperature and curing sensors in a process guided by machine learning algorithms. Source | TPI Composites, University of Texas

For example, wind blade manufacturer TPI Composites Inc. (Scottsdale, Ariz., U.S.) announced in 2024 that it is working with the University of Texas Dallas on research aimed at optimizing the wind blade curing process. The research involves applying physics-informed machine learning algorithms that simulate and optimize the process through multi-zone temperature control.

Use of these models “bridges the gap between deterministic multiphysics simulations and kinetics of cure as happening on the shop floor,” says Dr. Shaghayegh Rezazadeh, TPI lead engineer. “This process leverages different heating zones integrated in TPI molds to achieve the desired mechanical properties while optimizing the cure cycle time to ensure consistent quality and enhanced productivity for the blades manufactured by TPI.”

The project, funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, is expected to lay a foundation for smart composites manufacturing and provide a competitive performance and cost advantage for industries adopting these technologies, in terms of cost savings and performance improvement.

A robotic arm at NREL’s Colorado facility automates trimming, grinding and sanding of blades. Source | Werner Slocum, NREL

In addition, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL, Golden, Colo., U.S.) are working on developing robotic arm-based systems for automating more parts of the blade manufacturing process. Although robots have been used by the wind energy industry to paint and polish blades, NREL is demonstrating the ability of a robot supplied by Orbital Composites (San Jose, Calif., U.S.) to trim, grind and sand blades.

Lightning strike protection (LSP). To increase durability and decrease repair costs and maintenance downtime, developments in more effective LSP are in progress. For example, researchers at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Tenn., U.S.) have demonstrated effectiveness of a 6.5-foot turbine blade tip manufactured from a combination of glass fiber and a customized conductive carbon fiber developed by ORNL. This carbon fiber is said to be key to dispersing electrical energy across the blade surface.

This fiber was also designed to be low cost — to replace typical glass fiber in a blade tip — able to be integrated into the blade using common manufacturing methods, and fully recyclable. The lab is continuing to advance this technology toward commercial adoption.

TouchWind’s floating turbines are said to be able to withstand storm-force winds. Source | TouchWind

Novel floating offshore wind turbine designs. There are a variety of floating offshore wind platforms in development, and composite materials can be used in both the platform designs as well as the turbine blades where light weight or other properties are needed. For example, We4Ce has announced its tiltable, self-lifting, one-blade glass fiber/epoxy rotor design delivered for testing on startup TouchWind B.V.’s (Eindhoven, Netherlands) floating TW6 turbine. Engineered to withstand wind speeds of up to 250 kilometers/hour — the highest wind class in wind industry standards — the future commercial version is expected to cost significantly less than traditional turbines while delivering higher energy yields.

Demonstration of bio-based materials for wind technology. A variety of polymers and fibers derived from plants or other natural sources have been developed in an effort to replace traditional fossil fuel-based materials in numerous applications, including wind energy technology.

NREL’s PECAN resin is derived from sugars and said to perform on par with standard resins and increase recyclability. Source | Werner Slocum, NREL 

For example, NREL has published research on the development of what it calls a “biomass-derivable” resin nicknamed “PolyEster Covalently Adaptable Network” (PECAN) specifically for use in the manufacture of wind blades. PECAN is said to be sourced from sugars, able to be recycled using a chemical process and has been demonstrated to perform on par with industry standard resins. The researchers tested the resin’s manufacturability through the fabrication of a 9-meter prototype blade.

In the EU, EOLIAN is a 3.5-year, multi-partner project kicked off in June 2024 with the goal of developing a new generation of smart, sustainable wind turbine blades with longer lifetime, improved reliability and higher sustainability.

EOLIAN blades are expected to be repairable and recyclable with integrated sensors to enable structural health monitoring (SHM), including combination of recyclable vitrimer resins with natural basalt fibers as a replacement for glass fiber.

Alternative wind energy systems. It’s worth mentioning that there are other wind-based energy systems in development besides traditonal turbines, including those called airborne wind energy (AWE) systems. These use kites or drones tethered to a ground-based station and move in helical or figure-eight patterns to capture energy from high-altitude winds.

CTL’s airborne wind energy system features a composites-intensive kite that is designed to capture high-altitude winds. Source | CTL

Composites Technology Laboratory (CTL, Galway, Ireland) is one company working in this area through the project “Hibernian Airborne Wind energy Kites” (HAWK) funded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). In the HAWK project, CTL and its partners are working on challenges to AWE development and certification including materials, product safety/regulation, technology feasibility and developing effective supply chains.

Wind blade recycling

Wind blades aren’t only a top application for composites manufacturers — they’re also a key topic within the recycling conversation. In recent years, numerous startups and technologies have arisen to tackle the problem of what to do with the composite components of wind blades when they are decommissioned.

There are several types of recycling processes developed for recycling wind blades, including mechanical processes that involve shredding blades down into smaller pieces for reuse in new applications, incineration and energy capture, or various methods of separating out and reclaiming the fiber (and sometimes also the resin) from the parts through chemical (solvolysis) or heat-based (pyrolysis or thermolysis) methods.

As an example of mechanical recycling, in 2024, Regen Fiber (Fairfax, Iowa, U.S.) opened a facility expected to process up to 30,000 tons of blades per year through the company’s recycling process, which shreds the blades, extracts usable components and transforms them into premium products that are used in construction materials such as concrete.

Isodan Engineering ApS (Holeby, Denmark) has translated its paper shredding technology into a solution for shredding and grinding wind turbine blades housed in mobile shipping containers.

Acciona’s WALUE process treats waste using a low-temperature thermal process (left) that outputs clean fibers for reuse in applications like automotive trunks. Source | Acciona

Acciona Energía, an energy-focused subsidiary of infrastructure solutions company Acciona (Madrid, Spain), has received including its industrial-scale wind blade recycling plant in Lumbier, Spain and the use of its output in the and . The company’s patented WALUE process involves first shredding and then heat treatment, resulting in fibers as well as oils that can be used to manufacture new resins. Read more in CW senior technical editor Ginger Gardiner’s JEC World 2025 highlights.

WindLoop, a startup comprising students at Yale University (New Haven, Conn., U.S.), has developed a process using what it calls “green chemistry principles,” to effectively separate the fibers and resin in blades. WindLoop’s solution is said to recover more than 90% of turbine blade material and 97% of the overall value of the turbine blades.

In addition, there are many ongoing and completed collaborative research efforts with the goal of tackling wind blade recycling using a variety of approaches. A few of these include:

• The Horizon Europe REFRESH (Smart dismantling, sorting and REcycling of glass Fibre REinforced composite from wind power Sector through Holistic approach) project, led by an 11-member European consortium, is using a novel blockchain traceability platform to cover the entire value chain from sorting to recycling to new end products.
• DecomBlades, a 2021-2023 project led by composites industry partners and research institutes, resulted in pilot-scale pyrolysis and shredder facilities with plans to continue scale-up.
• The ZEBRA (Zero wastE Blade ReseArch) project, led by the French Institute for Technological Research (IRT Jules Verne, Bouguenais), has demonstrated recycling of thermoplastic composite wind blades made from Arkema’s (Cologne, Germany) recyclable Elium resin.
• SusWIND, a collaborative program started in 2021 by the National Composites Centre (Bristol, U.K.), is focused on advancing wind blade recyclability in the U.K.
• A team of University of Maine (UMaine, Orono, U.S.) researchers began a project in 2024 to explore recycling wind blades as feedstock for 3D printing.
• The Horizon Europe-funded initiative ECORES WIND kicked off in September 2024 to develop resin system alternatives that promote recyclability, extended lifespan and enable efficient decommissioning processes.
• The 14-partner, 4-year REWIND (Efficient Decommissioning, Repurposing and Recycling to increase the Circularity of end-of-life Wind Energy Systems) project, kicked off in May 2024, is developing technologies for dismantling, inspection, recycling and reuse.

There are also a growing number of companies and initiatives working on ways to reuse entire wind blade structures, or pieces of them, as-is. They are aiming to provide fast, low-energy-intensive solutions for decommissioned blades while other recycling methods are maturing. Wind blades have so far been used to construct a variety of creative applications, such as bridges, outdoor furniture pieces and parking garage facades.

For example, the is a multi-university collaborative organization formed in 2017 dedicated to finding uses for decommissioned wind blades, such as a 5-meter-long wind blade-based pedestrian bridge installed in Ireland in 2022.

Canvus Inc. repurposes decommissioned, fiberglass composite wind blades and other materials into functional, creative outdoor furniture that can be donated to communities. Source | Canvus Inc.

Canvus Inc. (Rocky River, Ohio, U.S.) combines pieces of repurposed wind blades with other upcycled materials to form outdoor furniture that can be purchased or donated to a community. The company’s community focus has also led to partnerships with local artists to paint custom designs on certain furniture pieces, turning them into functional art.

The (Hamburg, Germany) manufactures both bridges and outdoor furniture, as well as other products like geotechnical blocks for use in construction.

Future use cases are also in development, such as a planned parking garage façade in Lund, Sweden, that will feature decommissioned wind blades for nonstructural elements.

Alongside development and scale-up of recycling technologies, wind blade manufacturers and OEMs are also working at the same time to make new wind blades more recyclable.

Siemens Gamesa (Zamudio, Spain) has announced a goal to produce 100% recyclable wind blades by 2040. In 2021, the company launched its first RecyclableBlade, debuting a resin reported to enable recovery of both resin and fiber at the blade’s end of life (EOL) through a solvolysis process. In 2022, Siemens Gamesa announced a partnership with resin supplier Swancor (Nantou, Taiwan) for the supply of Swancor’s EzCiclo epoxy resin that is said to enable fiber and resin reclamation, also through a specialized solvolysis process. The partners newly solidified their collaboration in 2024, announcing that by 2026 all resin supplied to Siemens Gamesa by Swancor would be recyclable.

In January 2025, Swancor announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Adani New Industries Ltd. (Gujarat, India), with the goal supplying EzCiclo for building India’s first “fully recyclable” wind farm.

The VX175 turbine, announced in early 2025 and expected to launch commercially this year, is also said to be fully recyclable. Purpose-built for commercial and industrial rooftops, the VX175 is a product of renewable energy company Ventum Dynamics (Stavanger, Norway) and ExoTechnologies (Douglas, Isle of Man, U.K.), which developed the turbine’s reportedly recyclable, natural fiber-reinforced thermoplastic “Danu” composite material.

Ventum Dynamis’ rooftop turbine is said to be able to capture wind from all directions, and is manufactured from a natural fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite. Source | ExoTechnologies, Venture Dynamics

According to Venture Dynamics’ website, “the vane shroud design accelerates wind capture, enabling a greater volume of air to pass through the turbine. This focused wind is directed straight toward and across the entire rotor disc with minimal energy losses, optimizing power capture at the rotor.” Its omnidirectional design also makes it capable of capturing wind from all directions, delivering up to 3,000-5,000 kWh annually.

There is also ongoing research in this area. For example, in 2024 the EU-funded Blade2Circ project was announced by the Aitiip Technology Center (Zaragoza, Spain), with the goal of developing a new generation of wind turbine blades using high-performance bio-based composite materials.

Other renewable energy applications

Wind turbine blades may be the largest users of composite materials in the renewable energy space, but other renewable energy applications also use composites , such as hydroelectric and tidal turbine blades and wave energy systems, as well as solar panel and plant components.

Solar applications

One challenge to the development of concentrated solar plants (CSP) is the high heat involved. CSP work by using mirror-like heliostats to concentrate sunlight to heat molten salt, which in turn stores energy. Temperatures can exceed 700°C and degrade traditional materials like metals.

Composites — specifically, ceramic matrix composites (CMC) — offer one solution. Nonprofit scientific and R&D organization SRI (Menlo Park, Calif., U.S.) has pursued research in CMC for decades and is currently part of a U.S. DOE project to improve CMC for solar energy and energy storage applications.

SRI has developed novel ceramic matrix composites (CMC) aimed to enable high-concentration solar plants and other renewable energy systems. Source | SRI 

As reported by CW’s Ginger Gardiner, SRI has developed a process that is said to produce CMC with increased durability and resistance to corrosion from both high temperatures and molten salt compared to metals, while reducing manufacturing costs by 50% versus traditional CMC. Instead of  typical polymer infiltration and pyrolization (PIP) — which requires up to 10 repeated cycles to achieve a sufficiently dense carbon fiber-reinforced carbon and silicon carbide (C/C-SiC) matrix CMC — SRI uses a functionalized benzoxazine precursor resin loaded with ceramic particles. When combined with continuous or chopped carbon fibers, the resulting preceramic green body can be pyrolized without repeated and time-consuming infiltration cycles to produce a sufficiently dense CMC — reducing what has historically required weeks to months down to 3-5 days.

For more portable solar panels — those mounted on rooftops or marine vessels, for example, or those launched into space on satellites — making sure the panel itself is as light as possible can be a vital consideration.

There are a variety of examples of composites used to lightweight solar panels today, some of which also incorporate recycled materials. For example, solar panel producer Solarge (Weert, Netherlands) and honeycomb sandwich material manufacturer EconCore (Leuven, Netherlands) launched a lightweight, fully circular composite and honeycomb solar panel in 2023 that is said to reduce the weight of solar installations by up to 65% for rooftops.

Levante’s custom and standardized solar panels integrating recycled carbon fiber (rCF), thermoplastics and silicon solar cells to maximize both light weight for portability and rigidity for durability and protection while in use on boats, recreational vehicles or other applications. Source | Levante

Targeting consumer and marine applications, startup Levante (Bari, Italy) has developed a series of standardized, portable solar panels integrating recycled carbon fiber (rCF), thermoplastics and silicon solar cells to maximize both light weight for portability and rigidity for durability and protection while in use on boats or recreational vehicles. The company launched its first line of standardized panels in late 2024 and also offers customized designs.

Levante is also working on an EU-funded project with ACS Composites Solutions Srl (Tortoreto, Italy) to expand its solar panel technology including the incorporation of bio-based resins and curved geometry suitable for applications like car roofs or other vehicle exteriors.

A constellation of satellites is prepped for deployment, housed within a rocket's payload bay. These satellites are equipped with rapidly manufactured composite deployable solar arrays. Source | Kerberos Engineering

Composites are also used to lightweight and increase performance of solar arrays for satellites. For example, CW contributing writer Stewart Mitchell writes about the use of TeXtreme (Borås, Sweden) 0/90 woven carbon fiber spread tow fabrics in the manufacture of deployable satellite solar array structures by Kerberos Engineering (Murcia, Spain). The use of these materials is reported to reduce the resources required for manufacturing these arrays by 90% compared to conventional techniques, while also improving precision during layup and overall robustness of the product.

Announced in December 2024, Airborne Aerospace B.V. (The Hague, Netherlands) will supply high-precision panel and yoke substrates for Airbus Netherlands B.V.’s (Leiden) Sparkwing solar arrays, a critical component of MDA Space’s Aurora satellite product line that aims to expand communication networks globally.

Under the contract, Airbus will deliver Sparkwing solar arrays featuring two wings with five panels each, providing a photovoltaic area exceeding 30 square meters. Airborne will manufacture more than 200 high-precision and ultra-stiff composite substrate panels for the project.

Beyond satellites, carbon fiber and a flexible polymer were reportedly used in the development of the booms used to launch NASA’s (Washington, D.C., U.S.) ACS3 solar sail system in summer 2024. According to Aviation Week, the “solar sail uses a novel expanding tubal boom system made of flexible polymer and carbon fiber materials that can be rolled up inside a CubeSat for launch and then unrolled when deployed.” The four fully deployed sails, made of reflective polymer sheets, harness the energy of photons emitted from the sun to propel the spacecraft.

River, tidal and wave energy technologies

There are a variety of river or tidal turbine technologies either commercialized or in development today, many of which include composite struts, foils or other composites for maximum efficiency and durability. One is the AR1100 tidal turbine by Proteus Marine Renewables (Bristol, U.K.), which the company announced in March 2025 was successfully developed in Japan’s Naru Strait to generate 1.1 MW of clean energy. The AR1100 tidal turbine generator is said to feature a horizontal-axis rotor with three composite blades, designed for optimal efficiency in tidal currents.

ORPC’s RivGen hydrokinetic river turbines are designed to provide clean power to remote communities. In the pictured design, the yellow struts and black foils are made from carbon- and glass fiber-reinforced polymer dry braid and resin transfer molding. Source | ORPC, via Hawthorn Composites

Another example is the company Ocean Renewable Power Co. (ORPC, Portland, Maine, U.S.), which builds hydrokinetic power generators for use in rivers, called RivGen Systems, enabled by fiberglass composite struts and carbon fiber composite foils manufactured by partner Hawthorn Composites (Miamisburg, Ohio, U.S.). The company has installed several commercial systems to provide clean power to remote areas, and continues to scale up its production.

ORPC is simultaneously working on development and testing of next-generation systems, including a marine version of its technology, first through the EU-funded CRIMSON project, in which a system with 5-meter foils was built and tested, and continuing with a project called X-Flow led by Queen’s University Belfast. In November 2024, ORPC announced that its Dublin, Ireland-based site had successfully deployed a marine hydrokinetic turbine to the Strangford Lough Tidal Test Site in Northern Ireland. The next phase of the X-Flow project will include the testing and monitoring of the turbine through a range of operating conditions.

In April 2025, ORPC Ireland partner ÉireComposites (Galway, Ireland) announced that it, along with ORPC and the University of Galway’s Advanced and Sustainable Manufacturing and Materials Engineering (ASMME) group, is leading a new TidalHealth project aimed at integrating CFRP tidal turbine foils with 3D-printed optical fiber sensors to enable continuous SHM of these systems.

Another promising ocean energy technology is wave energy converters (WEC), devices that use the motion of ocean waves to generate electricity. Various types of WECs have been developed, and many of these concepts work in a similar way to hydroelectric turbines: A column-, blade- or buoy-shaped device sits on top of or under the water, where they capture the energy generated by ocean waves acting on the device. That energy is then transferred to a generator that converts it to electricity.

CorPower Ocean’s first full-scale prototype, manufactured from filament-wound glass fiber composites, was deployed in 2021 and has since provided data on efficiency and storm survivability. Source | CorPower Ocean

One WEC developer making extensive use of composites technology is CorPower Ocean (Stockholm, Sweden), which reports that it has secured €95 million in funding from public and private investors since its founding 2012 and opened operations in Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Scotland, with plans to expand into the U.S. It has successfully demonstrated four generations of its buoy-shaped WECs with goals of commercialization. The company is currently operating several projects proving out the storm survivability and efficient power generation of its WECs, including its first full-scale WEC prototype, C4, which was deployed for ocean trials in 2021 and features a 9-meter-diameter, spherical hull manufactured from filament-wound GFRP.

Composites in oil and gas applications

Composites’ inherent corrosion resistance and light weight have led to adoption of composites over metals for a variety of wellhead protection components, frac plugs for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), offshore oil and gas pipes and more. Composites can also serve as efficient, corrosion-resistant solutions for repair of existing pipelines.

For offshore oil and gas pipelines, in recent years, companies such as Strohm B.V. (formerly Airborne Oil & Gas, Ijmuiden, Netherlands) and Magma Global Ltd. (Portsmouth, U.K.) have led the way toward development and qualification of thermoplastic composite pipe (TCP) to replace metal in offshore pipelines. Strohm announced DNV qualification of its deepwater TCP flowline/jumper technology in November 2023, followed by multiple announcements of installations and new contracts in 2024. In early 2025, the company reported a new MOU with subsea connections systems provider Unitech Offshore (Stord, Norway) for the development of an end-to-end subsea jumper connection solution that is simpler to install and also flange-less through integration with Strohm’s TCP end fittings. The company also launched TCP Designer, a web-based tool enabling customers to more quickly and easily engineer customized TCPs.

TCP for hydrogen transport

Companies are also adapting TCP for transportation of hydrogen. For example, that it had completed a hydrogen testing program with its TCPs at Tüv-Süd in Germany.

Hive’s TCP is designed specifically to meet hydrogen permeation requirements while also minimizing its carbon footprint. Source | Hive Composites

Hive Composites (Loughborough, U.K.) is an example of a company that has developed a TCP system specifically for hydrogen applications. As reported by CW’s Stewart Mitchell, Hive Composites’ TCP system is manufactured from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for both the inner and outer layers, augmented with glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) and other specialized barrier materials. It can be manufactured in continuous lengths of up to 1.2 kilometers, with diameters from 2-6 inches, and are designed to operate at pressures up to 100 bar.

Hive Composites claims the global warming potential of TCP is more than four times lower than that of equivalent steel pipes in terms of materials, manufacturing and transport, and the operational and decommissioning emissions of TCP are approximately 60-70% lower.

CMC to enable nuclear fusion

, more than 7 GW of nuclear power capacity was brought online in 2024, a 33% increase over 2023. 

There is increasing interest in the use of CMC for components in nuclear power plants, especially to meet the high-temperature needs of next-generation fusion reactors in development. “Although power from nuclear fusion is many decades away, its potential is huge, offering four times more energy per kilogram of fuel than fission (current nuclear power plants) and nearly four million times more energy than burning oil or coal — but without any carbon emissions,” explains CW’s Ginger Gardiner (see “Composites reinvent energy”).

For example, the National Composites Centre (NCC, Bristol, U.K.) is developing silicon carbide CMC (SiC/SiC) for applications in future fusion reactors. SiC/SiC materials are reported to be damage-tolerant, resistant to radiation and have operating temperatures of up to 1600°C, and their use is expected to enable fusion reactors to operate at higher temperatures to improve thermal efficiency, in turn increasing commercial viability.

The NCC announced in 2023 that it is lending its expertise in this area to the HASTE-F program led by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKEA, Abingdon), with goals of working toward scalability, formability and performance in manufacturing SiC/SiC reactor components.

The fuel rod cladding, reactor core and core structures in advanced nuclear reactors are manufactured from GA-EMS’ SiGA, a high-tech CMC that can withstand more than twice the temperature of metal components used in current reactors. Source | General Atomics Advanced Reactors and U.S. DOE Office of Nuclear Energy

In the U.S., General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS, San Diego, Calif.) is also developing SiC materials as well as SiC composite foam for nuclear fuel rod cladding and other applications in fusion plants. In 2024, the company was awarded a 3-year contract from the U.S. DOE Office of Science to develop a scalable, cost-competitive manufacturing path for these materials.

GA-EMS reports that its SiGA high-tech engineered CMC can be fabricated into complex planar, tubular and custom geometries, and that finished SiGA composites maintain their strength and stability under high levels of irradiation up to temperatures well above 1600°C.

In October 2024, GA-EMS announced that it had achieved a project milestone with the preliminary development of four digital twin performance models to support its technology and accelerate the process of qualification and licensing. In December 2024, the company reported successful first-round testing of its SiGA fuel rod samples at Idaho National Laboratory (INL, Idaho Falls, U.S.).

In addition, CW’s Gardiner has reported about BJS Ceramics and BJS Composites (Gersthofen, Germany), a company that makes its own SiC fiber, branded Silafil, and infiltrates that and carbon fiber with Silafil pre-ceramic polymer as a matrix to create Keraman CMC materials and parts.

BJS co-founder Jutta Schull says that the company has seen increased demand in the aerospace and defense sectors, but also for cooling pump applications in nuclear fission and fusion plants. Schull explains, “Due to their thermal resistance, high damage tolerance and radiation resistance, SiC/SiC components can double the electricity generation from fusion reactors — according to findings of our customers.”

While nuclear fusion reactors may still have a ways to go in the coming years, the benefits of composite materials are, and will continue to be, a key enabler for nuclear, renewable and traditional oil and gas energy applications.

Calian’s composites division got its start as an internal R&D initiative aimed at using composite materials to improve reflector designs for SATCOM applications. Source (All Images) | Calian

 (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) was initially formed in 1982 and through internal growth, expansion and acquisitions has grown into a global company with more than 4,500 employees. The company works on a range of solutions from cybersecurity to communications to manufacturing within a variety of industries including communications infrastructure, healthcare, training, defense and space. Within Calian’s Advanced Technologies division lies its advanced manufacturing and engineering services capabilities. Calian Composites Ltd. (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada), a composites-focused subset of the Advanced Technologies division, benefits from Calian’s immersion in this broader network, enabling streamlined collaboration on projects that require integrated sensors, embedded systems or custom electronics.

Recognized as a qualifying facility in CW’s 2024 Top Shops benchmarking survey, Calian Composites has emerged as an example of how focused specialization within a diversified corporation can yield successful results.

This gas station canopy is an example of Calian’s forays into a variety of markets.

From reflectors to a range of complex components

Calian’s foray into composites began in the realm of satellite communications (SATCOM). Initially formed as an internal R&D initiative aimed at improving reflector designs through the use of composite materials, the team’s expertise in precision structures and large-format manufacturing quickly grew into a standalone capability. Today, while reflectors remain a cornerstone of its product offerings, the composites division’s portfolio has expanded significantly to include defense vessels, autonomous vehicles, drone systems and structural components for civil infrastructure projects.

“With our background in SATCOM where tolerances are demanding, understanding mechanical requirements and maintaining a high attention to detail is really important to our solutions,” says Michael Rennie, director of operations, Calian Composites. “We’ve built an expertise around designing large structures and fabricating assemblies to exceptional tolerances.”

Calian’s composites division boasts a range of capabilities including in-house painting and gelcoating.

Manufacturing versatility

At the core of Calian’s composites success is its diverse and ever-expanding set of manufacturing capabilities. Its facility in Saskatoon is home to approximately 50 professionals, including engineers, technologists and fabrication staff, with an infrastructure robust enough to handle both prototype and high-volume production.

Rennie explains that the division started with vacuum infusion because of its cost-effectiveness and high quality. “Vacuum infusion allows you to achieve high-quality parts without the need to invest in unnecessary expensive equipment,” he says.

Over time, Calian Composites added a resin transfer molding (RTM) line and also does wet layup and prepreg work. It even recently acquired a three-axis CNC router that it is using to produce its own RTM molds. Rennie says that adding mold manufacturing to the company’s in-house capabilities enables faster iteration and better control over the production cycle. Additional capabilities include an automated cutting table — used for both internal kit preparation and external kitting services — as well as in-house painting and gelcoat finishing.

“We are also beginning to explore compression molding for smaller components and higher cycle rates,” Rennie says.

But where Calian truly distinguishes itself is in smart structures. Working closely with the Advanced Technologies group, the composites division integrates embedded electronics and sensors into parts — sometimes for structural health monitoring, sometimes for heating systems like deicing, and increasingly for applications such as antenna bases and radio frequency (RF) signal transmission.

The company has recently been exploring using special integrated antennas to create 5G-compatible composite structures for the automotive industry. This combination of technologies can enable these components to function both as a structure and as an RF transmit/receiving device.

“This is where being part of Calian’s large network is great,” says Rennie. “Something that Calian’s been a huge proponent of is enabling cross-business unit developments. This allows us to incorporate our composite capabilities with the other advanced technologies Calian offers in order to solve complex problems.”

Calian’s composites division supports a diverse mix of industries, with ongoing programs in SATCOM, defense, civil infrastructure and specialty transportation.

Calian’s work includes the production of autonomous naval drones for the Canadian and Australian Navies.

One example is a fleet of autonomous drone target boats manufactured for use by the Canadian and Australian Navies. These vessels are deployed at sea to replicate various naval tactical patterns for radar and threat detection, requiring robust construction to withstand high G-forces and ocean conditions.

“These targets are deployed off of naval ships at full speed and are capable of pulling upwards of 30 Gs,” Rennie says. “Making sure that laminates are consolidated properly, voids are minimized and that everything is built to specification is critical.”

On the civilian side, Calian is targeting mining as a growth sector. In a recent development, the team produced a prototype composite door for an underground electric mining vehicle. The new glass fiber-reinforced polymer door offers corrosion resistance, thermal insulation and significant weight savings over the existing aluminum version at a comparable cost.

Calian is currently making inroads into the mining market with this mining vehicle door prototype. 

“Due to the harsh environments found in many mines, composites offer a number of great solutions,” says Rennie. “For example, if you look at underground mining vehicles, a lot are battery-powered; a solution that can reduce weight, prevent corrosion and offer natural thermal insulation is becoming more and more appealing to the mining sector.

“It’s also a really good example of where composites shine when compared to traditional materials,” he continues. “You can easily combine these unique materials and get so many benefits in one streamlined manufacturing process.”

When it comes to materials, Calian Composites has widespread experience with a variety of fibers and matrices. For high-end SATCOM and aerospace applications, the company relies heavily on carbon fiber and epoxy systems, often incorporating foam or custom core materials. For less-demanding applications where cost is a factor, it often turns to fiberglass with polyester systems.

The company is currently exploring the integration of honeycomb core structures — particularly carbon fiber-based options that may be manufactured internally. “We’ve seen a bit of market gap for carbon fiber-based core structures that are cost-effective,” Rennie says. “We’re exploring whether we can develop our own range of custom core designs.”

Continuous improvement and collaboration

Key to Calian’s success is its commitment to learning, growth and feedback. With a workflow that includes frequent new product introductions and rapid prototyping, the team operates in a cycle of iterative refinement.

“We never treat a product as ‘one and done,’” Rennie says. “From prototyping to production scaling, we’re constantly evaluating how to do things faster, smarter and more cost-effectively.”

Calian also participates in CW’s Top Shops benchmarking survey as a strategic tool. “It’s a great way to identify our position in the composites market as well as any gaps we need to address,” says Rennie. “Are our cycle times competitive? How do our wages compare to industry standards? What markets are others moving into?” According to Rennie, the company uses the survey both to calibrate performance metrics and to assess opportunities for strategic expansion, such as balancing growth between defense and mining or evaluating entry points into aerospace.

One of the more unique aspects of Calian’s composites division is its deep integration between engineering and production. The team’s engineering group includes both design and manufacturing engineers, often working side by side to refine processes during the early stages of a product’s lifecycle.

“We’ve seen a lot of benefit from involving our engineers, technologists and fabricators in our design process to ensure we’re designing with the full manufacturing cycle in mind,” Rennie says.

The division also maintains strong quality control systems, including contact and noncontact laser scanning equipment, as well as in-house environmental and mechanical testing capabilities. This metrology expertise enables precise tracking of tolerances and geometry over time, which is especially critical for parts exposed to thermal cycling or mission-critical deployment conditions.

From its beginnings in SATCOM, Calian Composites continues to seek out new applications in a variety of markets. 

An eye toward opportunity

Calian Composites is ultimately focused on problem-solving. Rennie says the division sees itself as more than just a composites facility, but as a solutions provider, a systems integrator and a partner that can take you from prototype to full-scale production.

“Whether somebody comes to us with an existing product they are looking to manufacture, or they come with a brand new idea that they want to prototype, we can work with them to define and meet their specific needs,” Rennie says.

This approach has enabled growing the division from a fabricator of SATCOM reflectors to a business with inroads in various markets. And the growth continues; hiring is underway to support increased demand across several product lines.The team is also expanding its R&D efforts to continue bringing new product developments and smart embedded systems to market.

“We are actively hiring a number of positions right now. Specifically, we are bringing on more technologist and fabrication staff to ramp up for the increased work that we have,” Rennie says.

Calian Composites is an example of how strategic focus within a diversified enterprise can drive both resilience and growth. As it continues to scale its operations and explore new frontiers in composite-enabled technologies, Calian is positioning itself not only as a top-performing shop, but as a forward-thinking partner in the evolving composites landscape.