Ten processes, and the judgment to pick the right one.
Selection criteria, the materials range ordered by service temperature, each process as we run it, and the sectors we ship into.
Which process, and why
| Process | Typical volume | Tooling cost | Cycle | Fiber volume | Tooled faces | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resin infusion | 1 – 100 | Low | Hours | 50 – 60% | One | Large structures and low counts where a second cosmetic face isn't worth paying for |
| RTM | 100 – 10,000 | High | < 5 – 90 min | 50 – 65% | Two | Complex parts needing controlled wall thickness and part-to-part repeatability |
| Compression molding | 100 – 100,000 | High | 2 – 20 min | 50 – 60% | Two | High rate, near-net parts, and anything in a high-temperature thermoplastic |
| Filament winding | 10 – 10,000 | Low – med | Min – hours | 60 – 70% | Inner | Pressure vessels, tubes, shafts — anything axisymmetric and load-directional |
These are typical industry ranges for process selection, not quoted capability. Real figures move a long way with geometry, resin system and equipment — send us the part and we'll give you numbers against it.
The matrix decides the temperature
Thermosets and thermoplastics together, ordered by continuous service temperature. The right matrix is the cheapest one that survives the duty, for as long as the duty lasts.
| System | Chemistry | Tg | Tm | Continuous service | Chosen for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PA12 | Thermoplastic | 45 °C | 178 °C | 80 – 90 °C | Toughness, chemical resistance and the lowest moisture uptake of the polyamides — tubing, liners and commingled tow |
| PA6 | Thermoplastic | 60 °C dry | 220 °C | 80 – 100 °C | Fast cycle at a low processing temperature. Moisture uptake plasticizes it, so Tg is specified against the conditioned state rather than the dry one |
| Polyolefin | Thermoset | 120 – 140 °C | — | 120 °C | Proxxima. Viscosity to 15 cP, hydrophobic, high toughness — infusion, RTM and filament winding |
| Epoxy | Thermoset | 120 – 200 °C | — | 120 – 180 °C | The general-purpose system, and the appropriate choice below 180 °C |
| Phenolic | Thermoset | — | — | 180 – 200 °C | Fire, smoke and toxicity performance |
| Benzoxazine | Thermoset | 170 – 200 °C | — | 180 – 200 °C | Near-zero cure shrinkage, low void content |
| PPS | Thermoplastic | 90 °C | 280 °C | 200 – 220 °C | Chemical resistance and short cycle time |
| PEI | Thermoplastic | 215 °C | Amorphous | 170 – 200 °C | Dimensional stability, radome and dielectric work |
| PES | Thermoplastic | 225 °C | Amorphous | 180 – 200 °C | Toughness and hot/wet retention |
| Cyanate ester | Thermoset | 250 – 290 °C | — | 200 – 250 °C | Very low moisture pickup and dielectric loss under vacuum |
| BMI | Thermoset | 250 – 300 °C | — | 200 – 230 °C | Hot/wet property retention under load |
| LCP | Thermoplastic | — | 280 – 330 °C | 200 – 240 °C | Very low CTE and near-zero moisture uptake. Run in additive only, not as a molding matrix |
| PEEK | Thermoplastic | 143 °C | 343 °C | 250 °C | Our thermoplastic default. Semi-crystalline, chemically inert, and among the most gamma- and X-ray-stable thermoplastics available — the aromatic PAEK backbone holds where PTFE and the acetals do not |
| PAEK (LM) | Thermoplastic | 147 °C | 305 °C | 250 °C | Run alongside PEEK as a default, and shares its radiation stability. Comparable performance at a lower processing temperature, which widens the tooling and consolidation options |
| TPI | Thermoplastic | 250 °C | 410 °C | 240 – 260 °C | Our top-end system. The highest Tg in the range, holding modulus to Tg without depending on crystallinity, and formed without a cure cycle |
| PEKK | Thermoplastic | 160 °C | 305 – 360 °C | 260 °C | Crystallinity tunable by T/I ratio. Run where a program specifies it, though most of our thermoplastic work goes to PEEK or LM PAEK |
| Polyimide | Thermoset | 320 – 370 °C | — | 280 – 320 °C | Available where a requirement genuinely exceeds thermoplastic service |
Typical published ranges for the resin family, not for a specific grade. Real service limits depend on the grade, the reinforcement, the load, and how long it has to sit there — a part under sustained load derates well below an unloaded one. Tell us the duty cycle and we'll size the matrix to it.
And the fiber decides the stiffness
Carbon across all three modulus classes, plus glass, aramid and ceramic where the requirement is dielectric, impact or heat rather than stiffness.
| Fiber | Class | Tensile modulus | Chosen for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon | Standard modulus | 230 – 250 GPa | The default. Best cost against performance for most structure |
| Carbon | Intermediate modulus | 275 – 310 GPa | Strength and stiffness per unit weight — aerospace primary structure |
| Carbon | High modulus | 340 – 590 GPa | Stiffness-critical and dimensionally stable parts; pitch grades go higher still |
| Glass | E-glass | 72 – 76 GPa | Low cost, electrically insulating, radio-transparent |
| Glass | S-glass | 87 – 90 GPa | Higher strength and temperature than E-glass at similar dielectric behavior |
| Aramid | — | 110 – 180 GPa | Impact, abrasion and ballistic performance |
| Ceramic | Quartz | ~69 GPa | Very low dielectric loss and high temperature — radomes and antenna windows |
| Ceramic | Alumina-silicate | 260 – 370 GPa | Hot structure and ablative work, past where polymer reinforcement gives out |
Resin infusion
We run Proxxima polyolefin thermoset alongside conventional epoxies — at viscosities down to 15 cP it wets out thick or tightly packed laminates that stall an epoxy infusion. Cyanate ester and BMI are also infused here, which the 450 °C oven is what makes practical.
Large parts, low counts, one tooled face.
- Max part
- 65″ × 100″
- Resin systems
- Proxxima polyolefin thermoset, epoxy, cyanate ester and BMI
- Cure
- Oven cure to 450 °C, with freestanding post-cure for cyanate ester and BMI
- Tooling
- Foam or billet carbon
Resin transfer molding
Injection is pressure pot with vacuum assist, or a metered two-part unit we designed and built ourselves. The in-house unit holds a ratio tolerance commercial equipment in this class does not — and an off-ratio mix is a defect that passes inspection and fails later.
Cycle time depends on the resin more than the process. Conventional epoxy RTM runs 15 to 90 minutes; in Proxxima the ultra-low viscosity fills and cures fast enough to bring cycles under five minutes, at which point the tool rather than the chemistry sets the rate.
Two finished surfaces, and parts that measure the same in month six as in month one.
- Press
- Run on the compression presses — to 150 tons
- Max tool
- Platens to 30″ × 30″
- Injection
- Pressure pot with vacuum assist, or our own in-house meter-mix unit
- Cycle
- Under 5 min in Proxxima; 15 – 90 min in conventional epoxy
- Tooling
- Aluminum or steel, cut in house
Compression molding
Our core process, and the one most of our high-temperature work is built around — continuous prepreg for structure, chopped and forged carbon where geometry is complex or the finish is visible.
Platens run to 450 °C across multiple presses, which is what determines the top of the quotable range. PEEK melts at 343 °C and thermoplastic polyimide at 410 °C, so equipment topping out near 350 °C cannot process TPI at all. That is the practical reason the top of the material range is thinly served: the material exists, the presses to form it largely do not.
Rate, near-net geometry, and service temperatures beyond a conventional thermoset.
- Matrices
- Full thermoset and thermoplastic range, to TPI at the top — see materials
- Lead time
- From 10 days
- Tooling
- Aluminum short run, steel higher volume
- Presses
- Multiple, platens to 30″ × 30″
- Platen temperature
- To 450 °C
Filament winding
The highest fiber volume fraction of anything here, at 60 to 70 per cent. Thermoset and thermoplastic, at tensions from conventional up to 1,000 N.
Three feed routes: wet winding, in epoxy or Proxxima polyolefin thermoset, whose low viscosity suits a bath; towpreg, which runs the full range from high-temperature epoxy through BMI and polyimide to thermoplastic systems, and which we develop with our partners where no stock product fits; and thermoplastic tape consolidated in situ under a heated nip, which comes off the mandrel finished with no oven behind it. The tape route is what makes PEEK and LM PAEK structure practical at this scale, and it is not widely offered.
Pressure vessels, tubes, shafts and rollers — and rotor overwrap, covered below.
- Tension
- To 1,000 N
- Equipment
- Designed and built in house
- Matrix
- Thermoset and thermoplastic, epoxy through polyimide and TPI
- Axes
- 4 axis
- Mandrel
- To 8′ long, 24″ diameter and above
- Feed routes
- Wet winding, towpreg, and thermoplastic tape consolidated in situ
- Wet systems
- Epoxy and Proxxima polyolefin thermoset
- Towpreg
- High-temperature epoxy, BMI, polyimide and thermoplastic towpreg; stock or custom systems developed with our partners
Tooling, fixtures & kitting
Infusion tooling, compression molds, RTM tools, winding mandrels, and the jigs, fixtures and trim templates that go with them — all cut in house. Aluminum for short runs, steel for higher volumes, foam or billet carbon where the count does not justify metal. That is what turns a tool revision into a matter of days rather than a new vendor cycle.
Plies are cut and nested on a CNC table, in dry fabric and in prepreg. Hand-cutting to a template is one of the larger sources of part-to-part variation in a layup, and one of the larger sources of scrap; cut plies remove both and make kitting practical at rate.
- Tool types
- Infusion tooling, compression molds, RTM tools, winding mandrels, jigs and fixtures
- Production
- Aluminum, steel
- Prototype
- Foam, billet carbon fiber
- Ply cutting
- CNC cut and nested, dry fabric and prepreg; kits supplied
- Lead time
- 1 – 2 weeks simple; 2 – 8 weeks for complex multi-piece tools
- Tool design
- In house, with the part design
CNC machining — metal and composite
Three and four axis to 65 by 100 inches, run as a general machining capability rather than only as finishing on our own parts. Metal is the specialized end: titanium, aluminum, copper, pure nickel, tool steel and stainless, in the low quantities and awkward specifications general job shops price themselves out of. A high-speed spindle covers fine-feature work such as electrolysis cell plates.
On the composite side we cut our own tooling, trim and finish molded parts, and take billet carbon to six inches thick — a stock form few shops will touch.
We also cut the metallic inserts for our own compression molded parts, so the insert, the tool and the layup get revised against each other rather than across three purchase orders.
Available as a standalone service, not only alongside a molding program.
- Axes
- 3 and 4 axis
- Envelope
- 65″ × 100″ × 12″
- Metals
- Titanium, aluminum, copper, pure nickel, tool steel, stainless and others on request
- Fine detail
- High-speed spindle for fine-feature work such as electrolysis cell plates
- Inserts
- Metallic inserts for compression molded parts, cut in house
- Billet carbon
- Up to 6″ thick
- Machines
- A vertical machining center for metal work, and a CNC router for composite, foam and aluminum
- Tolerance
- ±0.001″ – 0.002″ on metal; ±0.001″ on composite
Design
Part design, DFM review, laminate definition and tool design. Most of a part's cost is committed in draft, wall transitions, ply drops, joint and insert design and demolding strategy, before material is cut. This is the strength we would most encourage a program to draw on early.
Engagement at concept, or DFM review of an existing model before tooling commitment.
- Scope
- Part design, DFM review, laminate definition, tool design, joint and insert design
- Analysis
- FEA in house, with coupon testing to anchor the model
- CAD formats
- STEP and IGES; 2D drawings and sketches are enough to start
- Prototype route
- Straight into additive or a soft tool
Fiber placement
Tow steered to a defined path, with thickness built locally rather than across the whole part. Our own system runs primarily thermoplastic; where a stitched, load-path-aligned dry preform is the better route, we leverage tailored fiber placement alongside it.
Four feedstocks: thermoplastic tape consolidated in situ, commingled thermoplastic tow where curvature defeats stiff tape and material cost matters, towpreg for thermoset work, and dry tow for preforms into infusion or RTM. Chosen against the part's curvature and the matrix it has to end up in, not against what the machine is threaded with.
Lugs, brackets, bolted joints and anything carrying a cutout.
- Our system
- Designed and built in house, primarily thermoplastic
- Process control
- Thermal and vision sensing, tow-condition monitoring, closed loop
- TFP
- Leveraged for directional dry preforms into infusion or RTM
- Feedstock
- Thermoplastic tape, commingled thermoplastic tow, towpreg and dry tow
Additive manufacturing
Printing in the same high-temperature polymers we mold — functional prototypes, and fixtures, layup mandrels and trim jigs that would otherwise be machined. A printed PEEK prototype approximates the behavior of the molded part, not just its geometry.
- Materials
- PEEK, LM PAEK, PEI, PEKK, PC/CF, LCP
- Uses
- Prototypes, fixtures, mandrels, jigs
Robotic processing & automation
Path, speed, temperature and compaction are coupled in a composite process, so a cell programmed to geometry alone makes a part that is dimensionally correct and structurally wrong. Our fiber placement and high-tension winding systems are cells we specified, built and programmed ourselves, so the motion and the process were developed against each other rather than handed between two vendors.
The same work is available as a service: cells for placement and winding, trimming, drilling and edge finishing, in-process and post-process inspection, and part handling — including the tooling, end effectors and fixturing, which are frequently composite themselves. Moving an existing process onto a robot is where the engineering sits; parameters rarely survive a different compaction profile unchanged.
Where a process is rate-limited by an operator, where placement consistency governs the property you are certifying, or where the cell has to be instrumented well enough that the part carries its own process record.
- Cells we run
- Fiber placement and high-tension winding, of our own design
- Applied to
- Placement, winding, trimming, drilling, inspection, handling
- Sensing
- Thermal imaging and machine vision across the material path, not only at the head
- Control
- On-machine learning, closed loop in process
- We also supply
- End effectors, fixtures and tooling for the cell
- Integration scope
- Design, build, on-site commissioning, operator and maintenance training, and continuing process support
Cycle time for uncrewed programs
Uncrewed programs are moving from prototype counts to production counts, and the constraint moves with them. At ten units the question is whether the part can be made. At ten thousand it is cycle time, repeatability, and how much of the labour can be taken out of the cell.
Two processes answer that here. Compression molding runs 2 to 20 minute cycles, including in high-temperature thermoplastics. RTM in Proxxima runs under five minutes — fill and cure are fast enough that tool handling, not chemistry, sets the rate.
The automation sits on top of both. Tailored fiber placement builds a net-shape preform with fiber already on the load path, CNC-cut ply kits feed the tool, and a robotic cell handles preform loading, demolding and trim. Each of those is a capability we already run, which is the difference between quoting a rate and demonstrating one.
- RTM cycle
- Under 5 min in Proxxima
- Compression cycle
- 2 – 20 min, thermoset and thermoplastic
- Preforming
- Tailored fiber placement, net shape; CNC-cut and nested ply kits
- Automation
- Robotic preform loading, demolding and trim
- Tooling
- Aluminum at short run, steel at volume, cut in house
- Typical parts
- Airframes, booms, arms, structural panels and housings
We test what we build, here
Mechanical testing runs in house across the standard composite test matrix, alongside UV weathering and hydrostatic testing. Where a test needs a frame or fixture that does not exist, we build it.
Molding and testing under one roof means process iterations are not paced by a queue at someone else's lab, and the allowables a design is sized against come from the process that will make the part rather than a handbook describing a similar one.
It also closes the loop on the process data our machines record. Sensor traces describe what the laminate experienced; test data describes what it became. Holding both, on the same parts, is what makes a process record evidence rather than paperwork.
- Mechanical
- The standard composite test matrix — tension, compression, shear, flexure and bearing
- Environmental
- UV weathering
- Pressure
- Hydrostatic testing
- Fixtures
- Custom test frames and fixtures designed and built in house, including large-format
- Feeds
- Design allowables, matrix selection and cure-cycle development
- Standards
- Run to ASTM methods
High-tension rotor overwrap
Wound at tensions to 1,000 N, roughly an order of magnitude above general-purpose winding, so preload survives both centrifugal load and expansion mismatch at temperature. Above 200 °C an epoxy sleeve relaxes through Tg and takes the interference with it, which is where TPI and BMI come in — matrix selection and tension specification being one decision, not two.
Not every rotor needs the top of the range. Where service temperature and chemical exposure sit inside what a high-temperature epoxy will hold, we wind epoxy towpreg instead, at a materially lower cost. TPI and BMI are specified when the duty calls for them, not by default.
Sleeves are generally wound in ultra-high-strength IM fiber, IM10 and T1100 class. Strength at operating strain governs rather than modulus alone, and the strength grades buy that margin in less thickness. Thickness is not free on a permanent-magnet rotor: it adds directly to the magnetic gap, where every thousandth costs torque. A thinner sleeve that still holds preload is the result being asked for.
- Winding tension
- To 1,000 N
- Matrix
- High-temperature epoxy towpreg where cost governs; TPI and BMI at the top
- Service temp
- Over 200 °C continuous; to 260 °C in TPI
- Fiber
- Intermediate and high modulus carbon; typically ultra-high-strength IM grades such as IM10 or T1100
- Tip speed
- Over 300 m/s demonstrated
- Consolidation
- In situ on the winder for thermoplastic; shrink tape and oven cure to 450 °C for thermoset
- Balancing
- Carried out by the customer; sleeves are wound to a concentricity that supports it
We build the machines, and the cells around them
Commercially available winders are specified for the tension range typical of general composite work, which falls well short of 1,000 N. Our winding equipment was designed and built in house — payout, tension control and the winding cell around them — as were our fiber placement system and the metered resin injection unit used for RTM. In each case the process requirement preceded the machine.
That capability is available independently. Where a process needs winding equipment or a robotic cell that is not commercially available, we design, build and deliver it — motion, tooling, end effectors, sensing and controls as one scope rather than parts sourced against each other.
Instrumentation covers the whole material path, not just the point of layup. Thermal imaging and machine vision watch the process point — nip temperature, tow placement, gaps, overlaps and twist — while separate sensing tracks resin bath and mandrel temperature, which govern wet-out before placement and laminate behavior after it respectively. Cameras also watch the tow in transit for frays and broken filaments, upstream of the head, where the remedy is still a splice rather than a scrapped part and an unexplained test result.
All of it feeds models running on the machine itself, and the loop closes in process. Building the machine is what makes that possible: a supplier's sealed controller does not open up for a new sensor and a new control law. The result is a record of the conditions the laminate actually experienced, rather than a record stating that the recipe was followed.
- We build
- Filament winders, high-tension winding cells, fiber placement systems, metered resin injection and robotic cells
- Tension
- Payout and tension control to 1,000 N
- Sensing
- Thermal imaging at the process point, resin bath and mandrel; machine vision on the tow in transit and where it lands
- Control
- On-machine learning driving closed-loop process control
- Corrected in process
- Temperature, tension and placement
- Process data
- Per-part process record, batch summary reporting, and raw traces on request
- Matrix routes
- Wet wind and thermoplastic
- Scope
- Design, build, on-site commissioning, operator and maintenance training, and continuing process support
- Controls
- Industrial PLC and motion control, with our own sensing and process software layered on top
- Handover
- Mechanical and electrical drawings, O&M manuals, a spares package, and developed process parameters for the customer's material
The sectors we ship into
We ship into each of the sectors below. They share one thing technically: in each, a metal part became the limiting component — too heavy to accelerate, too conductive, too unstable dimensionally, or unable to hold property at the temperature the system now runs at. Each row states the governing requirement and what we run against it.
| Sector | What actually governs | What we run against it |
|---|---|---|
| Robotics & automation | Distal mass and settling time; positional accuracy held through thermal drift | High-modulus carbon in epoxy or PEEK; steered fiber placement around joints and cutouts; billet carbon machined to 6″ |
| Semiconductor & precision equipment | Micron-order deflection with low expansion, low outgassing, vacuum and cleanroom service | High-modulus and pitch carbon in PEEK, LM PAEK or cyanate ester; RTM and compression molding for closed-tolerance sections |
| Electrification & high-speed machines | Retention preload surviving both centrifugal load and expansion mismatch above 200 °C | Rotor overwrap to 1,000 N in TPI and BMI |
| Flywheel energy storage | Hoop stiffness and burst margin at rim speed; creep over a long service life | High-tension winding in intermediate and high-modulus carbon; thermoset and thermoplastic routes |
| Hydrogen & compressed gas | Cycle life and permeation, with winding parameters controlled and recorded rather than nominally specified | Filament winding under closed-loop tension control with retained process data; machined electrolyzer cell plates in pure nickel |
| Advanced air mobility & uncrewed | Cycle time and repeatability as counts move from tens to thousands; structure adjacent to motors, inverters and packs | Rate production — RTM under 5 min in Proxxima, compression molding at 2 – 20 min, TFP preforms and robotic handling; complete uncrewed airframes through layup and assembly |
| Space & orbital systems | Ionizing dose over mission life; microcracking and dimensional drift through deep thermal cycling; moisture release and outgassing onto optics | Cyanate ester and toughened epoxy on high-modulus and pitch carbon — the established low-outgassing baseline, qualifying against ASTM E595 — alongside PEEK and LM PAEK, among the most radiation-stable thermoplastics, with welded rather than bonded joints. Newer systems are working through qualification behind them |
| Fusion & advanced nuclear | Non-magnetic, dielectric structure across a wide temperature span | Quartz and glass reinforcement in polyimide, BMI and cyanate ester |
| Defense & hypersonic | Continuous service past where thermoplastic gives out; ablative and hot-structure duty | Polyimide; alumina-silicate and quartz reinforcement |
Work has shipped into all nine. References are available under NDA where a program allows it. If your requirement sits between two rows, or outside them, the middle column is the part worth sending us — the governing constraint, not the industry label.
Process selection support
Most enquiries arrive before the process is settled, which is the right time to involve us. Send a model or a sketch with the load cases, service temperature and approximate annual volume, and we will advise which process fits — including where that process is one we do not run.