From among 20 finalists, Cevotec won the SKF Award ‘Materials and Processes of the Future’ at the Industry of the Future Challenge in Vernon, France. Fiber Patch Placement – an additive fibre layup technology that enables automated production of complex fibre composites, convinced the jury of senior executives from SKF, Atos and ArianeGroup.

The 2019 edition of Industry of the Future Challenge was organised by ArianeGroup, one of the global leaders in space access, Atos, the international leader in digital transformation, and SKF, the global leader in bearings, in partnership with Techniques de l’Ingénieur magazine. The challenge was set up to promote industry 4.0 solutions that make tomorrow’s industrial production smarter, the materials used more sustainable, and thus increase the potential of tomorrow’s industrial facilities.

Cevotec worked closely with SKF and ArianeGroup to apply the Patch Placement technology to identified production challenges of the partners, said the company in a media statement.

Key application areas for Fiber Patch Placement are multi-material (sandwich) components, complex-geometry parts and tailored reinforcement patches. Time and cost savings for manufacturers, compared to as-is processes, typically range from 20-60 per cent. Cevotec is currently involved in several development programmes with aerospace composites manufacturers.

“Fibre composites offer great lightweight & functional potential but are increasingly difficult to process when part design or fibre architecture are complex. Today’s often manual processes limit industrial-scale composites application,” said Thorsten Groene, managing director of Cevotec. “Manufacturers urgently need smart automation solutions to improve cost efficiency, quality and yield of their composites production. We see that clearly also in the applications we’ve analysed with SKF and Ariane. Our production systems enable composite manufacturers to do exactly that: produce more with less, that is: save time and money.”

Cevotec enables manufacturers to build complex ?bre composites in high volume and quality – by smart process automation based on Fiber Patch Placement technology. With Samba Series, Cevotec offers a customisable ?bre lay-up automation platform for challenging 3D geometries and multi-material laminates with complex ?bre orientation. Artist Studio is the associated CAE software for generating patch-based ?bre laminates and automated robot programming. Along with development services that include FE-based modeling and simulation, Cevotec offers the entire process chain from digital design to ?nal ?ber product. (PC)