Future Composites Exchange Technical Program

Wednesday, March 25, 2026
CGEC Auditorium (Room 215) and CGEC Atrium (directly outside the auditorium)

Smart Lamination

Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) and Automated Tape Laying (ATL) have progressed from enabling technologies for low-rate, high-performance aerospace programs to foundational production tools for next-generation defense platforms and high-rate commercial aircraft. As the aerospace industry faces increasing pressure to improve affordability, quality, and production rate at the same time, composite manufacturing must evolve from operator-dependent, experience-driven workflows into repeatable, data-driven production systems where quality is built in and not inspected after the fact.

This presentation highlights the emerging shift toward “smart lamination,” in which in-process inspection is directly integrated with AFP and ATL machine performance. Recent advances in laser-based surface inspection and 3D digital representations enable real-time detection of gaps, overlaps, tow defects, steering anomalies, and foreign object debris during layup. The session will explore current capabilities and the art of the possible in connecting lamination quality directly to both part performance and machine behavior.

 

From Concept to Component: Accelerating South Carolina’s Composites Innovation Engine

South Carolina’s innovation ecosystem is strongest when it connects industry pull—real problems and market constraints—with research push—capabilities, facilities, and talent—through neutral applied R&D that de-risks adoption and speeds commercialization. This talk explores how South Carolina is building a repeatable pathway to move advanced composites ideas from early concept to qualified, scalable components. It maps the state’s innovation ecosystem across industry, academia, and public-sector enablers, highlighting how applied R&D translation reduces the friction that often stalls collaborations at the proof-of-concept stage.

A case story illustrates this “concept to component” engine in action: a manufacturer’s interest in South Carolina—anchored by the Clemson Composites Center—combined with Fraunhofer applied R&D and the SC Fraunhofer USA Alliance to make a differentiating composites innovation economically viable.

 

Applied AI in Smart Manufacturing Systems: Today & Tomorrow

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is THE topic of the hour - praised to solve the most pressing problems of humankind while at the same time damned as the end of civilization as we know it. In manufacturing, every company today has been told by service providers, vendors, and the media that they need to invest in AI and other Smart Manufacturing technologies or face certain failure. At the same time, there is a lack of understanding of how Applied AI and other Smart Manufacturing technologies impact the business models and value creation in a manufacturing and digital supply network context. This seminar highlights recent measurable improvements of AI applications in manufacturing and provides a glimpse at what the future holds. Specifically, we will take a look at a recently completed collaborative project that achieved a 37% reduction in energy and 41% in processing time and an ongoing effort combining federated learning and blockchain technology in manufacturing networks. Following, we will be venturing out a bit by exploring more visionary ‘tomorrow’s’ opportunities of advanced and smart manufacturing technologies. The seminar content is based on projects funded by CESMII, NSF, DoD, NIST, and the EPA, and partially based on the presenter's book 'Digital Supply Networks' by McGraw-Hill that won the IISE Book of the Year 2021 award - www.digitalsupplynetwork.com

 

Multifunctional Performance of BNNT Hybrid Composites in Space and High-Heat-Flux Environments

Materials operating in extreme space and aerospace environments must withstand coupled effects of thermal cycling, radiation, atomic oxygen, high vacuum, and intense aero-thermal loading without loss of structural integrity or functionality. In this work, hybrid composite systems incorporating boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) reinforcement were evaluated using a combined spaceflight and ground-based testing framework. As part of the Materials on the International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-20), BNNT hybrid laminates were exposed for six months on the ISS in multiple flight orientations, capturing environmentally driven degradation under realistic spaceflight conditions. Post-flight characterization assessed surface stability, microstructural evolution, and retention of laminate integrity relative to unexposed regions and ground controls. Complementary HotJet testing was conducted to simulate high heat-flux and convective aero-thermal environments relevant to high-speed flight and re-entry. Together, the MISSE and HotJet results enable direct comparison of degradation mechanisms across disparate extreme environments, providing critical insight into the durability and multifunctional potential of BNNT-reinforced hybrid composites for future space and aerospace systems.

 

Making Small Composite Parts Affordable

Composite parts trade very well against metallics for large, stiffened-skin parts with processes such as automated fiber placement and tape layup. However, on a typical tactical military aircraft, about 80% of the parts that make up the entire airframe structure weigh less than 20 pounds. Most of these parts are made from metals because composites typically do not do well in the trade studies for parts less than 20 lbs or with surface areas less than 20 square feet. This is driven by poor automation techniques and low throughput.

From a processing standpoint three areas need to be addressed: preforming; consolidation/cure; and tool turnaround. Automation of the preforming process for small parts is difficult. It requires new strategies to maximize throughput without huge capital equipment expenditures that scale with volume while maintaining the quality demanded for aerospace/defense applications. Consolidation and curing processes offer significant opportunity to utilize in-situ process monitoring and computational tools to minimize cost and cycle time. Finally, the ability to turn around or change out tools is necessary to support the business case for this class of parts. Press-based processing of thermoplastic and thermoset composites proves to be ideal in addressing all these areas of concern.

 

From Concept to Cure: Streamlining Composites with the Digital Thread

Across the engineering landscape, domains are typically siloed, bridged by ineffective data communication methods. The composites industry is no different, constricted by incomplete data handoffs, lost requirements, and cyclical workflows. With the higher cost of materials, care should be taken to optimize every other aspect of the engineering process to reduce wasted time and money. To streamline the engineering cycle for composites, from conception, through design and analysis, to production, Digital Threads, realized within the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, are deployed to tame the complex workflows. By interconnecting the data with a Product Lifecycle Management backbone, connectivity is ensured, driving true digital transformation. Requirements are associated with designs for continuous verification, while analysts and manufacturing engineers are kept informed to accelerate productivity. With the full digital backbone, true Digital Twins can be realized, enabling real-time tracking of product and production performance for unparalleled operational excellence. Through the construction and deployment of these Digital Twins, autonomous features will be introduced, which will reveal optimizations previously overlooked and enable greater manufacturing flexibility.

 

KraussMaffei Composites Technology: Old Dog…New Tricks! How Pioneering Plastics Changes but Stays the Same

In this discussion we will explore how some old composite technologies have been reintroduced with new capabilities and how we have combined technologies to reduce cycle time and consolidation of parts. We will also review what technologies we are seeing growth in and what KM sees on the horizon.