CFAM · Large-scale Continuous-Fiber Additive Manufacturing for the Maritime and Infrastructure Sectors

Composite materials find innumerable applications and they are manufactured in most cases via the open-mold process. However, when the object to manufacture is large in size, complex in shape, and to be produced in a few units only (e.g., for prototyping purposes or small production batches) the open-mold process becomes very expensive because of the cost of the mold, so the production is moved to Asia to save at least on the labor costs. This introduces though long lead times (up to 8 weeks). This situation is common in the maritime and industry sectors, in which small batches of complex and large composite-made parts are used very often. These industries need a solution to manufacture locally (in order to reduce the lead time) and inexpensively custom-made parts.Our innovation addresses exactly this need. We offer the largest (1.5 m × 4 m × 2 m) Additive Manufacturing machine capable of producing carbon- and glass-fiber parts with a high throughput (up to 15 kg/h) and low costs (about 50 €/h, including material, personnel, and depreciation). Our Continuous-Fiber Additive Manufacturing (CFAM) machine exists as a TRL 6 prototype, which is a small-scale version of the final product but in which all critical technologies have been thoroughly tested. The main goal of this project is to take the CFAM machine to TRL 9, manufacture and test it, and finally bring it to the European market. We have already two launching customers (Dutch SMEs working in the maritime and industrial sectors) and we have planned business development activities Europe-wide that will guarantee to our company a turnover of over €17 million in 2022. During the project, we will also build an Experience Center in which our CFAM machine will be available for demonstrations and for 'manufacture as a service' purposes for clients that want to test it or use it for prototyping purposes.