Innovation: Ultra-High-Rate Manufacturing of Thermoplastic Aircraft Tip Rib using Hybrid Overmolding
Award Category: Manufacturing: Material and Process Innovation, 2025 CAMX ACE finalist
Company: NIAR / WSU with Industry Partners (KraussMaffei Corporation, Joby, Toyota, Victrex, Prospect)
Objective: A complex thermoplastic rib structure, designed as the tip rib of an eVTOL V-tail, demonstrates the capabilities of fully automated hybrid thermoforming and injection overmolding.
Results: This advanced manufacturing approach reduced a traditionally 100-hour metal machining process to just two minutes.
Impact: By integrating two key polymer processing techniques, the innovation enables the production of high-performance, lightweight components with greater design flexibility and cost efficiency. The system delivers exceptional value across multiple dimensions:
Cycle Time Reduction: Traditional metal rib machining requires 80–100 hours. The hybrid system produces the complete part in under 5 minutes, improving throughput by orders of magnitude.
Cost Efficiency: The machining route results in ~80% waste from expensive aerospace-grade aluminum or titanium billets. This hybrid approach uses near-net shape manufacturing of continuous fiber LM-PAEK organosheets and inject PEEK into mold cavities, significantly reducing raw material cost and eliminating machining scrap.
Material System Efficiency: The rib is produced from high-performance LM-PAEK reinforced with AS4 fibers, offering a superior strength-to-weight ratio. Overmolded features made from CF-PEEK integrate ribs, bosses, and structural details that would otherwise require secondary fastening or bonding.
Process Automation: The fully robotic system minimizes operator intervention, enhancing quality, repeatability, and workforce safety. Automated transfer, consolidation, and forming processes reduce labor dependency and support scalability.
From the Expert: “A groundbreaking manufacturing system is redefining how structural aerospace components are designed and built, replacing decades-old subtractive machining norms with fully automated net-shape production. By leveraging rapid overmolding, the technology delivers more than a 100× increase in throughput at a fraction of traditional capital costs, promising faster delivery cycles and transformative economics for OEMs and tier suppliers.” ~Waruna Seneviratne, Director of ATLAS (Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems) at NIAR
