Latest / The Manufacturing Podcast with Fexingo: Factories, Supply Chains, and Industrial Business / How Robotic Tape Laying Makes Carbon Fiber Wings
Transcript
- Lucas: You know those big carbon fiber wings you see on new jets like the 787 or the A350? The way those parts are made isn't that old — and it's still surprisingly manual. But one factory in Washington state is changing that with robots that lay carbon fiber tape faster than a human ever could. Luna: When you say 'tape', you mean like sticky tape made of carbon fiber? That's the actual raw material? Lucas: Exactly. It's a roll of pre-impregnated carbon fiber — 'prepreg' — about three inches wide, with resin already in it. The robot arm holds a head that lays that tape onto a mold, following a path that's been programmed to match the exact contour of a wing skin. Layer by layer, the part builds up. Then it goes into an autoclave — basically a giant pressure cooker — to cure the resin into a solid structure. Luna: So this is automated fiber placement, or AFP, right? I've read that it's been around since the 90s but never really took off outside aerospace. Lucas: That's the term. And you're right — AFP has been used for decades, but mostly for small, complex parts like fuselage frames or engine nacelles. For big, flat-ish structures like wing skins, manufacturers traditionally used hand layup: workers would cut sheets of prepreg and place them by hand on the mold. It's slow, labor-intensive, and error-prone. One wrinkle in the layup can mean a million-dollar part gets scrapped. Luna: So the robotics play here is about speed and precision. But also cost? Because I imagine the robots aren't cheap either. Lucas: Right. A single AFP robot head can cost half a million dollars or more. But the factory in Washington — it's run by a company called Electroimpact, which actually builds these AFP machines for other manufacturers — they've been refining the process for years. Their latest machines lay tape at rates of over 200 pounds per hour. That's roughly ten times faster than manual layup for a wing skin. Luna: Two hundred pounds per hour of carbon fiber — that's a lot of material moving fast. And I bet the scrap rate goes way down too. Lucas: Dramatically. Manual layup can have scrap rates as high as 10 to 15 percent — wasted material from poorly aligned cuts, offcuts, handling damage. With AFP, because the tape is laid continuously and precisely, scrap can be under 2 percent. For a wing skin that costs tens of thousands of dollars in raw material alone, that's huge. Luna: And this is a structural part, so quality certification is key. How do they guarantee every layer is perfect? Lucas: They use in-process inspection. The AFP head has sensors — laser profilometers, thermal cameras — that check each layer as it's laid. If there's a gap or a wrinkle, the system flags it immediately. Sometimes the robot can correct it on the fly by adjusting the course. Other times, the ply gets marked for manual repair later. But that kind of real-time quality control is impossible with hand layup. Luna: I'm curious about the business case. Who is buying these AFP machines? Is it just Airbus and Boeing, or are smaller suppliers getting in? Lucas: For a long time it was just the primes. But in the last five years, we've seen tier-one suppliers like Spirit AeroSystems and GKN Aerospace invest in AFP for their own factories. And there's a growing market for AFP retrofit kits — you can even buy a used AFP machine for around a hundred thousand dollars if you know where to look. The technology is becoming more accessible. Luna: So smaller manufacturers, perhaps in automotive or marine, are starting to use AFP for carbon fiber parts like car chassis or sailboat masts. That could change the cost structure of composites across industries. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the angle that really excites me: carbon fiber has always been held back by manufacturing costs. If AFP can make it competitive with aluminum in high-volume production, we could see a shift in how cars, trains, even drones are built. The Washington factory is proof that the technology works. Now it's about scaling it. Luna: Before we go deeper, I want to say something about the show itself. Lucas, we've been doing this for years without any ads, and that's a choice we're proud of. If these conversations have given you a new idea or helped your work in some way, supporting that ad-free mission is easy: just a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Keeps the production going without any sponsors. Lucas: It's true — we love hearing from listeners who find value in the show. That direct support is what allows us to stay independent and dig into stories like this one. Truly appreciated. Luna: All right, back to AFP. Lucas, you mentioned scaling. What's the bottleneck — is it the robot technology or the supply chain for prepreg material? Lucas: It's both, but the bigger bottleneck right now is actually the material supply. Prepreg requires careful storage and a limited shelf life — it has to be kept frozen. And the number of qualified prepreg suppliers is small. But as AFP drives up demand, we're seeing new entrants. One UK startup is even developing a 'dry fiber' technology that uses powder binder instead of resin, so the layup doesn't need freezing. That could be a game-changer. Luna: And the robot side — are we seeing collaborative robots, or do these machines still need safety cages? Lucas: For now, most AFP cells are fenced off because the robot is moving fast with a heavy end effector. But some companies are developing smaller, collaborative AFP arms that could work alongside humans for tasks like localized reinforcement. So it's not just about speed, it's about flexibility. Luna: Interesting. One concern I have is about job displacement. If these robots replace hand layup workers, what happens to those skills? Lucas: That's a real question. But in practice, many of those workers are retrained to operate or maintain the AFP machines. The hands-on knowledge of composites is still valuable — they know where defects commonly occur. The shift is from manual dexterity to technical oversight. And the wages tend to be higher. It's not a perfect transition, but it's less dire than some zero-sum narratives suggest. Luna: I also want to touch on energy consumption. Curing carbon fiber in an autoclave is energy-intensive. Are there alternatives? Lucas: Yes, out-of-autoclave curing is a hot area. Some AFP systems use in-situ consolidation — the robot applies heat and pressure during layup so the part cures layer by layer. That eliminates the autoclave step entirely. The Washington factory has been testing that for non-structural parts, and the energy savings are significant: up to 80 percent less energy compared to autoclave curing. Luna: Wow. So the same robot that lays the tape also cures it. That's a whole different process. Lucas: Exactly. It's called 'automated fiber placement with in-situ consolidation.' The key challenge is getting the temperature and pressure exactly right across the entire part. But the progress is real. I visited a lab in Seattle last year where they were producing small test panels in a single pass, with mechanical properties comparable to autoclave-cured parts. Luna: And what about repair? If a wing made with AFP gets damaged in service, can it be fixed the same way? Lucas: That's an area where manual work still dominates. But there are portable AFP heads being developed for in-field repairs. They can be mounted on a frame over the damaged area and lay up a patch autonomously. It's early days, but it could cut repair time from days to hours. Luna: So we're looking at a future where carbon fiber parts are not just made by robots, but also inspected, repaired, and even recycled by them. That's a whole ecosystem. Lucas: And that ecosystem is starting to form. The Washington factory is just one node. There are similar initiatives in Germany, Japan, and China. As the cost of AFP drops and the technology matures, we might see carbon fiber become as common as aluminum in manufacturing. That's the direction we're heading. Luna: Great episode, Lucas. For anyone wanting to see what an AFP robot in action looks like, I'll link to a public demo from Electroimpact in the show notes. Lucas: And as always, if you want to support our ad-free show, a small contribution at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo goes a long way. Thanks for listening.