Solution that reinstates the direction-dependent properties of carbon fiber wins the Composite Engineering Challenge.

Growth Garage, the Business Incubator of the Mitsubishi Chemical Group Advanced Materials Division and Wevolver are thrilled to announce the results of the Composite Engineering Challenge. This global competition invited entrepreneurs and startups to showcase their products and projects utilizing fiber-reinforced composites.

“The Composite Engineering Challenge provides a platform for the most promising ideas and projects in the field of fiber-reinforced composites,” said Tim Vorage, Global Growth Manager at Growth Garage, Business Incubator of the MCG Advanced Materials Division. “We are thrilled to see the level of innovation and impact being made by the finalists, and look forward to seeing more in the future.”

The challenge received entries from engineers in over 20 different countries, demonstrating that carbon composites are an increasingly important tool in the future of sustainable product design and technology. 

Out of 45 entries, ten finalists were selected. 

Enabling the reuse of the carbon composite performance for structural performance parts. 

The overall challenge winner is Herone, a solution that reinstates the direction-dependent properties of carbon fiber and enables the reuse of its performance for structural performance parts. 

The process involves aligning the carbon fibers in axial direction, consolidating the fleece, using textile braiding for customized orientation and press molding for manufacturing.

Herone, addresses the problem that scrap from production and composite parts end up as waste or are thermally processed. Companies like carboNXT started to recover the valuable carbon fibers. The material can be reused as a fleece with random fiber orientation, though the performance of the carbon fibers cannot be fully recovered. The random fiber reinforcement leads to performance loss and a downcycling of the material, whereby it is primarily used for secondary structures.

The Herone solution is to reinstate the direction-dependent properties of the carbon fiber and enable the reuse of the material's performance for structural performance parts. They propose to take the fleece from Mitsubishi carbon fleece and align the recycled carbon fibers in an axial direction. They will then consolidate the fleece (carbon fiber + thermoplastic polymer fiber) into a thermoplastic tape and slit it, so that it becomes processable by textile technology. The next step is to use the Herone technology - a combination of automated textile pre-forming with efficient press molding – for manufacturing of thermoplastic composite profiles, to convert the tape into consolidated tailored performance parts. 

The handlebar product demonstration by Herone. Image credit Herone. 

The textile braiding process allows for customized orientation of the tapes, thus tailoring the mechanical properties of the resulting part. The press process allows the manufacturing of parts in minutes rather than hours, making the parts available for serial applications. The application demonstrator is a “tailored recycle performance bike handlebar.” The list of benefits of this technology is long and includes the enhanced possibility of creating more complex parts through increased formability. 

Compared to the original continuous fiber reinforcement, the resulting thermoplastic composite material becomes increasingly formable through the long fiber reinforcement. This opens new process routes and applications, as demonstrated by the handlebar product demonstrator of this application. 

Further, the recycling rather than downcycling of carbon fibers has a significant environmental impact by avoiding the need for using virgin material. 

Herone is awarded a $25,000 partnership with Growth Garage to help bring their product to market and scale production. 

Innovation award: Project Unlimited

The innovation award went to the most impactful, innovative idea. It was awarded to Project Unlimited, who will receive a partnership package with Growth Garage valued at $10,000. 

Project Unlimited is a multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers, human movement scientists, and physiotherapists who work together to create a lower leg prosthesis that allows children to do the sports and activities they like to do and is also suitable for daily life. So they can run, sit in the classroom, go to their football training, and sit in the car to swimming classes, all with the same prosthesis and with minimal discomfort.

Their goal is to create a prosthesis system that is completely focused on complying with the specific user's needs. They do this by creating a product (prosthesis) with a modular build-up, such that parts can be swapped according to the child's needs. This product is accompanied by a service that allows orthopedic technicians to identify the needs of the end user, and track these needs over time.

Project Unlimited aims to make prosthetics that meet all their user's needs. Image credit: Project Unlimited. 

Once changes in the needs are apparent, parts of the prosthetic are swapped such that it yields a better performance in the customers’ daily life. They want to achieve this goal by designing new prosthesis geometries, exploring and applying new ways of finding and monitoring the needs of children with a lower leg prosthetic and by experimenting with different composite materials that could yield better performance and comfort for the user. 

Wevovler community vote winner: CarboScreen

The community prize was awarded by a public vote. CarboScreen impressed the engineering community. CarboScreen develops and produces a sensor-based monitoring system with AI-based software. It links sensor data to process know-how to optimize production and increase fiber quality. This has the potential to double production speed and reducing downtime is possible, resulting in an increase in sales and enabling the use of CFs in mass markets. 

The Wevovler community vote winner received an honorable mention at the awards ceremony and introductions to the senior management of MCG and the Venture group of MCG. The winner will also be featured in a future article on Growth Garage and Wevolver.

Image credit: CarboScreen 

More about the challenge

The challenge was supported by MCG Advanced Materials Division, a leading global manufacturer of high-performance materials, and Growth Garage, the Business Incubator of the MCG Advanced Materials Division. 

The ten challenge finalists were:

• Autonomyo - a rehabilitation platform allowing users to train at home.

• Helmet retrofit - a device to reduce impact from falls

• Reese Solutions - providing bended polymer tubes reinforced with carbon fibers

• Herone - A solution that reinstates the direction-dependent properties of carbon fiber and enables the reuse of its performance for structural performance parts.

• Project Unlimited - a lower leg prosthetic that enables children to do sports and activities they love.

• Swiss Rig - a sustainable and lightweight device for content creators

• CompPair - a new type of resin that allows composite materials to repair themselves.

• CarboScreen - a sensor based system for production monitoring of carbon fibers

• Comet Skateboards - A sustainable and cost-competitive skateboard made of recycled carbon fiber and a sustainable resin system.

• Intermode -  a universal robotic platform

Learn more about their projects here.

About Mitsubishi Chemical Group Advanced Materials Division and Business Incubator Growth Garage

MCG Advanced Materials Division is a leading global manufacturer of high-performance materials in the form of semi-finished products and finished parts. The company has locations in 20 countries and more than 2,800 employees. Its specialty engineering thermoplastics and composites are superior in performance to metals and other materials and are used in a wide range of applications, primarily in the capital goods industry. The company is continuously developing new areas of applications in close cooperation with industry leaders in a wide variety of customer markets. 

Growth Garage is the Business Incubator of the MCG Advanced Materials Division. Our mission is to support and grow new ideas using our technologies and advanced engineering materials to help tackle some of today's biggest engineering challenges. We are offering the opportunity for engineers and innovators to pitch us their ideas and receive manufacturing support and services.