JEC World 2025 unveils Innovation Award finalists

International composites trade show JEC World 2025, taking place March 4-6 in Paris, France, has announced the official lineup of finalists for the event’s Innovation Awards. Each year, the JEC Composites Innovation Awards celebrate successful projects and cooperation between players of the composites industry. These composites champions are awarded based on multiple criteria, such as demonstrating strong partner engagement across the value chain, technical complexity and significant commercial potential.

After pre-selection of the 33 finalists, one winner will be selected in each of the 11 categories listed below. JEC Innovation Award winners will be revealed at the JEC World 2025 Premiere on Jan. 13 in Paris, and live online. The event will also feature event highlights and announce the 20 startups selected for the Startup Booster competition.

The international jury representing the entire composites value chain includes:

• Prof. Christophe Binetruy, professor of mechanical engineering, Ecole Centrale Nantes – Nantes Université 
• Tamara Blanco, composite materials and processes engineer and expert, Airbus 
• Dale Brosius, executive VP/chief commercialization officer, IACMI – The Composite Institute 
• Cédric Dupas, senior expert – manuf. eng composites structures composite completion and TP welding manager, Daher
• Dr. Karl-Heinz Füller, manager future outside and materials, Mercedes-Benz 
• Dr. Sung Kyu Ha, professor, Hanyang University 
• Jen Hill, board member of Composites UK, director of B&M Longworth 
• Guy Larnac, technical domain coordinator for materials, structures and industrialization, Ariane Group 
• Prof. Véronique Michaud, head of the Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 
• Pof.. Kiyoshi Uzawa, director/professor, Innovative Composite Center, Kanazawa Institute of Technology 
• Müge Yenmex, CTO and region general manager, Composite EMEA, Kordsa 

**Editor’s note: Below are short excerpt summaries below for each finalist. For complete info, including key benefits of each technology innovation, please visit JEC’s linup page.

Ego X Aircraft composite seat leg

Bonny-Surewin Worldwide developed a one-shot manufacturing process for uninterrupted prepreg fiber structures that aim to replace current commercial aircraft passenger metal seat leg designs.

Companies: Bonny-Surewin Worldwide and partners FAerospace Industrial Development Corporation – AIDC (Taiwan); FGao-Shiang Advanced Material Technology Co., Ltd.. – Creat Future (Taiwan); and FMicrotex Composites S.r.l. (Italy)

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Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD)

A CleanSky2 funded consortium of 12 European organizations led by Airbus Operations GmbH investigated thermoplastic composites for commercial fuselage applications. The resulting full-scale demonstrator of a typical single aisle commercial aircraft fuselage section covers novel design and built concepts, elementary parts manufacture for automation as well as thermoplastic welding for sub- and major component assembly.

Companies: Airbus Operations GmbH, with partners Airbus Aerostructures GmbH (Germany); Aernnova Aerospace and affiliates (Spain); Diehl Aviation Laupheim GmbH (Germany); DLR – German Aerospace Center (Germany); Fidamc (Spain); Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V. (Germany); GKN Fokker Aerospace B.V. (Netherlands); NLR – Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (Netherlands); SAM XL (Netherlands); TU Delft (Netherlands); Saab AB (Sweden)

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Thermoplastic composite exit guide vane

Source | FACC Operations GmbH

Innovation demonstrates a design and manufacturing solution for an Exit guide vane (EGV) made of high-performance thermoplastic composites, focusing on significant weight reduction, automation and high-rate manufacturability, achieved through an advanced hybrid molding approach.

Companies: Competence Center Chase GmbH (Austria) and partners FACC Operations GmbH (Austria); Institute of Polymer Product Engineering (Austria); LIT Factory (Austria); Victrex Europa GmbH (Germany)

Aerospace – Process

FibreLine

FibreLine is a system for the high-rate manufacturing of composite structures. It provides end-to-end automation for preforming, reportedly significantly accelerating the production rate of carbon fiber and other composite components in the aerospace, defense and renewable energy industries.

Companies: Loop Technology (U.K.) with partners FANUC (U.K.); Zünd (U.K.); and the National Composites Centre (U.K.)

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Induction-welded thermoplastic torsion box

Innovation uses unidirectional (UD) fiber with an LMPAEK thermoplastic matrix to manufacture a horizontal tail plane (HTP) with no fixation on the aerodynamic surface. Then, partners tested mechanically that part to show the viability of this technology for torsion boxes application.

Companies: Daher (France) and partners Victrex (U.K.); IRT Jules Verne (France); Ensam Angers (France); and KVE (Netherlands)

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Innovative process for CFRTP fuselage skin panel

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI) and partners have developed a method called “local co-consolidation” for fabricating complex skin panels using thermoplastic composites. Resulting panels have high weight efficiency by using complex skin/stiffener thickness changes and high-stability hollow-type stiffeners. The out-of-autoclave (OOA) process reduces flow time and enables high-rate production.

Companies: Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. (Japan) and partners Jamco Corp. (Japan); Toray Industries Inc. (Japan); Suruga Engineering Inc. (Japan); Kawasaki Hydromechanics Corp. (Japan); and Sunwa Trading Corp. (Japan)

Lightweight thermoplastic convertible roof beam

 

Röchling Automotive leads a consortium, including Mercedes-Benz, Envalior and Valmet, to develop a thermoplastic roof beam for a premium convertible. This innovation, replacing traditional magnesium with composites, enhances lightweight performance and design flexibility.

Companies: Röchling Automotive SE (Germany) and partners Envalior Deutschland GmbH (Germany); and Mercedes-Benz AG (Germany)

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Sustainability optimized composite automotive (SOCA)

 

The SOCA project purpose is to decarbonize the manufacturing of composite component for automotive applications, focusing first on low-volume carbon fiber parts. The main challenges were to reduce the CO₂e footprint while maintaining the performance and light-weightiness.

Companies: JLR (U.K.) and partners Far-UK Ltd. (U.K.); CCP Gransden Ltd. (U.K.) and iCOMAT Ltd. (U.K.)

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Xencor HPPA LGF steering gearbox outboard housing

 

A thermoplastic outboard housing was developed by ZF for Volvo’s EX90 vehicle and manufactured using Xencor HPPA long glass fiber (LGF), achieving 40% weight reduction, enhanced corrosion resistance and durability.

Companies: Syensqo (Belgium) and partners ZF Automotive Germany GmbH (Germany); and Volvo Car Corp. (Sweden)

Thermoplastic composites with recycled PET matrix

 

A novel process to manufacture thermoplastic composite semi-pregs has been developed, offering high flexibility. It enables the use of recycled PET, which is mixed with long chopped fibers or continuous woven fabrics to yield materials with properties similar to those of prime organosheets or glass mat thermoplastics (GMT).

Companies: Forvia (France) and partners IRT Jules Verne (France); CMO (France); and IMT Nord Europe (France)

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Thermoplastic sandwich molding technology

 

Thermoplastic sandwich molding technology enables the fully automated production of 3D-molded components in a material-efficient, lightweight sandwich construction. The potential of this hybrid technology was demonstrated using a storage compartment cover from a truck driver’s cab.

Companies: Fraunhofer IMWS (Germay) and partners Daimler Truck AG (Germany); ElringKlinger AG (Germany); ThermHex Waben GmbH (Germany); edevis GmbH (Germany); and Engel Austria GmbH (Austria)

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UV pultrusion for manufacturing GFRP links

 

An energy-efficient, high-productivity selective curing UV pultrusion process has been developed for manufacturing corrosion-resistant glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) link rods. The rods are up to 40% lighter than steel counterparts and have been reshaped inline making them ideal for automobile applications.

Companies: German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (Germany) and partners IST Metz GmbH & Co. KG (Germany); Mubea Fahrwerksfedern GmbH (Germany); Steinhuder Werkzeug- u. Apparatebau Helmut Woelfl GmbH (Germany); Allnex Belgium SA/NV (Belgium); BYK-Chemie GmbH (Germany); and Johns Manville Slovakia a.s. (Slovakia)

Daccuss house wall

Source | TechnoCarbon Technologies GbR

Carbon fiber stone (CFS) is a material combining carbon-negative stones and bio-based fibers. It serves as an eco-friendly replacement for CO₂-intensive concrete in house walls. Each square meter of CFS wall captures 59 kilograms of CO₂, whereas traditional cement walls release 98 kilograms of CO₂.

Companies: TechnoCarbon Technologies GbR (Germany) and partners DITF (Germany); LSL GmbH (Germany); Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (Germany); AHP GmbH & Co. KG (Germany); Technical University Munich (Germany); University of Hamburg (Germany); Peer Technologies GmbH & Co. KG (Germany); Grein srl (Italy); Convoris Group GmbH (Germany); RecyCoal GmbH (Germany); ITA, Institut für Textiltechnik der RWTH Aachen University (Germany); and Lisd GmbH (Germany)

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Glass fiber composite coastal flood gate

Design of a GFRP composite flood gate complies with all regulations relevant to Dutch water defense structures. The gate’s strength and long design life have been certified. Additionally, it complies with watertightness tolerances, and ballast and hoisting devices for gate operations can be applied, opening up wider application of composites in water defense structures.

Companies: Infra Composites B.V. (Netherlands) and partners BAM (Netherlands); and Rijkswaterstaat (Netherlands)

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Paradis, 43-meter all-composite trusswork bridge

The Paradis bridge is claimed to be world’s longest truss bridge made in composites. It is a pedestrian and bicycling bridge that is 7 meters wide, and has a free span of 43 meters. A Vierendeel truss work is used as the main load-carrying system. It crosses over both a city train track and a public road.

Companies: FiReCo (Norway) and partners CSUB (Norway); Consto (Norway); Vestland Fylkeskommune (Norway); Royal HaskoningDHV (Netherlands); and Multiconsult (Norway)

A350 production scrap into MFFD rod

Source | herone GmbH

Production scrap from Airbus A350 clips is repurposed to create thermoplastic composite rods for the Multi-Functional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD), offering a circular and sustainable solution by leveraging the recyclability of high-performance thermoplastic composites.

Companies: herone GmbH (Germany) and partners Teijin Carbon Europe GmbH (Germany); Collins Aerospace (Netherlands); and Spiral RTC (Netherlands)

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Induction heating-based rCF reclaiming

Carbon fiber is sensitive to electromagnetic fields with a specific frequency range. This induction heating (IH)-based pyrolysis technology employs high-frequency magnetic fields, generating rapid, localized heating in carbon fibers to enable efficient polymer matrix incineration. This method more energy-efficient than traditional sources, supports continuous production and preserves the mechanical performance of rCF.

Companies: Ilsung Composites Corp. (South Korea) and partners Korea Textile Machinery Convergence Research Institute (South Korea); Institute of Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology (ITM), Technische Universität Dresden (Germany); Wagenfelder Spinnereien GmbH (Germany); Cramer&Co. GmbH (Germany); and Hyundai Motors Corp. (South Korea)

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The Vanguard – Durable skateboard made with T-RTM

 

Partners have created a fully recyclable skateboard using a lightweight polyamide particle foam core, dry glass fibers and recycled e-caprolactam. This results in a durable, high-performance and eco-friendly skateboard that reduces waste and outperforms traditional wooden boards.

Companies: Kape GmbH (Austria) with partners BASF SE (Germany); and KraussMaffei Group GmbH (Germany)

Polab Valdur thermoset composite lighting

 

A sustainable LED street lighting solution uses thermoset composites with patent-pending heat dissipation technology, offering high performance, durability and reduced environmental impact.

Companies: Professional Lighting Polab (Sweden) and partners Tekno Press AB (Sweden); Dajava Design (Sweden); Signify LED Electronics (Netherlands); and LumenRadio AB (Sweden)

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SoundPlank

 

The SoundPlank is a stylish hi-fi system leveraging composite materials for high-end audio quality. It features a hybrid CFRP-wood plate with a “sound spider” distributing sound through six arms. Suspended from a matching frame, the SoundPlank vibrates freely as a surface loudspeaker.

Companies: Composyst GmbH (Germany) and partner Mountain Photonics GmbH (Germany)

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Stylish and recyclable carbon fiber furniture

 

Cobra and its partners have coordinated the design, engineering, material selection and manufacturing of a range of innovative carbon fiber-based furniture products. The furniture uses recyclable epoxy resins, along with other production waste, and recycled raw materials.

Companies: Cobra International (Thailand) and partners Aditya Birla Chemicals Ltd. – Advanced Materials (Thailand); Burapha University (Thailand); Hankuk Carbon Co. Ltd. (South Korea); and Luxara Design Co. Ltd. (Thailand)

CrossTrack composites manufacturing software suite

CrossTrack reportedly solves problems in compoosite manufacturing that ERP can’t. It provides location, consumption and life tracking of prepreg and other life-based materials — from raw material through to kits. It can integrate with ERP, freezers, autoclaves and more, and provides a full traceability report.

Companies: Jetcam International s.a.r.l. (Monaco) and partners Bombardier Aerospace (Canada); and Airborne (Netherlands)

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DigiTwin: 3D imaging, analysis and digital twinning

Source | New Frontier Technologies

Partners have innovated a digital twin of as-manufactured composite components based on advanced computed tomography (CT) imaging and machine learning, which effectively maps fibers and defects from 3D images to create a detailed finite element mesh for high-fidelity performance simulation of composite components.

Companies: New Frontier Technologies (Australia), with partners CTLab – Australian National University (Australia); and Digital Composites Factory (Germany)

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Enhancing cured laminate compensation with AI

Source | Magestic Technologies

The cured laminate compensation (CLC) process, which uses Magestic’s TruPly Comp software, leverages AI to improve processes based on historical manufacturing data, cutting productions costs per serial part created. Thickness trends per zone are analyzed to bring parts within tolerance after the first cure cycle eliminating a costly secondary cure cycle for compensation plies.

Companies: Magestic Technologies (U.S.) with partner Lockheed Martin (U.S.)
 

Maritime Transportation & Shipbuilding

FIBRE4YARDS

FIBRE4YARDS has developed new composites production technologies to redefine shipbuilding by adopting a modular construction and automated processes such as additive manufacturing, reusable molds that can adopt double curvature shapes, curved pultruded profiles, stamped thermoplastics and new connection technologies to facilitate the assembly of all parts. In addition the project has developed new design tools and a production software based on IoT.

Companies: International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering – CIMNE (Spain) and companies Curve Works (Netherlands), Robtrusion (Spain), 10XL (Netherlands); Compass Ingeniería y Sistemas SA – CompassIS (Spain); Institut de Recherche Technologique Jules Verne (France); Inegi (Portugal); Técnicas y Servicios de Ingeniería SL (Spain); Bureau Veritas (France); Lodz University of Technology (Poland); L-UP Sas (France) and Zafiro Business Solutions Kft (Hungary)

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Foil infinite

Development of an infinite foil composed of three thermoplastic materials that each brings key feature properties to the specific functionalities of the different substructures composing the parts. The new process developed is 30% more sustainable, reaching 30 KgCO₂eq/Kg (15 KgCO₂eq/Kg less than Avel’s traditional hydrofoil technology). Materials and technologies used are easily transferable to aeronautical industry, placing the innovation as a pathfinder to recycle full composite structures.

Companies: Avel Robotics (France) and partners OpenSea Labs – MiniLab project (France); ComposiTIC (France); IRMA (France) and Victrex (U.K.)

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New certification approach for patch repair

StrengthBond Offshore is a Joint Industry Project which aimed to develop a methodology for assessing the strength of bonded repair. This methodology uses non-standard specimens for toughness tests, called “equivalent interface.” The design with multi-material substrates representing the interfaces of composite repairs on metals significantly reduces the number of tests needed for characterization. 

Companies: Bureau Veritas (France) with partners TotalEnergies S.E. (France); Petrobras (Brazil); Naval Group (France); Siemens (Belgium); Cold Pad (France); InfraCore Co. (Netherlands); and the Université Gustave Eiffel (France)

DTM wind blade tooling by 6-meter-wide 3D printing

A design for rapid direct-to-mold tooling is presented. The additively manufactured blade tooling comprises steelwork approximating the required shape, an insulating subfloor machined to the required shape, a thermoplastic print floor and a thin 3D printed layer, with integrated heating wires coextruded during 3D printing or installed beneath the floor.

Companies: University of Maine (U.S.) with partners Oak Ridge National Laboratory (U.S.); Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (U.S.); TPI Composites Inc. (U.S.); Ingersoll Machine Tools Inc. (U.S.); and Techmer PM (U.S.)

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rComposite for vertical wind blades

This innovation is a fully recyclable vertical wind turbine blade made from rComposite, Northern Light’s patented recyclable composite material, designed to drastically reduce waste and promote circularity in the wind energy industry. The blade uses a mix of glass, flax and recycled carbon fibers combined with thermoplastic resins. The blade is produced through vacuum infusion technology, ensuring optimal fiber-resin ratio and mechanical properties while maintaining recyclability at the end of its lifecycle. 

Companies: Northern Light Srl (Italy) with companies Windcity (Italy); Arkema (France); and Bcomp (Switzerland)

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ZEBRA – Zero wastE Blade ReseArch project

The ZEBRA project’s aim is to demonstrate the technical, economic and environmental relevance of thermoplastic wind turbine blades on a full-scale demonstrator, with an eco-design approach to enable a high recycling rate.
Two full-scale thermoplastic wind turbine blades (62.2 and 77.4 meters) have been manufactured by LM Wind Power with Arkema’s Elium resin and Owens Corning’s Ultrablade fabrics and tested using accredited methods. Recycling solutions have been developed, to generate recycled Elium monomer and to recover glass fiber at pilot scale.

Companies: IRT Jules Verne (France) and partners Arkema (France); Canoe (France); Engie (France); LM Wind Power (Denmark); Owens Corning (France); and Suez (France)

Cockpit handlebar

In collaboration with partners, Engel Austria has developed a cockpit handlebar for bicycles. This new handlebar is a tool-falling component, reinforced with short glass and continuous carbon fibers. It is manufactured as a hollow structure by injection molding, with a cycle time of less than one minute.

Source | Engel Austria GmbH

Companies: Engel Austria GmbH (Austria) and companies Domo Chemicals (Germany); Plastic Innovation (Austria); Simoldes (Portugal); Artefakt Design GmbH & Co. Kg (Germany); and Canyon (Germany)

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Honey roots technology

Honey-roots-technology (HRT) is a fiber-reinforced 3D structure that is superficially anchored in the core. The HRT laminate shows optimal mechanics while enabling an infusion process with significantly reduced waste. This technology was used to construct a recyclable surfboard. With a layup consisting of lyocell and cellulose, a core out of lignin and recycled content, the majority of the material composition has a wood origin. The resin system used is bio-based and recyclable.

Companies: The Gun Sails von Osterhausen GmbH (France) and companies RWTH Aachen University (Germany); Aditya Birla Chemicals – Advanced Materials (Germany); Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany); Norafin Industries GmbH (Germany); Evonik Operations GmbH (Germany); and Jackson Insulation GmbH (Germany)

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Revolin Sports helix pickleball paddle

Revolin Sports, in collaboration with EcoTechnilin and Helicoid Industries, has created the Helix pickleball paddle, intentionally designed with planet-friendly, natural, renewable biocomposite materials arranged in a customized Helicoid layup architecture to offer unmatched performance and durability. The paddle is made with a homogeneous thermoplastic material and is recyclable.

Companies: Revolin Sports Inc. (U.S.) with partners Helicoid Industries Inc. (U.S.); and EcoTechnilin (France)