Amidst an industry-wide race to accelerate high-rate, large-scale composite production, Darren Wells, senior technical fellow at the University of Sheffield AMRC, explains how the Composites at Speed and Scale (COMPASS) programme leverages horizontal innovation to meet rigorous aerospace requirements, acts as a national asset to solve data science challenge in robotics, and paves the way for a new global manufacturing standard.

For decades, the composites industry has defined itself by the hand-crafted masterpiece. We’ve spent years perfecting high-performance carbon fibre components where precision was everything and cost was a secondary concern. 

You see it everywhere: from aerospace pioneers like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350, to the high-stakes world of Formula 1. These programmes were incredible mould-breakers that proved what composite materials could do, but they were ultimately designed for a low-rate world.

When a production line is geared for small batches, the industry standard – using ‘tacky’ prepreg materials cured for eight hours inside a massive, energy-intensive autoclave – is a functional, albeit expensive, reality.

But the industry has reached a tipping point. 

The next frontier isn’t just higher performance, it’s higher volume. Whether we’re talking about single-aisle aircraft families like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, or next-generation wind turbine blades, the demand is shifting from about a dozen units a month to hundreds. You simply cannot scale an autoclave-based process to those numbers without an astronomical footprint in floor space and energy. 

We aren't looking for incremental gains anymore; we are focused on engineering a step change in how large-scale composite structures are manufactured, digitalised and de-risked. 

This challenge is the catalyst for the University of Sheffield AMRC’s Composites at Speed and Scale (COMPASS) programme.

Breaking the bottleneck of sticky composites

The primary technical hurdle in high-rate composites is the material itself. Historically, prepregs – fibres pre-impregnated with resin – have been the gold standard, but their inherent tack and protection interleaves are a nightmare for robotics. They gum up the end-effectors with resin and removal of the protective films is an industry problem yet to be fully solved with automation.

To address this, COMPASS is implementing resin transfer moulding (RTM) with dry fibre, a process that decouples the materials by first creating a dry preform and then injecting the resin to cure the part as a single component.

Utilising a stable, dry, bound textile enables the use of standard robotic systems for automated layup and material handling, which is the first domino to fall in achieving high-rate production.

This technique is borrowed from the automotive industry, where RTM is a well-established technology. However, for aerospace, the challenge is getting those same prepreg-level structural properties out of an end component that is significantly larger than an automotive structure. To move from prepreg to RTM at this scale, getting the chemistry right is the technical crux.

In RTM, the resin must be a low-viscosity liquid to flow through the fibre stack, but traditionally, this meant sacrificing the structural properties found in high-viscosity prepreg resins. 

We are developing alternative strategies to ensure the structural targets are met whilst maintaining the resin’s ability to infuse within a fast overall process cycle time.

Ultimately, COMPASS is here to prove that you can take the speed of automotive manufacturing and pair it with the high-performance requirements of a primary aircraft structure.

Precision, speed and scale 

In the automotive world, a chassis type component of about three metres by two metres is considered a large, complex component. However, COMPASS is targeting larger primary structures, such as aircraft wings, fins and turbine components, up to ten metres in length. 

While dry fibre is easier to handle because it isn't sticky, managing it at this size brings a new challenge: it’s floppy. The material is unstable, it stretches and moves before it is locked in for infusion. To counter this, we’ve implemented a system developed by Loop Technology that deploys advanced, flexible robotics designed to pick, shape and place material with absolute accuracy and repeatability – factors key to aerospace quality standards.

Drawing inspiration from the high-volume worlds of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and automotive, we’ve adopted ‘takt time’ as our strategic foundation. This means optimising and reducing the time between each individual process, as well as running processes in parallel, so the entire line moves at maximum efficiency.

By housing the entire value chain under one roof, from initial kit cutting and robotic layup to our ten metres by three metres RTM press, we can manage this rhythm in real-time. This end-to-end visibility provides a unique perspective; we can identify exactly how a minor change in the textile cutting upstream  impacts the final trim down the line.

Interactive manufacturing with sensor data

Operating a closed-mould process like RTM effectively means flying blind. Once the unit is shut, you cannot physically see what’s happening inside, making it impossible to monitor the resin flow or the onset of gelling.

To bridge this gap, a network of pressure, temperature and cure-monitoring sensors is integrated directly into the tools. This represents a fundamental shift from reactive to interactive manufacturing. 

Historically, data was harvested after a part was cured with analysis carried out to determine the process parameters for the next one. Now, through COMPASS, we build a digital picture in real-time, using that data to make critical process decisions during the cure. For example, if pressure tracers indicate an air gap, the system can adjust injection parameters on the fly to compensate.

This is underpinned by Factory+, the AMRC’s open-access digital framework. COMPASS will act as a national asset, capturing granular data sets that can help solve the ultimate challenge of data science in robotics. Through this framework, we have the unique ability to protect a partner’s specific IP while sharing the high-level ‘how-to’ of high-rate manufacturing with the wider industry.

Decarbonising the factory floor

With COMPASS, sustainability is a functional byproduct of better engineering. While aerospace efficiency usually focuses on the weight of the aircraft, we are proving that the manufacturing process itself can be a massive win for net zero.

The core of this shift is energy decarbonisation. Replacing an eight-hour autoclave cycle with a press cycle measured in minutes achieves a staggering reduction in power consumption per part. This time saving has a direct knock-on effect for the entire facility, making high-rate manufacturing fundamentally more sustainable.

Beyond the factory floor, the move to dry fibre revolutionises supply chain logistics. Traditional prepregs require massive, energy-hungry industrial freezers to stay viable, costing significant money and power just to keep the material cold. In contrast, dry fibre and RTM resins can be stored in a standard environment, drastically cutting both energy costs and the carbon footprint of the entire supply chain.

Furthermore, by de-risking the process and aiming for a right-first-time approach through digital precision, we can eliminate the scrap and waste traditionally associated with the trial-and-error phase of scaling up. 

It is these cumulative gains across time, energy and storage that represent a genuine step change from how large-scale composites have traditionally been manufactured.

Building the high-rate reality 

After 20 years in the industry, I can confidently say that COMPASS represents the most exciting shift I have witnessed to date. It marks the definitive end of the 'bespoke workshop' era. For too long, the industry standard has been to solve production bottlenecks by simply throwing more people and more floor space at the problem. We have reached the limit of that approach.

What excites me personally about COMPASS is that we are proving a whole process, not just isolated snapshots. Ordinarily, a partner might come to us to look at automation or RTM as a standalone challenge. COMPASS gives us the unique ability to say: "Give us the fabric and the resin, and we will show you the entire integrated journey." 

While our current focus is on primary aerostructures, this technology is entirely sector-agnostic. Any industry requiring large-scale, high-rate composites, whether it’s wind turbine blades, tidal energy or civil infrastructure, can use the COMPASS facility as a proven blueprint.

We are finally moving toward a future where composite manufacturing looks less like a series of manual workshops and more like a high-tech, synchronised production line. We are proving that you can have the lightweight, high-performance benefits of advanced materials at the speeds required by the modern industrial world. 

We aren’t just making parts; we are paving the way for a new global manufacturing standard.