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Why high-rate manufacturing of thermoplastics?
Our Chief Revenue Officer, Vele Samak, joined the JEC TV guest panel to tackle this question alongside industry leaders Arnt Offringa, Director Global Technology Center at GKN Aerospace, and Seb Greber, Association Technical Fellow at Syensqo.
A sincere thank you to Jeff Sloan for moderating a focused and forward-looking conversation.
From Mikrosam’s perspective, one message stood out clearly: as aerospace moves toward next-generation platforms, the shift is not only about materials – it’s about scale and rate. “Large” structures are becoming the norm. “High-rate” production is no longer aspirational. It’s essential.
We’re seeing strong maturity in technologies such as Automated Fiber Placement (AFP), particularly in in-situ and near-in-situ consolidation. The real challenge and opportunity lies in scaling these processes across complex geometries while maintaining consistency, quality, and throughput.
At Mikrosam, we remain focused on enabling this transition through advanced automation, from tape production and placement to fully integrated, software-driven manufacturing systems. The path to 2030 is becoming clearer: scalable, high-rate thermoplastic manufacturing will play a defining role in the next generation of aerospace structures.
