Eurecat wins the JEC World Innovation Award with its CFIP advanced manufacturing technology

CFIP technology, developed and patented by the Eurecat technology center, has won the JEC World Innovation Award in the additive manufacturing category, in recognition of its innovation, as it allows 3D-printed parts to be reinforced with continuous carbon fibers, multiplying their strength and reducing their weight.

According to Marc Crescenti, the person responsible for developing this new method and head of Eurecat’s Advanced Simulation line, CFIP technology, which stands for Continuous Fiber Injection Process, “is a new post-processing system based on injecting continuous reinforcing fibers, such as carbon fibers, into parts manufactured by 3D printing or other technologies.”

According to Crescenti, “the fact that the part is reinforced through a post-process and not during the manufacturing process itself, as other technologies on the market do, offers truly disruptive advantages.”

Among these advantages, the reinforcing fibers can be positioned in all directions and follow complex, pre-designed trajectories with complete freedom, which “makes it possible to align them in the most efficient directions and further improve mechanical performance,” he adds.

It also has the ability to reinforce all types of materials, including plastics, metals, and ceramics, “which allows, for example, the manufacture of a titanium part reinforced with continuous carbon fibers,” explains Crescenti.

Furthermore, CFIP technology offers the possibility of integrally joining different parts with fiber continuity between them, providing very high-performance joints. In this way, multi-material and multi-process structures can be obtained, selecting the most efficient material and process according to the requirements of each area of ​​the structure.

This technological solution has been applied in several case studies in fields such as aeronautics, automotive, and sports. This is the case, for example, of a brake pedal that Eurecat has developed by integrally joining parts made of different materials and processes.

The JEC World Innovation Awards are part of JEC Composites, the leading international trade fair for composite materials.

Market Reception

The innovation has also been recognized with the Best International Solution award for the best additive manufacturing technology, awarded by the World Conference of the International Association of Science Parks and Innovation Areas, and with the award for the best solution in new materials, awarded by the IN(3D)USTRY trade fair. The technology was also presented at the TCT conference, held as part of the Formnext trade fair.

You can see how the CFIP technology works here: https://eurecat.org/en/differential-technologies/cfip-carbon-fiber-injection-for-3d-printing/

For more information or interview requests, you can contact the Eurecat Press Office by emailing premsa@eurecat.org or calling 630 425 16