INTERVIEW: Will Perseus Materials’ Bet on Self-propagating Chemistry be “world’s fastest” Composite Manufacturing Technology?

• A Stanford-spinout startup is developing a continuous composite manufacturing process it says can produce structural parts larger than the machine making them, using a self-propagating chemical reaction to eliminate the need for ovens, autoclaves or conventional molds. The chemistry originated at the California university, where researchers were working on a chemically recyclable resin for composite […]

A Stanford-spinout startup is developing a continuous composite manufacturing process it says can produce structural parts larger than the machine making them, using a self-propagating chemical reaction to eliminate the need for ovens, autoclaves or conventional molds. The chemistry originated at the California university, where researchers were working on a chemically recyclable resin for composite applications. Wind blades were the initial target, given the apparent overlap between recyclability requirements and structural performance. That thesis did not survive contact with the sector’s economics. What emerged was that the resin’s exothermic behaviour could be exploited in ways conventional composite manufacturers spend considerable effort avoiding. Standard practice in composite proc