JEC premiere Engel masters fully automated production of drone rotor blades

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At JEC World 2026, Engel will show how drone rotor blades made from thermoplastic composites can be manufactured in series with reproducible quality and in a fully automated process.

Engel knows how to produce rotor blades for drones from thermoplastic composites economically. This will be one of the Austrian company’s main themes at JEC World from March 10 to 12. According to the company, the central element of the process is a structural sandwich design made of carbon-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic tapes (CFRP) and an injection-moulded short-fibre compound. The tapes form the load-bearing face layers of the rotor blade. They are precisely positioned in the mould and fixed in place by vacuum. This makes it possible to align the reinforcements exactly along the load paths. In other words, material is used only where it is required for structural performance.

The core component, made from a short-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic, is then injected between the previously positioned tapes and bonded materially to the outer layers to form a near-net-shape component structure. To make full use of the lightweight potential, the core component is physically foamed using Engel’s Mucell process. This reduces component weight while maintaining structural performance. The result is a particularly light yet highly resilient composite rotor blade that is ready for immediate use after final trimming.

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With the right partners toward a recyclable rotor blade innovation

As part of the “Neo Blade” project, one of the goals was to closely link aeroacoustic design, material and tool development, process automation, and sustainability assessment at an early stage and transfer them into an industrially viable overall solution, according to Engel. Project partners are Alpex Technologies, the Energy Institute at JKU Linz, FACC Operations, Plastic Innovation, and TU Wien’s Aircraft Systems Research Group.

Different thermoplastic systems were examined within the project. The range extended from high-temperature-resistant materials to cost-efficient alternatives. Compounds containing recycled carbon fibres were also used, the company stresses. Life-cycle analyses are said to have demonstrated a significant reduction in the CO₂ footprint compared with established thermoset processes and composites. One additional advantage is that thermoplastics are generally well suited for recycling because they can be remelted. Alongside sustainability aspects, economic efficiency was also a key focus. The main cost advantage of thermoplastic processes lies above all in their industrial scalability, for example through multi-cavity production, as well as in very short cycle times and a high degree of automation.

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An Engel JEC Award winner is also on display

In addition to the rotor blade, Engel is also presenting another exhibit in Paris that is based on thermoplastic sandwich injection moulding technology. The presentation features a high-voltage battery cover made of flame-retardant thermoplastic measuring 1.3 x 1.8 metres. The component was named a finalist in the JEC World Innovation Awards 2026 and underlines the scalability of the process, from rotor blades of around 30 centimetres to significantly larger structural components.

The battery cover combines low weight, high stiffness, and full recyclability. Functions such as spacers or fastening points can be integrated directly into the process..

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