The German company Voith Composites GmbH has recently been awarded the prize for most innovative manufacturing process by the JEC Group. They have been awarded this for a new process known as a “Voith Roving Applicator.” (VRA) The aim of this incredible new design is to create neat stacks that are not wet from manufacture and are created in a series of ingenious different steps. The manufactured product is first collected into a tape with a width of precisely 50 mm.

Then the binding substance is joined, made sure to be accurate by the VRA machine itself, and then positioned on a worktop table by the machine’s moveable grips. What it ultimately leads to is a compact shape that can be positioned anywhere depending on the necessity and desire of the user. It is clear that the many advantages of Voith’s product are its efficiency and its ability to reduce the amount of waste products from the materials that it stacks. In fact, hardly any amount of waste is ever produced by the new system supplied by VRA. Their achievement is equally that their product is able to complete all of the manufacturing processes in a limited amount of processes, resulting in an easy use for employees as well as a greater manufacturing speed.

Adaptation is perhaps the key advantage of the VRA machine, meaning that prospective users will be able to tailor its settings to whichever materials that they would seek to manufacture. The prize having been awarded to Voith Composites GmbH is a sure sign that they are one of the most successful advocators of sustainability and have been duly rewarded with this prize by the JEC prize. It is hoped that other similar CAD/CAM manufacturing firms will follow suit and encourage other businesses to consider the advantages of researching greater methods of invention and creation within the manufacturing industries.