to seamlessly transfer from producing car parts in the morning shift to sporting equipment in the afternoon shift. Additionally, tailored fiber placement can allow the same machine to produce one prototype design at a time to investigate a process and troubleshoot it without wasting excess material, to creating a full production run simultaneously. This rapid prototyping to production capability, in combination with the ability for a machine to run many different types and geometries of parts in rapid succession, allows for more versatile projects to be run on the same machine. This reduces the cost of setting up a new machine each time a new design is generated. In conclusion, the six methods of optimization for carbon fiber composites briefly presented show some of the advantages of tailored fiber placement over traditional composite processes. It is hoped that the combination of these optimization methods, in conjunction with a trend of decreasing carbon fiber material costs, will allow a new class of ubiquitous and highly engineered materials to further improve consumer use cases like fuel efficiency. Applications for structural parts The TFP technology allows the fabrication of preforms tailored for specific composite components or reinforcements. Applications range from highly accelerated lightweight parts for industrial robots or blades for compressors up to CFRP aircraft parts, e.g. I-beam for the NH-90 helicopter, automotive structures and bicycle parts. TFP for self-heating tooling and components Using the carbon roving as an electric heating element offers the possibility to manufacture composite structures with embedded heating layers. Due to the high flexibility in the design of the heating pattern an overall nearly equal heat distribution can be achieved. In terms of applications this technology embedded in solid composite molds is very beneficial for resin consolidation and binder activation in out-of-autoclave processes. Composite molds show similar heat expansion properties as the manufactured composite parts. The lower thermal mass of composite tools compared to common metal molds help to shorten the manufacturing cycle of FRP parts and decrease the energy need for the production process. Further the TFP heating elements can be applied in CFRP wing structures of airplanes or blades of wind mills for anti- and de-icing tasks. The TFP structure embedded in elastomeric heating bags can applied to manufacturing or repairing processes of composite parts. References External links Tailored Fiber Placement at the IPF Dresden LayStitch Technologies - Automated Tailored Fiber Placement Machines and Solutions Composite material