placement is a method for quickly and effectively creating these multi-material composites. For example, when a structural analysis is performed on a part, it might be discovered that the part only requires areas of localized stiffness. In this case, carbon fiber, with its properties of high stiffness, can be placed exactly at the areas and geometries of the part requiring high stiffness. It would be cost-inefficient to fill the entire part with highly stiff carbon fiber, especially when that stiffness is not required in certain locations. Therefore, to further reduce cost, the areas around the carbon fiber stiffened geometry that do not require high stiffness can be filled in with lower cost materials such as glass fiber or even hemp fibers. Tailored fiber placement allows these material transitions to seamlessly occur. Optimization three: Tunable fiber alignment and geometric tailor-ability Once of the largest benefits of using tailored fiber placement to optimize a design, is the ability to precisely control where each tow of carbon fiber is placed in a design. This allows the composites designer to further optimize the materials properties, reducing the need for additional material. For example, complex tow paths of carbon fiber can be embroidered to perfectly resist the applied loads. By aligning fibers to their principal stresses, additional mechanical support is provided without using additional material. Further optimizations can occur by selectively reinforcing holes and circular drill points. In traditional laminate design, these holes can serve as areas of crack propagation due to the orthogonal nature of the woven fabric used. Tailored fiber placement can be used to selectively reinforce around these holes with curvilinear patterns reducing the effective initial crack propagation locations. This can allow for a thinner material at the hole’s location, and even potentially the removal of metal reinforcing washers. Optimization four: Tunable localized thickness Another interesting optimization that can occur when using tailored fiber placement in carbon fiber composites utilizes tunable thickness of the process over a given area. In traditional laminate design, carbon fiber composites are presumed to have even thickness. However, tailored fiber placement does not have such a height restriction. In combination with well-designed molding and fixtures, carbon fiber preforms can create localized thickness in highly complicated and varied geometries. In classical beam theory, the moment of inertia for a rectangular beam can be calculated by: Where the height of the material (h) is shown to have cubic influence