Composites Market Outlook
Your must-have composites industry guide for 2025
Welcome to CW’s annual SourceBook, your guide to suppliers of machinery, materials, software and other services for the composites industry.
Scott Francis
Editor-In-Chief, Gardner Business Media
Composites end markets: Electronics (2024)
Increasingly, prototype and production-ready smart devices featuring thermoplastic composite cases and other components provide lightweight, optimized sustainable alternatives to metal.
Read MoreComposites end markets: Industrial (2024)
The use of composites in industrial applications is increasing, driven by the need for higher performance and longer life, whether its parts for industrial machinery, EOAT components, corrosion-resistant equipment and more.
Read MoreComposites end markets: Infrastructure and construction (2024)
Composites are increasingly used in applications like building facades, bridges, utility poles, wastewater treatment pipes, repair solutions and more.
Read MoreComposites end markets: Energy (2024)
Composites are used widely in oil/gas, wind and other renewable energy applications. Despite market challenges, growth potential and innovation for composites continue.
Read MoreComposites end markets: Sports and recreation (2024)
Light weight and high performance continue to make composites popular in the elite sporting good market. Sustainability in both materials and recycling solutions are a key innovation area.
Read MoreComposites end markets: Aerospace (2023)
With COVID in the past and passengers flying again, commercial aircraft production is ramping up. The aerocomposites supply chain is busy developing new M&P for an approaching next-generation aircraft program.
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Composites end markets: Automotive (2024)
Recent trends in automotive composites include new materials and developments for battery electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell technologies, and recycled and bio-based materials.
Hannah Mason
Technical Editor, CompositesWorld
Materials & Processes: Tooling for composites
Composite parts are formed in molds, also known as tools. Tools can be made from virtually any material. The material type, shape and complexity depend upon the part and length of production run. Here's a short summary of the issues involved in electing and making tools.
Read MoreMaterials & Processes: Fibers for composites
The structural properties of composite materials are derived primarily from the fiber reinforcement. Fiber types, their manufacture, their uses and the end-market applications in which they find most use are described.
Read MoreMaterials & Processes: Composites fibers and resins
Compared to legacy materials like steel, aluminum, iron and titanium, composites are still coming of age, and only just now are being better understood by design and manufacturing engineers. However, composites’ physical properties — combined with unbeatable light weight — make them undeniably attractive.
Read MoreMaterials & Processes: Resin matrices for composites
The matrix binds the fiber reinforcement, gives the composite component its shape and determines its surface quality. A composite matrix may be a polymer, ceramic, metal or carbon. Here’s a guide to selection.
Read MoreMaterials & Processes: Fabrication methods
There are numerous methods for fabricating composite components. Selection of a method for a particular part, therefore, will depend on the materials, the part design and end-use or application. Here's a guide to selection.
Read MoreComposites end markets: Industrial (2022)
Composites often must meet a certain aesthetic in applications where the consumer is the end user. But fiber-reinforced materials are just as valuable in industrial applications where corrosion resistance, high strength and durability are the performance key.
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Composites end markets: Batteries and fuel cells (2024)
As the number of battery and fuel cell electric vehicles (EVs) grows, so do the opportunities for composites in battery enclosures and components for fuel cells.
Ginger Gardiner
Senior Technical Editor, CompositesWorld
Materials & Processes: Composites for repair
Composites offer cost-effective means to repair, protect and/or strengthen structures made of steel, concrete or other materials.
Read MoreMaterials & Processes: Composites part design
Designers of composite parts can choose from a huge variety of fiber reinforcements and resin systems. That makes knowledge of how those materials work together a critically important aspect of part development. Here's a short description of what that knowledge entails.
Read MoreMaterials & Processes: Fiber formats for composites
Fibers used to reinforce composites are supplied directly by fiber manufacturers and indirectly by converters in a number of different forms, which vary depending on the application. Here's a guide to what's available.
Read MoreMaterials & Processes: Introduction
High strength at low weight remain the winning combination that propels composite materials into new arenas, but other properties are equally important. This article outlines the case for composites and introduces SourceBook's overview of the materials and processes used to make them.
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Composites end markets: Pressure vessels (2024)
The market for pressure vessels used to store zero-emission fuels is rapidly growing, with ongoing developments and commercialization of Type 3, 4 and 5 tanks.
Ginger Gardiner
Senior Technical Editor, CompositesWorld
