Composites business growth through diversification, innovation

Rock West Composites (RWC), a provider of advanced composites solutions headquartered in San Diego, California, has carved out a unique position in the industry through its commitment to diversification, continuous improvement and what it says is “a relentless focus on world-class standards.” RWC specializes in the design, engineering and production of composite materials and structures and serves a variety of industries, including aerospace and defense (radomes, unmanned systems and other structures), space, aircraft and commercial.

Founded in 2007 by executive vice president Keith Loss and CEO Jim Gormican, RWC has experienced remarkable growth, achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20% over the past decade. Gormican attributes the company’s success to a strategic approach that prioritizes stability and long-term sustainability over chasing the next big contract.

Both Loss and Gormican are industry veterans with decades of experience in composites work in the aerospace and defense sectors, including applications such as communications satellites and radomes.

“We’d both already had full careers. Before RWC, I’d sold another company, Composite Optics, to Alliant Techsystems in 2003, and I stayed with them for 5 years as CEO,” Gormican says. “Then in 2007 we started Rock West. My wife says I flunked retirement, but I love building things and building a company is the coolest thing you can build.”

RWC’s diversified portfolio spans four key market segments: space (~35%), aircraft (~25%), defense (~20%) and what Gormican calls commercial — comprising industrial, oil and gas, sporting goods and e-commerce (~20%). This balanced approach has helped the company weather industry fluctuations and maintain a steady growth trajectory, even during challenging times.

“We’ve always been focused on building a world-class company, not just maximizing short-term profits,” Gormican says. “That means diversifying our business, investing in our people and constantly striving to improve our processes and capabilities.”

Capabilities

RWC produces parts using a wide range of composite materials, including carbon fiber, glass fiber and Kevlar. The company offers multiple manufacturing processes such as filament winding, resin infusion, compression molding and prepreg layup. RWC also provides engineering and technical support for product development. This includes design optimization, material selection and prototyping services.

In recent years, RWC has significantly expanded its manufacturing capabilities across multiple locations that comprise 300,000 square feet in total. With locations in Salt Lake City, Utah; San Diego, California; and Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, each facility contributes unique capabilities to support RWC’s mission of delivering advanced composite solutions.

In 2021, RWC established a 107,000-square-foot San Diego facility that serves as the company’s headquarters and houses corporate offices, engineering and product development, as well as manufacturing operations. With 80,000 square feet dedicated to manufacturing, the site has room to regularly explore expanding capabilities as demand grows.

The facility specializes in prototyping and the production of large and complex composite parts (masters, molds and composite hardware) with high precision. Leveraging state-of-the-art equipment for drilling, trimming and contouring, it is equipped with multiple CNC machines. Other supporting equipment includes a laser ply placement projector, precision inspection CMM equipment such as a Romer articulated arm and Leica laser tracker from Hexagon (North Kingstown, R.I., U.S.), testing equipment, environmental chambers, a large spray booth and grinding stations.

San Diego’s second location is home to RWC’s Aircraft division, doing business as Performance Plastics. Only a few minutes from headquarters, this Nadcap-certified facility adds metallic manufacturing, machining, forming and bonding to RWC’s technical expertise. It has multiple autoclaves and equipment to support the components it produces for military and commercial aircraft. 

Meanwhile, RWC’s Salt Lake City facility, home to its e-commerce operations, houses multiple filament winding machines, including advanced multi-spindle and large-diameter winders. These machines can produce tubes up to 315 inches long and 30 inches in diameter, enabling RWC to serve industries requiring both small and large composite tubes. The site also features custom resin mixing and dispensing systems, which ensure precise resin ratios for consistent quality. Equipment for roll wrapping tubes and infusing plates, as well as a large machining center, precision inspection and testing equipment are also present at this location.

RWC’s facility in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico focuses on diverse composite manufacturing techniques, including resin infusion, bladder molding, roll wrapping, wet layup and precision assembly. This location includes a climate-controlled area for processes requiring strict environmental control, ensuring quality for sensitive applications. Located just 30 minutes from RWC’s San Diego headquarters, it supports the company’s North American operations with production flexibility and cost efficiencies. Altogether, these capabilities enable RWC to serve a broad range of industries with advanced composites, including customized solutions and scalable manufacturing options.

One aspect of RWC’s diverse approach is its e-commerce business. RWC has evolved from selling its own products to offering a full composites marketplace with products made by dozens of high-quality composites manufacturers. The company carries tubes, rods, plates, materials, connectors, resins, kits and more, in addition to offering fabrics and prepreg with no minimum order available by the linear yard.

“We think we have great capability to do what we need to do to help our customers be more competitive,” says Gormican. “We keep spending capital every year to keep supporting that. If there’s something that we don’t have, we tend to go get it — assuming the business case makes sense.”

The new space race

As RWC looks to the future, Gormican sees significant opportunities for continued growth, particularly in the rapidly evolving space sectorRock. RWC’s expertise in engineering, production and advanced materials has made it a trusted supplier for a wide range of spacecraft components, from launch vehicle structures to deployable booms and solar arrays, and thus a trusted partner for established players and a new wave of private space companies alike.

“The new space industry is a perfect fit for our capabilities,” Gormican says. “We’ve got the technical chops to handle complex, high-precision parts, and we also have the production mindset to deliver those parts at scale and at a competitive cost. That’s a sweet spot that a lot of our customers are looking for.”

He adds: “The new space industry is really just getting started, and we’re positioned to be a key player in that transformation. By applying our expertise in high-tech, production-oriented solutions, we can help our customers drive down costs and scale up their operations.”

Continuous improvement

RWC’s ability to rapidly adapt to changing requirements and deliver high-quality, cost-effective solutions has made it a valued partner for major aircraft OEMs and defense contractors. The company’s business in these sectors has seen significant growth, driven by increasing demand and a growing backlog of orders.

Gormican says that RWC’s success is driven by a relentless focus on continuous improvement. The company actively benchmarks its performance against industry leaders, using tools like the Top Shops benchmarking survey to identify areas for growth and optimization. This commitment to excellence is reflected in RWC’s culture, which emphasizes employee ownership, transparency and a collaborative, in-person work environment. The company’s low employee turnover rate, which Gormican says is well below industry averages, is a testament to its ability to attract and retain top talent.

“Not only are we excited we are on the Top Shops list, but we’ve also earned a space on the Top Workplaces list for the past several years in both San Diego and Salt Lake City,” Gormican adds. “We’re constantly challenging ourselves, learning from others and finding ways to raise the bar in everything we do —  from our manufacturing processes to our employee training and development. We’re not trying to be the biggest — we want to be the best.”