Development – Prototyping – Series Production
Highest Quality CFRP/GFRP Production on our Filament Winding Machines
CIKONI provides end-to-end expertise in CFRP winding – from designing high-performance components with an experienced in-house engineering team to implementing advanced automation for demanding filament winding applications. With our dedicated special-purpose machinery department, even highly customized and demanding processes can be seamlessly integrated into the production line.
Our track record spans from manufacturing simple carbon tubes to 700-bar hydrogen pressure vessels, supporting clients across a wide range of industries with application-specific solutions. CIKONI stands for agility, efficiency and uncompromising quality – particularly in safety-critical sectors such as aerospace, energy systems and hydrogen technology.
Our services in Carbon Filament Winding
Frequently asked questions about CFRP filament winding
Filament winding is a highly reliable, repeatable and cost-efficient manufacturing process. An impregnated continuous fiber – typically carbon fiber or glass fiber – is placed onto a rotating mandrel using automated or robot-guided winding machines, then cured to form a composite component.
While the technology was historically used mainly for pipelines and pressure vessels, modern innovations have expanded its capabilities significantly. Today, filament winding enables the production of complex 3D fiber architectures and the reinforcement of hybrid components with CFRP or GFRP, opening new opportunities for lightweight design across many industries.
The filament winding process is ideal for manufacturing lightweight composite structures, as it creates oriented, ripple-free and load-optimized fiber layers. For optimum performance of CFRP components, all process parameters – geometry, process settings, fiber spreading and fiber placement paths – must be precisely coordinated. CIKONI provides this application-specific process design.
The possibilities of wound structures go far beyond the classic solutions commonly known from pipelines or simple tubes. Modern winding technology is no longer limited to rotationally symmetric mandrels or continuous fiber materials. With advanced process know-how and custom tooling, innovative winding concepts can be realized – enabling composite parts with minimal material usage, maximum load capacity and significantly reduced waste.
Our strengths lie in consulting, process design and implementation of filament winding processes – including the development of hybrid, 3D-wound lightweight structures and the quality assurance of wound components.
With CIKONI, everything starts with a well-founded concept. From there, we develop customized solutions all the way to full realization – from winding machines to finished CFRP or GFRP components. One partner, countless possibilities.
Along the entire value chain, we develop tailored methods to ensure the highest quality in carbon and hybrid parts. Robotic technology enables free and highly accurate fiber placement, while optical measurement systems perform real-time monitoring of fiber paths to significantly reduce scrap rates. Our portfolio is complemented by the design and manufacturing of winding tools and end-to-end automation strategies for scalable and cost-efficient filament winding production.
CIKONI develops fully customized solutions, allowing the use of all common reinforcement fibers – including hybrid combinations. Typical materials include glass fibers, carbon fibers, aramid fibers and other high-performance rovings. For the matrix, we process all common thermoset resin systems; for thermoplastic matrices, we collaborate with specialized partners.
Our winding machines support both wet winding systems and tow-preg processing, ensuring maximum flexibility in CFRP and GFRP filament winding applications.
The secret of success in Filament Winding
Why is filament winding used?
The CFRP winding process offers major advantages, especially for rotating components. With precisely controlled fiber placement, highly loaded structures can be produced in which fiber orientation and load paths are perfectly aligned. The fiber volume fraction can be accurately adjusted, and the process achieves extremely low porosity, resulting in high-quality laminates. The outcome is components with exceptional stiffness, low weight and excellent vibration damping. Thermal expansion is also minimal – a decisive benefit for applications requiring high temperature stability and dimensional precision.
Customers also benefit from reduced mass inertia and improved dynamic behavior, which is particularly relevant for CFRP shafts, pressure vessels and rotating machinery components. CIKONI combines these technical benefits with deep engineering expertise and an in-house automation team capable of designing and implementing specialized winding solutions – from development to production-ready execution.
How does the production of FRP wound components work?
Production starts with structural design and analysis of the component. Geometry, load cases and installation conditions are evaluated to determine the optimal fiber orientation. Based on these requirements, the suitable material system is selected: depending on the application, either wet winding or pre-impregnated tow-pregs are used, combined with carefully chosen fiber and resin systems. In parallel, the winding tool is designed to match both the geometry and the process requirements.
Once the mandrel is manufactured, the winding machine is set up – including tensioning units, fiber guides and the programming of the winding paths. The G-code required for the process is generated directly from the component geometry and the defined winding parameters. During winding, the fibers are placed with high positional accuracy before curing takes place in an oven, autoclave or under UV exposure, depending on the resin system. Final post-processing may include trimming, drilling or further surface treatment, as well as integration of inserts or fittings.
CIKONI supports the entire workflow – engineering, automation and manufacturing – ensuring efficient and reliable CFRP and GFRP filament winding production from concept to finished component.
Our machine component portfolio for filament winding
In addition to complete system solutions, we also develop quality-defining components for high-end filament winding of composite parts tailored to our customers’ specific requirements.
Winding application heads
With advanced placement and winding strategies, our deposition and winding heads offer new levels of freedom and process control in the production of fiber-reinforced components.
Resin bath and impregnation systems
Our resin baths are globally unique thanks to their fully closed-loop quality control. This enables intelligent, data-driven automation solutions even for the most demanding industries such as aerospace and medical technology.
CFRP tensioning systems and creels
Our highly adaptive, fast-responding fiber guiding and tensioning systems ensure uniform resin impregnation and consistent consolidation of composite components. They are available as customized solutions with short delivery times.
CFRP Expertise On Demand.
We would be happy to discuss your CFRP winding challenges with you. Contact us today to receive your individual proposal.
