As part of a high-ranking delegation of German entrepreneurs and corporates in the aerospace sector, Cevotec took the opportunity in March 2019 to establish contacts with leading Chinese aviation companies.

The “Aviation in China” business trip was conducted by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy led by Thomas Jarzombek, the Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy, and Arndt Schoenemann, Vice President Equipment and Materials BDLI – Bundesverband der Deutschen Luft- und Raumfahrtindustrie e.V. First destination of the trip was Beijing where the 13 German manufacturers and service providers attended a series of high-level meetings and company visits, after an in-depth briefing about Sino-German economic relations by Christoph Schrempp, National Vice Chairman at Environment Working Group European Union Chamber of Commerce, and Jens Hildebrandt, Delegate and Chief Representative AHK Greater China. “Establishing contact on board level with Chinese aviation companies like the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and the Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) was impressing and insightful”, reports Thorsten Groene, CEO of Cevotec. “And the reception at the residence of the German Ambassador to China, Dr. Clemens von Goetze, certainly was an honor.”

Next stop in the week-long trip was Xi‘an, the capital of Shaanxi province, and the nearby China Aviation Industry Base, where Cevotec had the opportunity to present itself on stage of a Sino-German technical conference and conduct individual business meetings to discuss applications of Fiber Patch Placement technology for the rising Chinese aviation industry. The group also visited AVIC group companies located in the Industry Base, including a factory for the assembly of large aerostructure for current Airbus and Boeing programs. The final stop of the trip was Shanghai, where Cevotec engaged in discussions with the Shanghai Society for Aeronautics and – on much more practical terms – with representatives of COMAC, who are currently sourcing new composite technologies for their new wide-body aircraft CR929.

“The contacts established during this special business trip will play out very valuable for Cevotec in the future”, Groene is convinced. “As particularly the Xi‘an Aviation Base demonstrates, the aerospace sector in China is rapidly growing, and programs like the CR929 of COMAC underline China’s ambitions to produce composite-intensive aircrafts for an international market. A key concern and driver for automation technologies is quality. With their integrated, self-corrective process- and quality control, our SAMBA lay-up systems give manufacturers new options to achieve high-quality products independently of education or skill level of shopfloor workers and engineers. This is key to achieve a reliable production and outputs that allow certifications according to international certification standards.”

About Cevotec:

Cevotec enables manufacturers to build complex fiber composites in high volume and quality – by smart process automation based on Fiber Patch Placement technology. With SAMBA Series, Cevotec offers a customizable fiber lay-up automation platform for challenging 3D geometries and multi-material laminates with complex fiber orientation. ARTIST STUDIO is the associated CAE software for generating patch-based fiber laminates and automated robot programming. Along with development services that include FE-based modeling and simulation, Cevotec offers the entire process chain from digital design to final fiber product.