composite-materials
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The $1 Million Lesson Hidden Under a Work Van Floor
LEGEND turned the ignored cargo bay into a business case - fewer broken mats, lighter EVs, harder-to-rob vans and a floor sturdy enough to build the rest of the upfit on.
AirGo Design
AirGo Design is a Singapore-based advanced-materials company that builds structural parts from short-fiber thermoplastic composite (SFTC), a proprietary technology it developed to replace metal in weight-critical applications. Its flagship is the world's first full-composite aircraft passenger seat, roughly 50% lighter than aluminum. The same materials and AI-driven engineering process now extend to EV battery enclosures, drone components, and food-grade parts, positioning AirGo as a lightweighting partner across aviation, e-mobility, and industrial manufacturing.
Maria Intscher-Owrang
Maria Intscher-Owrang is the co-founder and CEO of Simplifyber, a Raleigh-area materials startup that molds cellulose-based liquid directly into finished textile and composite parts, eliminating spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing. After more than two decades designing for Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Dirk Bikkembergs and Alexander McQueen, she left luxury fashion to rebuild manufacturing from the fiber up, landing partnerships with GANNI and Kia and a $12M Series A led by Suzano Ventures.
Impossible Objects, Inc.
Impossible Objects is a Northbrook, Illinois manufacturer of industrial 3D printers built around its proprietary CBAM (Composite-Based Additive Manufacturing) process. Instead of melting plastic filament, CBAM stacks long-fiber sheets of carbon fiber or fiberglass, inkjet-prints each layer with a fluid, bonds them with high-performance polymer powders like PEEK and nylon, then compresses and heats the stack into a solid composite part. The result is parts the company says are stronger, more dimensionally accurate, and printed up to 15x faster than competing methods - aimed at aerospace, defense, automotive, and electronics customers that need composite parts at production volume.