Ready for the future – it is with this motto that Lindauer DORNIER GmbH presented itself for the first time at this year’s JEC Europe in Paris held during March 11-13. Under the new logo, “DORNIER Composite Systems”, the Bavarian-Swabian mechanical engineering company combines the core competencies from both business branches – weaving machines and systems construction – established worldwide.
The family enterprise from Lake Constance, headquartered in Lindau, DORNIER, with about 1,000 employees, no longer produces aircraft parts but is now a world technology leader in weaving systems for technical textiles as well as large production plants for biaxial stretched thermoplastic films. The company invests about eight per cent of its turnover every year in R&D activities.
About 40 years ago, DORNIER was involved in the market launch of two major aviation and aerospace projects, the Dornier/Dassault “Alpha Jet” and the Dornier “AEROS” satellite program. The first weaving machines were delivered at that time to the emerging carbon fiber composite material industry. Since then, and especially in the last five years, a steadily increasing number of companies have entered this expanding market. Today, the main driving force is new applications for carbon fibers (CF) in the areas of aviation and aerospace, automobiles and wind energy.
Innovations in the textile sector as well as in plastic process engineering form the foundation for both areas and are combined in the DORNIER Composite Systems. The company wants to utilize the evolving strengths and synergies to shape this innovative market together with its partners.
Integrating this technology in a wide variety of applications has opened up new options in surface structures combining improved functionality at the same time, e.g., for lightweight construction, in the transport and construction industries or in general protection functions.
Closed or straight fabric structures are now being increasingly supplemented by new, grid-type multiaxial woven structures and 3D Jacquard fabrics that can be manufactured using the DORNIER technology. The weaving process itself, as the first industrialized way of “digital” manufacturing, enables interesting perspectives in terms of reproducibility and process stability for large-scale series production.
A complete system from DORNIER thoroughly reflects solid, longstanding mechanical engineering experience and weaving technology competence. This know-how creates an added value for its customers with regard to coating, further processing and manufacturing semi-finished products.
DORNIER Composite Systems allow manufacturing high quality final products where all levels of the production process synchronize with the highest precision. Comprehensive performance and solution offers provide the basis for stable production processes and new products.