Fabheads: Automating the Carbon-Fibre Factory for India’s Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing Future

India is steadily building domestic capability in aircraft, drones, satellites, electric vehicles and advanced robotic systems. However, designing these platforms is only one part of the challenge. Manufacturing them at scale also requires advanced materials that can reduce weight without compromising strength. Fabheads Automation is working in this critical area by developing automated processes for carbon-fibre and advanced composite manufacturing.

Founded in 2015, Fabheads develops technologies for manufacturing lightweight composite structures used across aerospace, mobility, marine engineering, robotics and other high-technology sectors. Its capabilities include continuous-fibre 3D printing, automated fibre placement, rapid tooling, conventional composite processing, precision machining and quality inspection.

The company’s significance lies in the manufacturing layer that supports advanced engineering. India does not simply need companies capable of designing sophisticated platforms. It also needs domestic firms that can manufacture the lightweight structures from which those platforms are built.

From ISRO Engineers to Composite Manufacturing

Fabheads was co-founded by Dhinesh Kanagaraj and Abhijeet Rathore, both of whom had professional experience connected with the Indian Space Research Organisation. Dhinesh studied aerospace engineering at IIT Madras, while Abhijeet studied mechanical engineering at IIT Delhi.

Their exposure to aerospace engineering helped them understand the difficulties involved in manufacturing high-performance composite structures. Traditional composite production often requires skilled workers to manually cut, position and layer carbon-fibre material in carefully defined orientations. Small variations during this process can influence the structural performance of the finished component.

The founders saw an opportunity to automate parts of this manufacturing process and improve consistency. Fabheads consequently began developing machines, software and production methods capable of placing continuous fibres with greater precision.

Over time, the company expanded from developing specialised carbon-fibre printing technology into a broader advanced composite manufacturing platform.

Why Carbon Fibre Is Important

Carbon fibre has become one of the most valuable structural materials in aerospace and high-performance engineering because it offers excellent strength at relatively low weight. Individual carbon fibres are extremely thin and are usually grouped into bundles before being embedded within a resin matrix. The fibres provide structural strength, while the resin keeps them positioned and helps distribute loads across the component.

The resulting material is known as a carbon-fibre reinforced composite.

The advantages are particularly significant in aerospace. Reducing structural weight can allow an aircraft to carry more fuel, passengers, sensors or weapons without increasing total weight. For satellites, lower structural weight can reduce launch requirements or create room for additional payload. For drones, lightweight structures can improve endurance, while electric vehicles can achieve better efficiency by reducing overall mass.

Marine engineering also benefits because composites can combine low weight with strong corrosion resistance. These properties explain why Fabheads has targeted industries where high strength-to-weight ratios provide major performance advantages.

The Manufacturing Challenge Behind Carbon Fibre

The challenge with carbon fibre is not simply obtaining the raw material. The real difficulty lies in manufacturing complex components from it with consistent quality and at an acceptable cost.

Traditional composite production frequently involves placing layers of pre-impregnated carbon fibre inside a mould. Each layer must be positioned according to a carefully planned orientation because the strength of the final component depends heavily on the direction of the fibres.

The structure is then cured, often inside an autoclave or industrial oven. This process can produce extremely strong aerospace-grade components, but it is labour-intensive and depends heavily on skilled technicians.

Long production cycles, high material costs and the possibility of manufacturing defects can make composite production expensive. Fabheads is attempting to reduce these limitations by automating fibre placement and integrating digital manufacturing into the production process.

Automated Fibre Placement Brings Greater Precision

One of the technologies used by Fabheads is Automated Fibre Placement, commonly known as AFP. Instead of relying entirely on workers to manually position carbon-fibre material, an automated system places fibres along predetermined paths.

The machine controls where the fibres are deposited, how they overlap and the direction in which they run. This level of control is important because carbon-fibre composites are highly directional materials.

A metallic component may offer relatively predictable strength in several directions, but a composite behaves differently. Its performance depends greatly on how the fibres are aligned. Engineers therefore try to position fibres along the directions where the component will experience the greatest loads.

Automated placement can make this process more repeatable while reducing dependence on manual workmanship.

Fabheads combines automated fibre placement with other production methods such as prepreg layup, resin transfer moulding, filament winding and compression moulding.

Adaptive Tow Placement: Fabheads’ Proprietary Technology

Fabheads has also developed a proprietary manufacturing technology called Adaptive Tow Placement, or AToP.

The company describes AToP as a patented continuous carbon-fibre 3D-printing process. The technology allows continuous fibre to be deposited along customised paths, enabling manufacturers to create complex structural geometries while controlling fibre orientation.

This approach differs significantly from conventional plastic 3D printing. Standard fused-filament printers generally deposit thermoplastic material layer by layer. Such parts can be useful for prototypes and tooling, but their structural characteristics differ from components reinforced with continuous carbon fibres.

By incorporating continuous fibres into the printing process, Fabheads can create components in which the fibres carry significant structural loads. Engineers can also determine how those fibres travel through the component according to expected mechanical forces.

This combination of digital manufacturing and structural fibre placement creates opportunities in aerospace, robotics and other fields where lightweight structures must withstand demanding loads.

Government Recognition of Indigenous Technology

Fabheads received early recognition from the Government of India for its work in composite manufacturing.

During National Technology Day celebrations in 2021, the Department of Science and Technology highlighted the company’s indigenous carbon-fibre layup technology. The government noted that conventional carbon-fibre manufacturing could be expensive, labour-intensive and time-consuming, while Fabheads had developed an automated approach to the process.

The company’s FibrBot series of 3D printers was also highlighted for manufacturing lightweight composite components for applications including drones, automobiles, aerospace systems and marine equipment.

Fabheads was earlier recognised through the National Startup Awards 2020 under the Industry 4.0 and 3D-printing category. The recognition reflected the technological complexity involved in developing continuous carbon-fibre manufacturing systems within India.

From Machine Development to Complete Composite Manufacturing

Fabheads has gradually expanded beyond building carbon-fibre manufacturing equipment. It now operates as an end-to-end advanced composite manufacturer capable of supporting customers from the initial design stage through production and inspection.

The company’s engineering capabilities include finite-element analysis, static analysis, thermal analysis, impact analysis and dynamic simulation. These tools allow engineers to study how a proposed structure will behave before manufacturing begins.

Fabheads can then develop tooling, prepare composite materials, manufacture the component, cure it, machine it to final dimensions and inspect the completed structure.

This integrated approach is particularly valuable in composites because component design and manufacturing methods are closely connected. A structure that appears ideal in computer modelling may be difficult or expensive to manufacture. Bringing design and production teams together allows such issues to be identified earlier.

Rapid Tooling Can Shorten Development Cycles

Composite manufacturing usually requires moulds and specialised tooling. Large aerospace moulds can be expensive and may take considerable time to manufacture through conventional machining.

Fabheads uses large-format 3D printing to produce moulds, fixtures and other tooling more rapidly. This can allow an engineering team to modify a component, manufacture revised tooling and test another prototype without waiting several weeks for an entirely new conventionally machined mould.

Such flexibility can be valuable in industries where designs change rapidly. Aircraft, drones, electric vehicles and robotic systems often undergo repeated iterations before entering production.

Reducing the time needed to manufacture tooling can therefore accelerate the entire development process.

Aerospace Is a Natural Market for Fabheads

Aerospace is one of the most obvious applications for lightweight composite manufacturing because aircraft designers constantly seek to reduce weight without sacrificing structural strength.

Fabheads has manufactured carbon-fibre structures for both quadrotor and fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing aircraft. It has also worked on lightweight electronics trays, brackets and other structural components.

For unmanned aircraft, weight reduction can directly improve performance. A lighter airframe allows designers to allocate more of the vehicle’s weight to batteries, fuel, sensors or payload.

This can increase flight endurance, range or mission capability. As India’s drone industry moves from prototypes toward larger production volumes, repeatable composite manufacturing could become increasingly important.

Satellite Structures Create Another Opportunity

The same weight-saving principle applies to spacecraft.

Every kilogram launched into orbit carries a cost, so satellite manufacturers invest heavily in reducing structural mass while maintaining stiffness and dimensional accuracy.

Fabheads has developed lightweight satellite structures and lists modular CubeSat deployers and payload adaptor structures among its aerospace capabilities.

Automated fibre placement can be particularly useful for complex satellite structures because engineers can control fibre orientation around lattice geometries and other lightweight designs.

This gives Indian satellite manufacturers another domestic source for advanced structural components.

Carbon Fibre Can Support India’s Expanding Drone Industry

India’s rapidly growing drone sector is creating demand for structural components that are both light and strong.

Small UAVs require frames, arms, propellers, channels, payload mounts and other components. Carbon fibre is well suited to many of these applications because of its favourable strength-to-weight ratio.

Fabheads can manufacture carbon-fibre tubes, beams, channels, propellers and other UAV structures using both automated and hybrid processes.

The ability to manufacture these parts with consistent quality becomes particularly important when drone companies scale production. Producing ten airframes manually is very different from manufacturing hundreds or thousands of structurally identical units.

Automation can help bridge that gap.

Mobility Could Become a Large Composite Market

Advanced composites are also becoming increasingly relevant to the mobility sector.

Electric vehicles face constant pressure to reduce weight because heavier vehicles require larger batteries to achieve the same driving range. Replacing selected metal structures with composite components can therefore improve efficiency.

The challenge has traditionally been manufacturing cost. Automotive production involves much higher volumes than aerospace, so production methods must be significantly faster and more economical.

Fabheads is attempting to address this through automation and hybrid manufacturing techniques. If production costs continue to fall, carbon-fibre composites could become viable across a wider range of mobility applications.

Marine Engineering Benefits From Corrosion Resistance

Marine engineering presents another valuable opportunity for composite structures.

Salt water can cause severe corrosion in conventional metals, while carbon-fibre and other composite materials can offer strong resistance to the marine environment.

Their low weight can also reduce propulsion requirements for boats and autonomous marine vehicles.

Fabheads includes marine engineering among its main target sectors. India’s growing interest in autonomous surface vessels and underwater robotic systems could eventually create additional demand for lightweight composite structures.

Robotics Needs Lightweight but Rigid Structures

Robotic systems also benefit from reducing structural weight.

Every additional kilogram increases the amount of work required from motors and actuators. Lighter structural arms and frames can therefore reduce power requirements while allowing faster movement.

Carbon-fibre composites can be particularly useful in industrial robots, autonomous systems and inspection platforms.

Fabheads includes robotics among its application areas, giving the company access to another rapidly growing engineering market.

Material Preparation Is Equally Important

Automating fibre placement does not solve every challenge in composite manufacturing.

The fibres themselves must be prepared correctly. Resin content, impregnation quality and fibre consistency all influence the structural performance of the finished component.

Fabheads has therefore developed its own material-preparation technologies. These include processes for custom fibre impregnation for continuous-fibre printing and tow impregnation for automated fibre placement.

The company can also adapt resin systems and additives according to specific customer requirements.

Controlling this part of the manufacturing chain allows Fabheads to optimise the material itself rather than depending entirely on externally supplied configurations.

Conventional Aerospace Processes Still Matter

Automation does not eliminate the need for established aerospace manufacturing methods.

Many high-performance composite components still require curing inside an autoclave, where carefully controlled heat and pressure consolidate the laminate and reduce internal voids.

Fabheads operates autoclaves and curing ovens alongside its automated fibre-placement and 3D-printing systems.

This illustrates an important aspect of the company’s approach. It is not attempting to replace every conventional composite process with additive manufacturing.

Instead, Fabheads combines automated, conventional and hybrid techniques according to the requirements of each component.

Quality Control Is Essential

A composite aerospace structure can appear perfect from the outside while containing internal defects.

Manufacturers therefore require sophisticated inspection systems capable of identifying problems without destroying the component.

Fabheads maintains in-house testing and non-destructive inspection capabilities. These include ultrasonic and visual inspection methods designed to detect internal defects and manufacturing inconsistencies.

The company also operates within aerospace-oriented quality frameworks, including AS9100 certification.

This is important because Fabheads’ future growth in aerospace will depend not only on its manufacturing innovations but also on its ability to demonstrate consistent and traceable production quality.

Automation Can Reduce Waste and Rejection Rates

Composite materials can be expensive, so every rejected component represents a significant loss of fibre, resin, tooling capacity and manufacturing time.

Automation can improve repeatability by reducing variation during fibre placement and other production stages.

Fabheads and its investors have reported that automated manufacturing can reduce material waste, accelerate production cycles and lower overall production costs in selected applications.

These figures vary depending on the component and should not be treated as universal industry benchmarks. However, the underlying advantage remains clear.

Automation can reduce labour dependence, improve material utilisation and increase manufacturing consistency at the same time.

India Needs Manufacturing Expertise, Not Only Carbon Fibre

The strategic importance of advanced composites goes far beyond access to carbon-fibre raw material.

Owning the fibre does not automatically provide the capability to manufacture high-performance aircraft or spacecraft structures.

Countries also require expertise in resin chemistry, fibre orientation, tooling, curing, structural design, machining, bonding and inspection.

These capabilities are developed through years of industrial experience.

Fabheads operates across much of this manufacturing chain. Its technologies therefore contribute to India’s broader effort to build domestic competence in advanced aerospace manufacturing.

A Manufacturing Opportunity Beyond Defence

Carbon-fibre composites are often associated with fighter aircraft, spacecraft and other expensive platforms because those industries can justify higher material costs.

Automation could gradually expand the range of applications.

If manufacturing becomes faster and less expensive, composites could become practical for more vehicles, industrial machines, renewable-energy equipment and commercial products.

Fabheads already serves markets beyond aerospace, including mobility, marine engineering, robotics and other advanced manufacturing sectors.

This broader customer base can help the company improve production economics while spreading technology development costs across multiple industries.

Funding Supports Expansion Into Industrial Scale

Fabheads reached another important stage in June 2025, when it raised $10 million in Series A funding, led by Accel with participation from Trifecta Capital.

The funding was intended to expand manufacturing capacity, engineering operations, research and the company’s leadership team.

Fabheads also planned a larger manufacturing facility in Bengaluru to serve growing aerospace demand and international customers.

The expansion marks an important transition from technology development towards industrial production.

Developing a working machine is one achievement. Using that machine reliably to manufacture hundreds of qualified components is a much more demanding challenge.

A Rare Capability in Continuous-Fibre Automation

Continuous-fibre manufacturing remains technically difficult because carbon fibres cannot simply be fed through an ordinary polymer 3D printer.

The machine must control fibre tension, impregnation, deposition, bonding and path planning while maintaining the required structural geometry.

Software and material science therefore become as important as mechanical engineering.

Fabheads belongs to a relatively small group of companies working commercially on automated continuous-fibre composite manufacturing.

This gives India a domestic capability in a field where technological barriers remain high.

Digital Manufacturing Meets Material Science

Fabheads sits at the intersection of several engineering disciplines.

Its manufacturing systems combine robotics and automation for fibre placement, materials science for understanding fibre and resin behaviour, mechanical engineering for structural performance, software for manufacturing-path generation, additive manufacturing for tooling and components, and aerospace quality systems for final inspection.

The value therefore lies not in one individual machine but in understanding how the entire production chain works together.

This combination of disciplines is what makes advanced composite manufacturing difficult to master.

From Make in India to Design and Manufacture in India

India’s manufacturing ambitions increasingly require a shift from assembling imported systems towards owning the industrial processes behind them.

Fabheads represents this transition.

The company developed indigenous fibre-placement and continuous-fibre printing technologies rather than simply importing a complete foreign manufacturing platform.

Government recognition of its technology under the National Technology Day programme and the National Startup Awards reflected this indigenous development.

Such technologies can become industrial building blocks for other Indian manufacturers.

A drone company does not need to create its own carbon-fibre production line if a domestic specialist can manufacture the airframe. A satellite company can focus on payloads and electronics while sourcing lightweight structures locally. An electric-vehicle manufacturer can experiment with composite components without establishing an entire composite factory.

This is how an advanced industrial ecosystem gradually develops.

The Larger Opportunity Is an Advanced Manufacturing Platform

The most important aspect of Fabheads may eventually be broader than carbon-fibre 3D printing.

The company is building a complete advanced composite manufacturing platform.

Its capabilities extend across design, structural analysis, material preparation, rapid tooling, continuous-fibre printing, automated fibre placement, conventional layup, moulding, curing, machining and quality inspection.

This means Fabheads can potentially help customers redesign conventional metal components as lighter composite structures and then manufacture them using the most suitable production process.

For Indian companies entering aerospace or advanced mobility, access to such capability can reduce the need to build every specialised manufacturing process internally.

Building the Lightweight Structures Behind India’s Next Machines

India’s next generation of aircraft, drones, satellites, robots, autonomous boats and electric vehicles will require increasingly sophisticated materials.

Engines provide propulsion, electronics provide intelligence and software provides autonomy. However, every advanced machine still requires a physical structure capable of carrying its loads.

The lighter and stronger that structure becomes, the more efficiently the entire system can perform.

Fabheads is building technology at this foundational level.

Its work in continuous carbon-fibre printing, automated fibre placement, material preparation, rapid tooling and integrated composite manufacturing gives Indian companies another domestic route to advanced lightweight structures.

The company has already evolved from a startup developing carbon-fibre printers into an integrated composite manufacturer serving several high-technology industries.

Its next major challenge will be scaling these technologies into larger production volumes while maintaining aerospace-grade quality.

If Fabheads succeeds, it could become part of the industrial backbone supporting India’s future aircraft, spacecraft, drones, electric vehicles and autonomous systems.

That is the larger Make in India significance of the company. India is not only learning to manufacture advanced final products. Companies such as Fabheads are developing the machines, processes and materials technologies required to manufacture the structures from which those products are built.

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References

Department of Science and Technology / Press Information Bureau: National Technology Day 2021 documentation recognised Fabheads’ indigenous automated carbon-fibre layup technology and FibrBot systems.

Startup India / DPIIT: National Startup Awards 2020 documentation recognised Fabheads under the Industry 4.0 and 3D-printing category for its carbon-fibre manufacturing technology.

Fabheads Automation: Official company material provides information on Adaptive Tow Placement, Automated Fibre Placement, composite engineering, rapid tooling, curing, machining and inspection capabilities.

Accel: Investment documentation provides information on Fabheads’ founders, its technology development, funding and manufacturing expansion plans.

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