Our Hot Drape Former (HDF) machines are ideal for pre-forming carbon fibre components for the aerospace, automotive and marine industries. Using Hot Drape Forming, they produce high-quality composite parts faster than the traditional solution of hand lay-up.

Composite materials such as carbon fibre are often used in the aerospace industry as they have a high stiffness and strength-to-weight ratio. Our hot drape formers feature an infrared radiation heating system that softens the carbon fibre quickly and evenly. This allows the layers to slip against each other and produce accurate parts free from any stress wrinkling.

Professional Hot Drape Forming Machines

The hot drape formers apply gentle heat via multiple heating zones to soften materials such as carbon laminates and other specialist composite materials. Multiple ply lay-ups can be formed into shape quickly and easily. These machines can also be used for:

• Forming pre-preg carbon fibre
• Out of autoclave (OOA) composite curing
• Honeycomb bonding
• Vacuum debulking

Our hot drape forming machines meet the exacting standards demanded by aircraft manufacturers and have been used for the Harrier and Gripen, through to our current machines, working on the Boeing 787 and 777X aerospace programmes.

All our hot drape formers are built to last and with ease of maintenance in mind. Each vacuum forming model comes with a two-year warranty as standard, is clean room compliant, CE certificated and offers reliable performance and long life for professional hot drape forming.

After purchasing one of our machines, we can deliver directly to your location and complete a full installation. Our services are available worldwide. We also offer comprehensive training based on over 50 years of experience in the laminating machine industry and will reliably support your team with hot drape forming queries.