The machine that closes the loop.
A self-contained, environmentally-sealed automated composite manufacturing machine. It lays engineered fiber-reinforced tape over real tooling, with zero touch-labor — and records everything it does.
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This is not a 3D printer
The TapeLayer™ is a coordinate-axis machine that places continuous engineered fiber-reinforced tape — the material aerospace structures are actually made of — over tool surfaces inserted into the build volume. It does not extrude filament, and its output is not a printed part: it is an engineered composite layup built to a controlled process.
Two machines.
One architecture.
Physical machines, distinct from the virtual (software) offering they feed — same sealed-gantry architecture at two scales. Specifications are nominal design targets during prototype development with Andrews-Cooper, the current Build Partner.
TapeLayer™ Compact
The tabletop machine. Sized for coupon panels and small builds — it drops into existing materials-qualification workflows and starts generating as-made data on day one.
- Envelope (nominal)~1.2 × 0.6 × 0.6 m (47 × 24 × 24 in)
- Sitingbenchtop · standard lab power
- Primary usequalification panels · coupons · small parts
- StatusIn development
TapeLayer™ Standard
The production machine, built into a standard shipping-container envelope. Deliverable to the customer’s, client’s, or owner’s site — never ours. Operated remotely as a supplier cell: parts out, data back.
- Envelope (nominal)TEU-scale · ~6.1 × 2.4 × 2.6 m (20-ft container)
- Sitingon-site · or remote-operated
- Primary useproduction builds · larger structures
- StatusIn development · follows Compact
Why it’s built this way.
Gantry, not an articulated arm
A gantry locks the Z axis, so the head applies consistent normal force at every XY position on the tool. An articulated 6-axis arm accumulates misalignment at every swivel, and its calibration changes with reach distance. For a machine whose product is reproducible process data, the geometry that stays calibrated wins.
Coordinate axes + contoured tooling
The TapeLayer™ is a coordinate-axis machine that accepts tool surfaces inserted into the build volume. Flat panels are a layup; complex parts over real tooling are a build. Same machine, same recorded process.
Sealed, instrumented environment
Layup quality depends on Step 1: temperature, humidity, cleanliness, handling. The build volume is environmentally sealed and instrumented, so those variables are controlled and recorded— the telemetry that tunes the machine’s digital twin.
Hybrid materials, mid-build
Thermoset and thermoplastic tapes can be combined within a single build, so a part can carry different material systems where each earns its place — without breaking the sealed process or the data record.
Zero touch-labor
From loaded material to finished layup, no hands touch the part. That removes the largest unrecordable variable in composite manufacturing — and makes the recorded process the whole process.
Operate and build from anywhere
Send the build file, not the part. Operating remotely eliminates crating and shipping cost and satisfies on-demand schedules — the machine lives at the customer’s, client’s, or owner’s site — never ours.
Prove the tooling before you cut metal.
Metal layup tooling is a major cost and schedule item in any composite program. The TapeLayer™ workflow validates tooling cheaply first: 3D-printed plastic tools faced with masking tape let a team confirm geometry, tape paths, and process behavior before committing to metal.
And because the machine accepts inserted tool surfaces, it is compatible with the tooling infrastructure customers already own — existing tools come to the machine, not the other way around.
The tooling-validation sequence
- 3D print the tool in plastic; face it with masking tape.
- Run the layup; confirm geometry and tape paths on the machine.
- Iterate the tool design at printer cost, not machine-shop cost.
- Commit to metal once, with the process already proven.
The machine is half the story.
Every build feeds the Greenlight Loop™ platform: as-made data, married to the structural data of the part it came from, returning to the customer’s own library.