Fabheads Automation aims at Vande Bharat 3D printing . The Chennai-based start-up is India’s leading carbon fibre part manufacturer and has developed Asia’s first continuous carbon fibre 3D printers. Carbon fibre is a critical composite powering new-age innovations such as drones, EVs, and air taxis. By automating its production, Fabheads reduces lead time and improves reliability.
This venture was started in 2015 by Dinesh Kanagaraj and Abhijit Rathore, IITians working at the space agency Isro. The team for 2-3 years focused on R&D on its additive manufacturing technology.
The startup is able to reduce cost of manufacture by almost 10%, reduce weight of the products of its clients, and also reduce rejections by 10%-20%.
Today, there are a lot of areas that use carbon fibre, including satellites, rockets, bicycles, and surfing boards.
From 2021, it began commercialising its products and supplied 3D-printed parts to aerospace, automotive, and any sector with a need for lightweight carbon fibre components. Unlike the metals sector that is fairly developed, the manufacturing technology for carbon fibre is still nascent despite its high strength-to-weight ratio making it attractive for manufacturers. Globally, startups in this field are few. Fabheads has seen steady increase in revenue over the last two years, and now sports a healthy order book. In fact, Fabheads now has a problem that is good to have for any startup-it is at full capacity and looking to raise $7 million-$8 million to expand capacity to meet all the demand coming its way.
“Almost 80% of our 3D-printing machine is made of Indian components,” says Nivas V, CMO, Fabheads.
Kanagaraj confidently says that their team can take any sector that is tapping modernization and new-age technologies and likely be able to grow to the scale to serve Vande Bharat one day.
