Imagine wrapping a gas tank with super-strong carbon fibre tape the way you'd wind thread on a spool — except a robot does it in a fraction of the time. Current CNG tanks are made by slowly winding carbon fibre soaked in resin, which is messy, inconsistent, and expensive. Polaris replaced that wet resin with a pre-made carbon/polyamide tape and an 8-axis robot arm that lays it down fast and precisely. The result is a tank that weighs 10% less, costs 20% less, and can be produced at the volumes car manufacturers actually need.
Compressed Natural Gas vehicles are growing fast in Europe — from 1.3 million today to a projected 15 million by 2030 — but current CNG tank production is too slow, too expensive, and too inconsistent. The wet-winding process used to make carbon/epoxy tanks limits throughput, and material properties vary by up to 10%, forcing manufacturers to add excess material as a safety margin, which adds weight and cost.
The consortium built and demonstrated at TRL 8: a carbon/polyamide thermoplastic tape optimised for pressure vessels, an 8-axis robotic tape placement cell for fast automated winding, and complete demonstrator CNG tanks achieving 10% weight and 20% cost reduction versus conventional tanks.
If you are a vehicle manufacturer dealing with heavy, expensive CNG fuel tanks that slow down production lines — this project developed a robotic tape-placement process that cuts tank weight by 10% and cost by 20%. The process was demonstrated at TRL 8, targeting production volumes of 150,000 tanks per year. Customers like Audi, Daimler and Volvo were already involved in setting the performance targets.
If you are a composites supplier struggling to meet automotive-grade consistency requirements — this project developed a carbon/polyamide tape that reduces property variation well below the 10% seen in wet-wound alternatives. The tape was optimised for 8-axis robotic placement at industrial speed. Coventive Composites projected tape sales worth €6.2m from this technology.
If you are a robotics integrator looking for high-value applications in composites — this project validated an 8-axis robotic tape placement cell specifically designed for pressure vessel winding. MF Tech projected robotic cell sales worth €2.1m. The system was demonstrated at TRL 8 for CNG tank production at automotive volumes.
The project demonstrated a 20% cost reduction compared to conventional carbon/epoxy CNG tanks. This comes from faster robotic production and reduced material waste due to more consistent properties. Specific per-unit pricing is not disclosed in the project data.
Yes. The consortium designed the process for 150,000 tanks per year, which matches actual customer demand. Plastic Omnium forecast initial sales of 20,000 tanks worth €11.7m by 2025/26, with the robotic cell built for continuous high-volume output.
The technology was developed by an all-industry consortium of 4 partners. Plastic Omnium (automotive tier-1 supplier) leads tank production, MF Tech owns the robotic cell technology, and Coventive Composites owns the tape formulation. Licensing terms would need to be negotiated with the respective IP holders.
The project explicitly names Audi, Daimler and Volvo as customers who set the 10% weight and 20% cost reduction targets for CNG tanks. These OEMs were expected to start certification of the carbon/polyamide tanks after the TRL 8 demonstration.
Both the tank manufacturing process and the demonstrator CNG tanks reached TRL 8 (system complete and qualified). The project moved from TRL 6 to TRL 8 during its 2018-2020 run. Commercialisation and sales were planned within 1 year after project end.
The project was designed so that successful TRL 8 demonstration would trigger customer certification processes. Based on available project data, the tanks were built to meet existing CNG pressure vessel standards, but final regulatory certification was a post-project step by the OEM customers.
This is a lean, all-industry consortium of 4 partners across 3 countries (UK, France, Belgium) with zero universities or research institutes — every partner is focused on getting product to market. Three of the four partners are SMEs, which means decisions are fast and commercial interests are aligned. The consortium covers the full value chain: Coventive Composites makes the raw tape material, MF Tech builds the robotic winding equipment, Plastic Omnium manufactures the final tanks and owns the OEM customer relationships, and NetComposites coordinates. This is a production-ready team, not a research group.
NetComposites Limited (UK) — specialist composites consultancy and coordinator of the Polaris project
Want an introduction to the Polaris team or a detailed brief on how this lighter CNG tank technology could fit your product line? Contact SciTransfer — we connect businesses with EU research teams.
