Advancing solar and sustainable composite in mobility through a long-term partnership

Tecnalia is the largest applied R&D center in Spain and one of the most influential at the European level. As part of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance, Tecnalia plays a key role in transferring research outcomes into industrial applications.

For more than four years, Cannon and Tecnalia have been working together on advanced research projects aimed at developing innovative manufacturing technologies for integrated photovoltaics and high-performance composite components. This long-standing collaboration, established within the framework of European R&D initiatives, such as the Seamless project, has resulted in our designing and supplying several highly specialized dosing systems, each tailored to support Tecnalia’s evolving experimental and industrial research needs.

Within the Horizon Europe-funded Seamless-PV project, Tecnalia is working to advance integrated photovoltaics (IPV), a technology that can be embedded in buildings, infrastructure, electric vehicles, and agricultural environments. By combining structural and functional benefits with electricity generation, IPV solutions require new equipment, processes, and materials — one of the Seamless project’s core objectives.

The low viscosity of caprolactam allows fiber impregnation, such as glass or carbon fibers, via an RTM process. This characteristic, along with its short cycle time and low raw material cost, makes this composite well-suited for automotive and transportation applications. Structural applications, such as bumpers and impact beams, car subframes, and other car parts, are potential uses in this sector.

Alongside its excellent processing characteristics, aPA6 offers low hydrogen permeability, which, combined with its ability to infiltrate carbon fiber, makes it a particularly suitable material for pressure vessel manufacturing. These include both the inner liner without fiber produced by the roto molding process and the tank’s outer shell, with high carbon fiber content, produced by RTM. These properties are essential for applications where safety, performance, and long-term reliability and sustainability are crucial, positioning thermoplastic composites as a key technology for next-generation energy and mobility solutions.

To support this specific line of research, Tecnalia relies on a new, highly customized Cannon E-System dosing unit equipped with an FPL 8 SR 2QCC mixing head. This solution will be used directly in developing and testing anionic polyamide 6 automotive components and pressure vessels, enabling precise process control and supporting the advancement of both material performance and manufacturing technologies.

• E-system dosing unit for laboratory use
• T-System dosing unit
• LN 6 EPX mixing head
• FPL SR QCC mixing head