Lightweight Structural Systems

Challenges

Polymer and composite systems often appear straightforward on paper, yet fail in practice due to overlooked interactions between material behavior, tooling, and forming processes.

Common challenges include:

• Weight targets that push designs toward thin sections or complex geometries.
• Creep, relaxation, or fatigue under sustained or cyclic loading.
• Residual stress and warpage introduced during forming.
• Environmental exposure, including UV, temperature swings, moisture, or chemicals.
• Tooling sensitivity, where small changes affect part quality.
• Inspection difficulty, particularly for stress and internal defects.

In many cases, parts meet dimensional requirements but fail functionally or sooner than expected.

Multiscale System’s Approach

Multiscale approaches polymer and composite structures as is engineered systems. Rather than high-volume commodity production, our work integrates materials selection, tooling design, forming process development, inspection, and lifecycle considerations into a single execution model.

Tooling-Led Development

Tooling is the primary interface between material behavior and part performance. Multiscale designs and manufactures polymer tooling in-house to:

• Control forming behavior and cooling profiles.
• Reduce residual stress and distortion.
• Enable rapid iteration during development.
• Preserve design intent during scale-up.

This approach is particularly important for low- to mid-volume programs where tooling amortization must be balanced against performance risk.

Process Selection Based on Function

We support a range of polymer forming and fabrication methods, selected based on functional requirements. These include:

• Vacuum forming and pressure forming for structural panels and enclosures.
• Compression forming for higher-fiber volume and structural performance.
• Additive manufacturing for complex geometries, fixtures, and tooling.
• CNC routing, trimming, and secondary operations.

Processes are often combined within a single program to achieve the desired balance of stiffness, weight, and durability.

Materials and Structural Performance

Material selection is tightly coupled to forming method and tooling design. Multiscale supports polymer and composite systems including:

• Structural thermoplastics such as polycarbonate and related blends.
• High-performance thermoplastics for elevated temperature or chemical resistance.
• Continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics for stiffness-critical structures.
• Chopped fiber–reinforced materials for complex, load-bearing geometries.

Rather than optimizing for material properties in isolation, we focus on system-level performance, including manufacturability and lifecycle behavior.

Inspection and Validation

Polymer and composite structures often fail due to hidden stress or process-induced defects rather than obvious dimensional errors. Multiscale incorporates inspection and validation methods appropriate to polymer systems, including:

• Dimensional inspection to verify tooling and forming accuracy.
• Non-destructive evaluation techniques such as polariscope analysis to assess residual stress.
• Mechanical testing to validate stiffness, strength, and durability.

These tools allow us to close the loop between design, forming process, and functional performance.

Why Resilient Manufacturing Strategies Matter

As systems become more weight-sensitive and supply chains more constrained, polymers and composites are increasingly asked to do more with less margin. Programs that treat polymer forming as a commodity process often discover limitations too late, after tooling is committed or failures occur in service.

An engineering-led approach to polymer and composite structures reduces these risks while enabling faster iteration and more resilient manufacturing strategies.