Lay-up innovations for high-pressure vessel reinforcements with FPP

Cevotec has developed a new gripper system specifically designed for manufacturing dome reinforcements of large composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs; Type 3 and 4) used in hydrogen storage and transport. Tailored for vessels with diameters between 400 and 700 mm, the new PV gripper marks an important foundation for all upcoming gripper designs developed by Cevotec.

With the industry’s growing focus on scalable and cost-efficient, hydrogen storage solutions, manufacturing technologiescurrently evolve rapidly to support both performance and production efficiency. Cevotec’s new gripper directly addresses this need.

Key technical features of the new PV gripper include:

• Patch size range: 25 x 70 mm to 75 x 290 mm
• Foam core height: 100 mm
• Internal vacuum generation for fast patch pick-up
• Multiple suction zones for flexible handling
• New durable surface for reliable patch transfer
• Sensor-based patch presence check
• Quick connector to robot arm for automated gripper change

The redesigned gripper surface ensures precise pick-up and transfer of patches, while the flexible structure supports long-term durability and consistent lay-up quality.

The geometry and dimensions of the gripper are optimized for the patch sizes typically required for dome reinforcements.

The new PV gripper demonstrated excellent performance in all validation tests, with improved reliability and significantly faster patch pick-up times. These enhancements contribute directly to increased process stability throughput in and cost-efficiency in automated hydrogen pressure vessel production environments.

This dedicated hardware setup enables, manufacturers to fully utilize the design flexibility and precision of Fiber Patch Placement technology for structurally optimized dome areas. Unlike traditional tow- or tape-based technologies, FPP enables patching very close to the boss area, where structural performance is most critical.
This allows for truly load-path-oriented reinforcements, reducing weight and cost while simultaneously increasing storage volume. For high-pressure composite tanks, this leads to improved performance, lower material consumption, and a more compact design envelope. More details on these benefits and application examples are available online: