All composite components are manufactured using multiple layers of pre-cut fibres in either woven or uni-directional form. All other parameters being equal, the number of layers
and orientation of the fibres determine the final mechanical properties of the product once cured in a mould which is heated and thermally activates and sets the epoxy resin surrounding the fibres.

Cutting the required fibre shapes and ‘laying up’ to create the final structure has traditionally been done exclusively by hand and is therefore intensely labour dependent and final quality depends on skill established over many years.

Recently expensive semi-automated equipment has been developed to build up parts of the rim structure using the tape winding method. This has many advantages including highly accurate and repeatable fibre orientation, consistent fibre overlap and most importantly, the fibres are kept under tension (which is not possible using hand layup). Nex-Gen rims use the automated tape winding process.