IN Brief:
- Continuous Composites announced plans for an approximately 5,600-square-foot engineering facility in Kent, Washington.
- The engineering team will develop Continuous Fiber 3D Printing and high-temperature composite components for aerospace, defence and space applications.
- The company has not published an opening date or linked the new facility to a specific awarded production contract.
Continuous Composites plans to establish an approximately 5,600-square-foot engineering facility in Kent, Washington, extending its development operations into the Seattle-area aerospace manufacturing corridor. The planned team will advance Continuous Fiber 3D Printing (CF3D), develop high-temperature composite components, and collaborate with aerospace, defence and space businesses. The company has not given an opening date, recruitment target or customer production commitment for the site.
Kent lies within a regional concentration of aircraft, spacecraft, precision-manufacturing and materials businesses. Continuous Composites identifies proximity to those organisations and the available engineering workforce as reasons for establishing a presence there. The location is intended to shorten the distance between component developers and prospective industrial partners. Recruitment plans and the opening timetable will be disclosed as preparations develop; no signed Kent-specific customer work was identified.
CF3D uses continuous reinforcement rather than the short fibres dispersed through some additive-manufacturing feedstocks. Continuous Composites describes a method of placing continuous reinforcement along three-dimensional paths while applying rapid-curing thermoset materials. A robotic print head places reinforcement along programmed paths as rapid-curing resin consolidates the material, linking geometry to the direction in which a component carries load. Steering continuous fibres through three-dimensional geometries can permit fewer separate joints in a suitably designed assembly, though any structural advantage needs to be established by testing.
A more complex fibre path also increases the importance of manufacturing repeatability and material testing. A component intended to carry flight loads must retain acceptable performance under its relevant load cases, environmental exposure and inspection requirements. Fibre orientation, void content, resin cure and connections to neighbouring parts all affect the finished structure. Kent is intended to develop high-temperature components, although the announcement provides no qualified material grade, allowable temperature range or acceptance result for hardware produced there.
Component development often involves changes to interfaces with adjacent aerospace structures, making access to customers’ engineering teams useful. Hardware designers may need successive changes to mounting points, electrical interfaces and load paths before a component is ready for manufacture. Automated fibre placement can alter how those features are incorporated, but changes also require revised process instructions and repeatable inspection methods. Continuous Composites expects its Kent team to collaborate on applications, but has named no customer placing an engineering order with that location.
The Washington operation follows the company’s move in April 2026 into a 17,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Continuous Composites says that move more than doubled its footprint to accommodate a growing workforce, expanding programmes and demand for CF3D technology. Kent is described as an engineering and collaboration location, whereas Coeur d’Alene includes the company’s manufacturing operations. No additional machines, production-rate target or factory output allocation has been announced for Washington.
The company already has a distinct US Navy Phase II Small Business Innovation Research project involving multifunctional structures for uncrewed aircraft. The research examines embedding electrical conductors in load-bearing composite parts so a UAV structure may also distribute power or carry signals. According to the company, earlier work demonstrated co-printing conductive elements, including copper wiring and fibre optics, within fibreglass-reinforced panels. The company disclosed that Navy-funded research in August; it is not a new Kent facility order, and the company has not assigned its work to the Washington site.
Combining mechanical and electrical functions introduces engineering trade-offs. A conductor embedded in a laminate must remain insulated where required, tolerate the surrounding manufacturing process and avoid compromising a structurally critical fibre path. Inspection must consider not only defects in the composite but also electrical continuity and isolation. The company describes a 30-month Phase II research period using material coupons and subscale structures, followed by an optional year for a system-level demonstration. That plan is distinct from certification or supply of an operational aircraft component.
Kent would add an engineering location to the company’s existing Idaho manufacturing and development operations. Its intended work includes technical development and collaboration, with the volume of any prototype fabrication or customer-funded activity still unspecified. The 5,600-square-foot figure describes floor area, without establishing printing-machine capacity or a defence production rate.
Continuous Composites chief executive Steve Starner has said the move should bring its engineers into closer contact with aerospace and defence companies across the region. The next evidence of delivery will be the announced opening, any recruitment, and identified development projects at the facility. The 15 October announcement establishes the planned engineering expansion, without a timetable for qualified Kent-produced components entering a defence programme.
