AZL Joint Partner Project to build holistic approach for TPC-driven pressure vessel design

Source | AZL Aachen GmbH

Building on its longstanding partnerships with leading companies across the composites value chain, AZL Aachen GmbH (Germany) has launched its new Joint Partner Project (JPP) “Thermoplastic Pressure Vessels – Benchmarking of Design-for-Manufacturing Strategies to Optimize Material Efficiency and Cost.” Among the first participants, Toyota Motor Europe (TME, Brussel, Belgium) underscores the strategic importance of a comparative evaluation of design and manufacturing concepts for thermoplastic composite (TPC) pressure vessels. 

TPC offer automation, energy-efficiency, recyclability and reprocessability advantages for high-pressure vessel applications. However, when thermoset-derived design principles are applied unchanged, AZL believes the processing and performance capabilities of thermoplastics remain largely untapped. AZL’s project therefore takes a holistic approach — TPC-driven vessel designs, manufacturing processes and material configurations to maximize both economic and technical performance.

Dr. Martin Kerschbaum, manager ME22 at TME, highlights the motivation behind Toyota’s participation: “The usage of thermoplastic resins for manufacturing of high-pressure hydrogen storage vessels is of high interest for Toyota. This is due to potential advantages in terms of design, processing, performance and circularity. It is essential to compare and evaluate the diverse options of design and manufacturing strategies for high-pressure vessels based on TPC materials. Gaining additional insights into the key influencing factors on material efficiency, production scalability and realistic cost-structure scenarios is a crucial part of this process. AZL’s structured approach — a combination of know-how in applications, composite materials and production systems with expertise across the entire value chain — provides Toyota with valuable input for the further development of innovative storage systems.”

The 9-month project brings together international industry partners to explore new TPC vessel concepts. It is structured into three work packages:

• WP1: Market & Technology Landscape — Mapping state-of-the-art technologies, certification protocols and relevant IP.
• WP2: Conceptual Design & Manufacturing Strategies — Developing vessel architectures optimized for thermoplastics, evaluating design variants and defining production system concepts.
• WP3: Performance, Cost & Production Benchmarking — Quantifying material usage, recyclability, cycle times, cost per unit and carbon impact to guide industrial decision-making.

By actively involving engineers and decision-makers from participating companies, AZL’s JPPs combine technical depth with strategic relevance. Participants not only gain access to engineering results and benchmarking data, but also develop in-house expertise — enabling them to communicate more effectively with customers, suppliers and investors in the hydrogen and compressed natural gas (CNG) markets.

“AZL’s JPPs create trusted spaces for knowledge exchange,” adds Philipp Fröhlig, head of industrial services at AZL Aachen GmbH. “Our goal is to enable every participant to make well-founded technical and business decisions for their own product roadmap. Companies, independent of newcomers or established players benefit from collective benchmarking, faster learning by first-hand information and a shared understanding of what drives efficiency and competitiveness in TPC pressure vessel technologies.”

The next report meeting on Nov. 5, 2025, will provide an update on concept benchmarking and early design results for “Thermoplastic Pressure Vessels – Benchmarking of Design-for-Manufacturing Strategies to Optimize Material Efficiency and Cost.” Companies interested in hydrogen and CNG storage technologies are invited to join the consortium, gain access to the project findings and collaborate directly. In addition to this JPP, AZL offers individual R&D support, benchmarking studies,and strategic guidance for companies developing lightweight composite pressure vessels and related components.