IACMI is pleased to start a new series called Bright Ideas, showcasing cutting-edge innovations from IACMI members being recognized with awards distinctions. Assessed and voted by a variety of composites industry leaders, these awards recognize groundbreaking innovations in composites and advanced materials. Let’s start with technologies featured at CAMX 2025.
Innovation: Polyolefin Thermoset Resin Power & Performance: VARTM-enabled Class-A Surface Automotive Composites
Award Category: Combined Strength, 2025 CAMX Award Winner
Company: ExxonMobil | McCLARIN Composites
Objective: The Corvette frunk hood showcases the first commercially demonstrated Class-A surface composite part for a passenger sports car made with Proxxima™ polyolefin thermoset resin systems.
Results: Manufactured by McCLARIN Composites using VARTM processing and featuring OE-grade 3K twill carbon fiber, the hood offers breakthroughs in performance and manufacturing efficiency.
Impact: The result is a lightweight, high-toughness part that maintains a premium finish while leveraging existing epoxy-based tooling and processing infrastructure. Part designed by Nowicki Autosport Design Concept8.
From the Experts: “This is the first commercially demonstrated, Class A surface quality, light-vehicle application. The mobility industry has traditionally used these materials on medium and heavy duty commercial trucks; now we’ve proven it on a light vehicle. The team did this using existing tools and systems which is not traditionally done. We’ve saved in capital investment costs but also in manufacturing efficiencies—about 50% quicker cycle times. We think innovations like these can help the composites industry really grow.”~ Jeff Valentage, Senior Marketing Advisor for Proxima Group, ExxonMobil North America
“We were able to demonstrate the adaptability of the Proxxima™ resin system. Where we see it being used in the future is being able to scale up the process. You can take something that was a small-scale product, take it from tens a year to hundreds, to thousands, to multiple thousands a year.” ~ Jacob Cartwright, Director of Engineering, McCLARIN Composites
Learn more: https://www.proxxima.com/en/what-is-proxxima and https://www.mcclarincomposites.com/
