Toray CMA and Convergent Partner to Advance Aerospace and Industrial Digital Engineering

Toray Composite Materials America (Toray CMA) has announced a partnership with Convergent Manufacturing Technologies to advance digital engineering for aerospace and industrial applications. The collaboration integrates Convergent’s process simulation and optimization software with Toray CMA’s advanced composite materials expertise, targeting reduced development cycles and improved manufacturing predictability. Specific financial terms were not disclosed, but the partnership is focused on co-developing digital twins for composite part production, including automated fiber placement (AFP) and out-of-autoclave curing processes. The initiative is headquartered in Toray CMA’s Tacoma, Washington facility, with Convergent providing its proprietary Convergent Process Modeling platform.

This partnership addresses a persistent gap in the composites and additive manufacturing value chain: the disconnect between materials science and process simulation. While aerospace has long used digital twins for structural analysis, the manufacturing side—particularly for thermoset prepregs and thermoplastic composites—remains heavily reliant on empirical trial-and-error. Convergent’s software, which models heat transfer, resin flow, and consolidation in real-time, directly attacks this inefficiency. For Toray CMA, which supplies materials to programs like the Boeing 777X and Airbus A350, embedding simulation into the material qualification workflow could shorten the aerospace qualification grind (P4) by reducing physical test iterations. The move also positions Toray against competitors like Hexcel and Solvay, who are investing in similar digital material passports, but with a stronger emphasis on closed-loop manufacturing control rather than just data sheets.

From a practical standpoint, this partnership will succeed or fail based on how deeply Convergent’s models are integrated into Toray’s customer qualification processes. The aerospace industry does not adopt new simulation tools because they are clever; it adopts them because they reduce certification risk and cost. Toray CMA needs to demonstrate that Convergent’s software can predict defects like porosity or fiber wrinkling with sufficient accuracy to replace physical test coupons in first-article inspections. If the partnership delivers validated digital twins for AFP and press-forming of Toray’s TC380 and TC1225 prepregs, it could become a standard workflow for Tier 1 suppliers like Spirit AeroSystems or GKN. If not, it remains a useful but non-differentiating R&D tool. The next 12 months of joint customer pilots will determine which outcome materializes.