Carbures

About Carbures

Carbures S.A. was a technology company with origins tracing back to a research group at the University of Cádiz, Spain, in 1999. Officially founded in 2002 as Easy Industrial Solutions, S.L., the firm was led by President and founder Rafael Contreras. It specialized in the engineering and manufacturing of composite material structures, primarily carbon fiber, for a diverse client base across the aerospace, automotive, railway, civil infrastructure, and defense sectors. The company's business model focused on providing these advanced material components and related engineering services.

A significant milestone in the company's history was its international expansion, marked by the establishment of a U.S. facility in Greenville County, South Carolina, announced in 2011. This was part of a broader strategy to increase production capacity and access major global markets. Carbures also grew through acquisitions, such as the purchase of the Catalonian company Mapro in 2014. The company's operations included research and development into new composite materials and their applications, including graphene and carbon fiber nanotubes.

In a transformative event, Carbures entered into a merger agreement with Inypsa Informes y Proyectos, S.A. in 2018. This merger of equals was completed in November 2018, leading to the formation of a new entity named Airtificial Intelligence Structures SA. The strategic rationale for the merger was to create an industrial technology group focused on Industry 4.0, combining Carbures' expertise in composite structures with Inypsa's engineering capabilities to target artificial intelligence, collaborative robotics, and sensorized structures. Following the merger, Rafael Contreras assumed the presidency of the newly formed Airtificial. The transaction valued the combined entity at approximately 200 million euros at the time of the announcement.