CASE STUDY: Lightweight Structures

Lightweight Structures is a South African engineering and manufacturing company that specialises in advanced composite materials and lightweight solutions for demanding industrial applications. Serving sectors such as defence, aerospace, transportation, and renewable energy, the company provides custom-engineered products that combine strength, durability, and reduced mass. Its turnkey offering spans concept design, prototyping, and full-scale manufacturing, advancing local capabilities while supporting skills development, job creation, and international-standard innovation through research and collaboration.

Hensoldt, a global leader in defence and security electronics, selected Lightweight Structures to develop a composite moulded enclosure for a next-generation radar system, with the goal of transitioning from prototype to a stable manufacturing process suitable for serial production. This partnership not only showcased Hensoldt’s radar technology as a case study but also marked a critical step in building a reliable local supply chain for precision defence components, boosting local content in radar system assembly.

The project’s core challenge lay in creating large, high-tolerance composite enclosures that maintained the radio frequency performance essential to radar operation while ensuring mechanical reliability, environmental sealing, and structural integrity. Early prototypes revealed design and process limitations, which were resolved through engineering refinement, tooling innovation, and supplier process improvements. Meeting stringent defence-grade requirements required Lightweight Structures to expand its expertise and upgrade its facilities to meet the technical demands of the project.

To move from prototype to production, the company delivered a complete systems engineering documentation pack, developed custom tooling and assembly jigs, and produced three fully assembled prototypes, supported by detailed manufacturing instructions and dimensioned drawings for repeatability. The success of this initiative strengthened Lightweight Structures’ role in the defence and aerospace sectors, enhanced South Africa’s advanced manufacturing capacity, and contributed to long-term technological self-reliance by enabling domestic serial production of precision radar enclosures.

What is a radome enclosure?

A radome enclosure is a protective structure that shields radar antennas or sensitive electronic systems from harsh environmental conditions such as rain, wind, salt spray, dust, and temperature extremes, while allowing radio signals to pass through with minimal interference. Made from lightweight, RF-transparent materials like composites or fibreglass, radomes are widely used in defence, aerospace, marine, and telecommunications to ensure reliable system performance without compromising signal quality.