Articles
New Products: April 2018
CW’s monthly roundup of new products for the composites industry.
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Titan prepares for Titanic expedition
The composites-intensive, five-person, deep-sea submersible Titan is undergoing testing ahead of a planned trip to 4,000m re-examine the RMS Titanic in June.
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Flexible cure prepreg finds use in marine and wind
It’s almost time for the 2018 Tour de France — no, not that one with the bicycles, but the Tour de France à la Voile. Hexcel (Stamford, CT, US) composite materials have been used for the race’s trimaran the DIAM 24’s mast construction from the outset.
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New 3D-printed prosthetic leg features carbon fiber definitive socket
Additive manufactured thermoplastic carbon fiber definitive prosthetic socket allows for life cycle adjustments without weakening its structure
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Multi-material shipping container for pharmaceuticals
This past week, CW was made aware of a new, high-tech and multi-material unit load device (ULD) shipping container solution from an innovative container company called Smart Containers Group (Zurich, Switzerland).
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CW Talks: Highly automated thermoplastic laminate production
The latest episode of CW Talks: The Composites Podcast, explores the collaborative development of a new thermoplastic laminate by SABIC, Airborne and Siemens.
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So, you want to overmold
If so, ÂÌñÏ×ÆÞ is hosting, June 13-14, the Composites Overmolding conference, to explore the software, materials and processes being used to combine continuous fiber composites with overmolded thermoplastics.
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Winds of change?
Recently there have been a few rumblings about offshore wind farms in the United States with potential project developments on both East and West coasts.
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An SMC machinery provider adds automation
About the time that I started writing about the composites industry, I was introduced to the concept of SMC – sheet molding compound. I was intrigued this year at the JEC World in Paris to meet with a German company, Schmidt & Heinzmann (S&H, Bruchsal, Germany).
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Composites at AeroDef 2018
Highlights from the Aerospace Defense Manufacturing Conference – AeroDef 2018 include new technologies for tooling, drilling/machining and inspection of advanced composites.
WatchContinuous fiber TPCs are smart for world’s largest appliance manufacturer
Unveiled on March 8 at the China Household Electrical Appliances and Consumer Electronics Fair (AWE, Shangai), Haier’s (Qingdao, China) “smart” Tianxi air conditioner is the world’s first AC unit to feature continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) materials. in its high-end Casarte line (Italian “Casa” for home and “Arte” for art), The relationship holds much promise for CFRTP supplier Covestro (Leverkeusen, Germany; Pittsburgh, PA, US; Shanghai, China). The world’s number one appliance manufacturer, Haier’s products can alread be found in 1 million households.
Read MoreAirborne, Siemens, SABIC partner for TPC mass production
Having acquired Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastics B.V. (FRT, Lelystad, Netherlands) in 2016, SABIC was looking for a partner to produce large quantities of thermoplastic composite parts (using its UDMAX tapes, of course) at a radically lower cost. “We have been doing this type of work for a variety of industries,” says Arno van Mourik, founder and director of Airborne (The Hague, The Netherlands). His company is the leading manufacturer of thermoplastic composite pipe for oil and gas. “We have developed software and an industrialized process that now produces 40-50 tonnes of continuous product in one go without touch labor.” In 2015, Airborne built the Digital Factory Composites Field Lab with partners Siemens (Plano, TX, US) and KUKA Robotics (Augsburg, Germany) to pursue digitalization of composites processes.
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