Articles
COMPOSITES & POLYCON 2009 preview
 The ACMA’s annual tradeshow takes its first turn in its new January timeframe.
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IBEX 2008 postshow review
Despite a sluggish boatbuilding market, this annual Miami marine showcase was the platform for the introduction of innovative composite products.
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Bitter pill for the Big Three
It appears that the U.S. auto industry, or at least the automakers known as the Big Three — GM, Ford, Chrysler — is in the midst of choosing which bitter pill to swallow.
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Watching a half-century of progress in composites
Looking back on my experience in the composites industry, from my first job in 1961 as a free-lance secretary to Brandt Goldsworthy to my last job as a free-lance writer for Composites Technology and High Performance Composites, gives me an uncommon perspective.
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What's new in automotive front-end modules?
Composite and hybrid composite/metal solutions reduce cost and weight and increase assembly efficiency on passenger vehicles.
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Unmanned rotorcraft passes stringent German Navy shipboard tests
CAMCOPTER’s high strength-to-weight ratio is made possible by composite materials.
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MOM software solves debonding problem in manufacturing process
When Composites Atlantic Ltd. (CAL, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada) contracted to produce 10 types of parts for leading edge and rudder components and deliver them on a biweekly schedule to a key aerospace customer, trouble soon cropped up.
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Wind Blade Manufacturing: Cost-efficient materials-based strategies
The wind blade’s four key elements — the root, the spar, the aerodynamic shell or fairing, and the surfacing system — have present unique manufacturing challenges that must be met with carefully selected composite material systems and molding strategies.
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Through-the-thickenss tensile strength testing using a curved beam
The in-plane strength properties of a composite material, axial and transverse tension and compression and in-plane shear, are usually the first to be considered in design. However, through-the-thickness (interlaminar) strength properties cannot be ignored. Through-the-thickness tensile strength, in particular, can be critical to structural performance.
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Composites encourage design creativity in LSA aircraft
Manufacturers of small aircraft expand the private pilot’s options on the strength (-to-weight) and contourability of advanced composites.
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An open letter to the U.S. President-elect
Dear Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain, By now you have celebrated your hard-fought victory and are busy preparing to take office in January 2009.
Read MoreWind Blade Manufacturing: Are thermoplastic composites the future?
In a market dominated by thermoset composites, some wind turbine blade manufacturers are actively pursuing new composite blade designs featuring faster-processing reinforced thermoplastics.
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