Ginger Gardiner

Ginger Gardiner Senior Technical Editor

Thermoplastics

Plant tour: Airtech International, Springfield, Tenn., U.S.

Fifty years of supplying materials for composites manufacturing includes custom fabrication and now aims to advance 3D-printed tooling, parts and new resins.

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JEC

JEC World 2023 highlights: Recycling, biocomposites, smaller equipment and expanding brands

CW senior technical editor Ginger Gardiner addresses some of this year’s hot topics, ranging from novel biocomposites and recycling technology solutions from myriad startups to upgraded, but equally sustainable, equipment from well-established companies.  

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Core

A new generation of PP foam core for lightweight truck trailers, RVs

Extruded PP (XPP) foam core offers lightweight, high-performance monomaterial panels that are easily recycled for truck flooring, sidewalls or cabinet/furnitureboards as the transportation industry seeks a replacement for plywood.

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Recycling

Spur offers Hardex structural foam core as alternative to low-weight cores in sandwich composites

Recyclable, closed-cell XPP foam offers good properties, resistance, recycled content/recyclability and thermoformability, including fusion/welding with PP-based composite skins.

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Adhesives

XlynX Materials BondLynx and PlastiLynx for low surface energy PP, PE substrates

Award-winning Xlynx materials use breakthrough “diazirine” technology to boost bond strength up to 950% as adhesives, primers and textile strengtheners.

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Consumer

Colored carbon fiber composite bike wheels launched at The Cycle Show

Wheel brand Parcours reveals composite bike wheels using Hypetex colored carbon fiber to achieve aesthetic, lightweight and performance goals.  

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Graphene

Viritech and Haydale pursue new functionalized materials for Type V composite vessels for hydrogen storage

Goal is considerable weight savings via lightweight, impermeable pressure vessels without a liner, further advance in Graph-Pro structural storage tanks with integrated fixation.

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Construction

21st century concrete: composite metamaterial with super compressability, energy harvesting

Material comprising 3D-printed, auxetic, reinforced polymer lattices in conductive cement matrix can compress up to 15% and generate electricity for lightweight, mechanically tunable structures with energy harvesting and sensing.

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Molds/Tools

Base Materials launches new polyurethane tooling board products for molding processes

Three new specialist products include BP600 medium-density and BP1200 and BP1700 abrasion-resistant, high-density PU tooling materials for vacuum forming, thermoforming, automotive modeling and more.

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Natural Fibers

Robotized system makes overmolding mobile, flexible

Anybrid’s ROBIN demonstrates inline/offline functionalization of profiles, 3D-printed panels and bio-based materials for more efficient, sustainable composite parts.

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Bonding

Brighton Science unveils BConnect: The world's first surface intelligence platform

Next-generation solution combines diagnostic tools with data analytics to understand and prevent bonding and adhesion issues in composites and other industries.

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ATLAM combines composite tape laying, large-scale thermoplastic 3D printing in one printhead

CEAD, GKN Aerospace Deutschland and TU Munich enable additive manufacturing of large composite tools and parts with low CTE and high mechanical properties.

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