Ginger Gardiner

Ginger Gardiner Senior Technical Editor

SRI develops scalable, infiltration-free ceramic matrix composites

Work in two DOE projects is demonstrating C/C-SiC produced in 3-5 days with <5% shrinkage, <10% porosity and 50% the cost of conventional C/C and C/C-SiC.

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Aerospace

Assembling the Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator: The final welds

Building the all-thermoplastic composite fuselage demonstrator comes to an end with continuous ultrasonic welding of the RH longitudinal fuselage joint and resistance welding for coupling of the fuselage frames across the upper and lower halves.  

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Carbeon C/C-SiC ceramic matrix composites without fiber coating

Dutch startup Arceon is working with leaders in space, hypersonics and industry to test its Carbeon CMC, validating near-net-shape parts with <3% porosity and performance at 1600ºC, targeting UHTCMC and a presence in the U.S. in 2025.

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Wind/Energy

Functionalizing surfaces for sustainability

Riblets reduce drag, fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and noise while boosting power output, flow rates, speed and efficiency.

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Pressure Vessels

Development of a composite liquid hydrogen tank for commercial aircraft

Netherlands consortium advances cryogenic composites testing, tank designs and manufacturing including AFP, hybrid winding, welding of tank components and integrated SHM and H2 sensors for demonstrators in 2025. 

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Composites 4.0

Schrödinger advances materials informatics for faster development of next-gen composites

Cutting time to market by multiple orders of magnitude, machine learning and physics-based approaches are combined to open new possibilities for innovations in biomaterials, fire-resistant composites, space applications, hydrogen tanks and more.

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Focus on Design

Design for manufacturing, assembly and automation enables complex CFRP telescope supports

Airborne delivered two mirror support structures for the FYST and SOLAT telescopes, assembling 26,300 components while maintaining near-zero CTE, strict tolerances on 6.5 × 6.5 × 1.8-meter assemblies.  

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Market Outlook

Composites end markets: Boatbuilding and marine (2025)

As 2023-2024 consumer demand slows, boat and marine vessel manufacturers continue to focus on decarbonization and new technologies using composites.

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Hydrogen Storage

SwRI announces JIP to spur H2 refueling, infrastructure tech for heavy-duty vehicles

SwRI’s H2HD REFUEL 4-year project is underway to advance H2 refueling and explore potential alternatives via system modeling, experiments and theoretical studies.

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Thermoplastics

MM-Welding solution automates, functionalizes composite joining

Ultrasonic joining has been used for decades, but is now being advanced to enable smart, automated fastening in composites and multi-material assemblies.

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Braided thermoplastic composite H2 tanks with co-consolidated molded boss areas to fit EV battery space

BRYSON project demonstrates possible designs, automated manufacturing and low permeability concepts, including EVOH liner and novel PPA matrix.

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Determining steel/composite failure load of bonded repair assemblies

Bureau Veritas and partners use a novel equivalent interface test specimen and simulation to predict failure load in bonded composite patch repairs to steel structures.

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