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(El Segundo, Calif., U.S.), targeting the discovery and delivery of mission-critical advanced materials for defense and high-performance applications, announces the launch of its ApexShield 1000 high-temperature resin system. The thermal protection resin system enables parts fabricators to increase the speed of carbon-carbon (C/C) composite parts production for hypersonics glide bodies and other critical components such as rocket nozzle extensions. The same resin system also brings benefits to ablative applications, from solid rocket motor nozzles to ship vertical launch tubes.

Cambium used its AI-driven material discovery to optimize the processing and production of phthalonitrile-based resin systems in collaboration with U.S. Department of Defense laboratories, industry partners and the Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE). According to the company, the optimized resin system reduces C/C composite parts fabrication to 1-2 polymer infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) cycles, a reduction of 70-80% over legacy systems. Cambium contends that it is the first to achieve this PIP cycle breakthrough, which will enable parts manufactures to cut production time from 6-9 months to 1-2 months — and reduce costs proportionately.

ApexShield 1000 has a low melt viscosity that is ideal for vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) or resin transfer molding (RTM) applications. This system is room temperature stable, eliminating the need for freezer storage, and is being produced at metric-ton scale.

“C/C part production is a serious bottleneck holding back the rapid and cost-effective production of hypersonic-ready products. Cambium’s solution dramatically increases the production throughput with advanced materials that can be processed using existing infrastructure wholly within a domestic supply chain,” says Nate Monroe, Cambium VP of composite products. “These new phthalonitrile material systems deliver a whole new level of production speed and capacity to the U.S. DOD, prime contractors and subcontractors, a key priority for U.S. defense today.”