Aerospace
Aircraft composites repair moves toward maturity
New technologies seek to address the challenges MROs will increasingly face in the age of commercial airliners with composite airframes.
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James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror fully assembled
The mirror consists of 18 primary mirror segments, each 1.3m wide and mounted on a composite backplane structure. The telescope will be launched in 2018.
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GE Aviation, Batesville, MS, US
With a supply chain busy making commercial jet engines like the GE90, GEnx, LEAP and GE9X, GE Aviation has invested heavily in its composites capabilities in Batesville.
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“Smart tooling” cuts time and risk for complex unitized composite structures production
One-piece bladder tooling helps to actualize NASA/Boeing’s revolutionary fluted core design for next-gen cryogenic fuel tank skirt.
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February supplement: Out-of-autoclave processing for aero use
We here at CW put together a supplement published with the February issue of the regular magazine that focuses on the technologies, tools and materials being used today in out-of-autoclave (OOA) processing for aerocomposites.
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Inflexion technology: complex composites without fasteners
Spirit AeroSystems has developed production methods using rigid-flexible tooling for more affordable unitized composite aerostructures.
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Graphene composite could help keep wings ice-free
A thin coating of graphene nanoribbons in epoxy developed at Rice University has proven effective at melting ice on a helicopter blade.
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Alternative precursor R&D: What are the alternatives to PAN?
Carbon fibers made from other precursors are in use, commercially, and many more precursor alternatives have been investigated.
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Alternative precursor R&D: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN, US) has been at the forefront of North American research into alternatives to the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor used to make aerospace-grade carbon fiber.
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Alternative precursor R&D: Lignin in the lightweighting limelight
This abundant, renewable resource shows promise as an alternative to PAN for low-cost, functional carbon fibers.
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