Design & Tooling
The Picture Frame Shear Test method
Dr. Donald F. Adams (Wyoming Test Fixtures, Salt Lake City, Utah) reviews the history of the Picture Frame Shear Test method.
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Turning data into gold
The composites manufacturing environment is awash in data. It's possible to harvest that data and start predicting problems before they occur.
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Ultrasound evaluation of prepreg impregnation levels
The Ultran Group has developed non-contact ultrasound (NCU) that can accurately assess prepreg level of impregnation (LOI) with implications for out-of-autoclave processing, inline quality control and even automated tape laying.
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Software Update: Simulation saves
A look inside the increasingly well-equipped virtual toolbox for composite design, analysis, and manufacturing.
Read MoreSoftware Update: Simulating a repair
ÂÌñÏ×ÆÞ recently hosted a webinar with Altair’s (Troy, Mich.) Robert Yancey and Tim Harrell, structural analyst, United Launch Alliance (Centennial, Colo.), who discussed the use of Altair’s OptiStruct software to design a doubler repair patch for a rocket motor that was damaged with a gouge defect. “These composite components are very costly, so therefore if a manufacturing default happens, it is advantageous to fix the part,” explains Harrell.
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Software update: Materials database support for simulation/analysis
Another piece of the software integration puzzle in the aerospace world is finding ways and means to incorporate into the design process data from existing materials databases.
Read MoreMIT researchers reveal how bonded joints fracture and fail
Moisture reportedly plays crucial role.
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Camera-based ply placement cuts time, cost on complex rotorcraft parts
Applied Composites Engineering (ACE, Indianapolis, Ind.) uses PlyMatch ply placement technology from Anaglyph Ltd. (London, U.K.) to speed layup of the complex-shaped, heated inlet for a de-icing system on the AW169 helicopter, from AgustaWestland (Cascina Costa di Samarate, Italy).
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The evolution of the modified D 695 compression test method
HPC's Testing Tech columnist Dr. Donald F. Adams,the president of Wyoming Test Fixtures Inc. (Salt Lake City, Utah), looks at the long metals-to-plastics-to-composites history of this well-used and much modified compression test method.
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Modeling fabric materials for better parts
Multiaxial fabric maker Formax is involved in a multi-year endeavor to simulate the behavior of dry fabrics during the molding process.
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