Design & Tooling

Adhesives

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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Adhesives

Composites business does grow on trees

This advanced composites contractor welcomes down-to-earth opportunities to bring aerospace quality to fantasy foliage.

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Aerospace

Cutting time for composites design allowables

New approach by Dr. Stephen Tsai and Daniel Melo promises to reduce the required number of tests from 1,000 to mere dozens, providing results in days vs. months and at much lower cost.

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Aerospace

Extending robotic NDT to aerospace certification

Automating current manual testing promises increased speed, reduced cost, earlier damage detection and more detailed analysis of damage growth.

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Molds/Tools

Low-rate layup tools made cost-effective with high-density polyurethane foam blocks

Nemesis Air Racing, an air racing team and kit-plane company owned and operated by Jon and Patricia Sharp, use prebonded closed-cell, polyurethane foam blocks to build the Nemesis NXT.

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Compact tension fracture toughness testing

Dr. Donald A. Adams, president of Wyoming Test Fixtures Inc. (Salt Lake City, Utah) discusses compact tension fracture toughness testing.

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Automotive

SAMPE Europe 2014 Review

SAMPE Europe’s 35th International Conference (SEICO 14) was also its last. Beginning in 2015, SAMPE Europe will henceforth organize one large annual conference, combining its SEICO and SETEC events into a multitrack multidisciplinary conference and exhibition.

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Marine

Demonstration software modeling exercise aids Taiwan’s yachtbuilding community

Ray Tsai, technical director of Simutech Solution Corp. (Taipei, Taiwan) and colleagues develop a demonstration modeling exercise for Taiwanese motoryacht builders.

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