Design & Tooling

Molds/Tools

Temperature control heats up

Faster infusion is one way to reduce cycle time, but another is faster cure, which typically requires an elevated temperature.

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Sustainability

Composites testing at elevated temperature and moisture content

Dr. Donald F. Adams (Wyoming Test Fixtures Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah) notes the renewed interest in testing composites under hygrothermal conditions.

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Molds/Tools

Big museum, big structures

Massive aramid/carbon composite sandwich panels make Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum the largest composite-clad building in the world.

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Construction

Designing for high pressure: Large-diameter underground pipe

Careful analysis is needed to ensure success of buried composite piping for industrial applications.

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Automotive

Composite fuselage helps HondaJet upend biz-jet market

CFRP composites enable unitized structure with low-drag aerodynamics that transform aircraft performance and reduce cost.

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Tooling block makes affordable patterns for new superlight aircraft

Tooling for a new canard-winged pusher airplane, the e-Go (e-Go Airplanes of Cambridge, U.K.), was created from patterns made of EP678 epoxy tooling block, supplied by the Advanced Engineering Materials Product Group of Trelleborg Offshore UK (Skelmersdale, Lancashire, U.K.)

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Integrated, optimized aircraft door

This composites manufacturer is betting its one-piece 3-D preform and RTM process will trim weight from today’s fastener-intensive “black aluminum” aircraft doors.

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Impact testing of composite materials

Dr. Donald F. Adams (Wyoming Test Fixtures (Salt Lake City, Utah) discusses the methods for impact testing of composites.

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Wind/Energy

Ply placement: Largest laser projection system for wind blade manufacture

Following the recent installation of a 16-projector system for an aircraft fuselage application, Assembly Guidance Systems Inc. (Chelmsford, Mass.) recently delivered what it says is the largest unified laser-projection system of its kind, for wind turbine blade fabrication.

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Molds/Tools

Thermoplastic Wind Blades: To be or not?

Will future wind blades incorporate thermoplastic composites? It depends on whom you ask.

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