Design & Tooling
Concert hall composites: Acoustic alchemy
Massive composite acoustic structures will reflect and diffuse sound to heighten audio quality in a new high-profile performance space.
Read MoreTopology optimization
For Airbus (Toulouse, France), topology optimization is just one of many computer-aided optimization techniques that have been employed in the aircraft design process — and employed ever earlier — to reduce time and cost.
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Composite propeller for Royal Navy minehunter
Composite-for-metal replacement brings multiple benefits.
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Software speeds tape layer production, optimizes precision
the Siemens Aerospace Center of Excellence's (Elk Grove Village, Ill.) developed the Siemens SINUMERIK 840D CNC system speeds production on a large ATL machine at the former Boeing Wichita plant (now Spirit AeroSystems) in Wichita, Kan.
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Laminate bearing/bypass interaction test methods
Dr. Donald F. Adams (Wyoming Test Fixtures Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah) reviews laminate bearing/bypass interaction test methods.
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Improving laminates through anisotropy and homogenization
Dr. Stephen Tsai, professor research emeritus in the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics at Stanford University, discusses the merits of unbalanced (anisotropic) layers in composite laminates.
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Purging conservatism from composite designs
Craig Collier, president of Collier Research Group (Hampton, Va.) says cross-discipline software interconnectivity will unlock the full potential of composites.
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Tooling for composites: Evolutionary trajectory
New technologies and improved methods keep up as tools get bigger and more complex and toolmaking gets ever more challenging.
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Tooling boards improve processes
In the composites industry, many parts are the product of one-off or few-of-a-kind production programs. In response, tooling material suppliers today provide an increasing variety of relatively inexpensive materials grouped under the heading of tooling board.
Read MoreNew options for trapped tooling
Trapped tool removal can be difficult, but leaving the tool in place can compromise part weight and function. Here, HPC reports on several new approaches to this demolding dilemma.
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