Out of Autoclave
OOA overview: Market & opportunities
CW looks at where aero-OEMs and their suppliers are finding out-of-autoclave alternatives.
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Composites manufacturing from a different angle
A bunch of really smart engineers showed up in Long Beach, CA, US this week for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ (SME, Dearborn, MI, US) AeroDef conference and exhibition. All were focused on looking at ways to manufacture products — composite or not — more efficiently.
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Thermoplastic honeycomb cores: Tough insulated sandwiches
Foam-filled nylon/polyester fabric yields sandwich panel cores with excellent mechanicals, durability, thermal insulation.
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Low-density SMC: Better living through chemistry
Proprietary sizing, special glass roving and microspheres strip 9 kilos of weight from Corvette body panels.
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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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Plant tour: Spirit AeroSystems: Prestwick, Scotland, UK
Global aerostructures giant Spirit AeroSystems ventures into out-of-autoclave (OAA) composites manufacturing via vacuum infusion.
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Fiber patch preforms help tailor kiteboard performance
Automated means for laying fiber only where needed offers new potential to fine-tune torsional stiffness and flexibility to board and rider styles.
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NASA/Boeing composite launch vehicle fuel tank scores firsts
Subscale 5.5m-diameter cryogenic tank demonstrator with innovative fluted-core skirt is formed via robotic AFP and cured out of the autoclave.
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