CW's top 10 posts of 2018

Happy New Year!

It’s early January and a time to reflect upon the past year while looking ahead to 2019. As we look back, here’s a list of the most viewed articles on the CompositesWorld website in 2018. 

 

CompositesWorld’s Top 10 of 2018

1. I want to say two words to you: “Thermoplastic tapes” – Thermoplastic tapes are not new to composites, but they soon will join the primary aerostructures material palette and could be their future.
2. 3D printing composites with continuous fiber – New composite manufacturing technology for multimaterial, multifunctional composite structures.
3. PEEK vs. PEKK vs. PAEK and Continuous Compression Molding – Suppliers of thermoplastics and carbon fiber chime in regarding PEEK vs. PEKK, and now PAEK, as well as in-situ consolidation — the supply chain for thermoplastic tape composites continues to evolve.
4. Consolidating thermoplastic composite aerostructures in place, Part 1 – After more than 30 years of development, in-situ consolidation is nearing its promise to eliminate fasteners and the autoclave, and enable an integrated, multifunctional airframe.
5. PEEK or PEKK in future TPC aerostructures? – Which is better for in-situ consolidated thermoplastic composite primary structures? Materials play a part as to whether a one-step or two-step process will prevail.
6. 3D-printed composite wind blades and aircraft, closer than you think – Orbital Composites’ patented coaxial extrusion process is investigated at Airbus subsidiary CTC GmbH Stade and spins off advances in speed, scale, materials and multifunctionality as it aims for very large structures.
7. Carbon/glass spar cap enables world’s longest wind blade – LM Wind Power goes long with a resin-infused hybrid carbon composite strategy.   
8. Improving composites processing with automated inspection – Automated, in-situ inspection bypasses the bottleneck of manual inspection.  
9. The first composite fuselage section for the first composite commercial jet – Spirit AeroSystems was an established aerospace supplier when it earned that distinction, winning the contract for the Boeing 787’s Section 41. Now its sights are set on the next generation of aircraft.

10. Thermoplastic composite demonstrators — EU roadmap for future airframes – There is a TPC development roadmap in Europe, supported by Airbus and a variety of aerospace consortia, and involving almost every major aerostructures supplier in Europe.

Thank you for reading CW, and have a great 2019.