Articles
Braided preforms meet phase-change tooling
A program from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory adopts automated braiding and phase-change tooling for a complex geometry unmanned aircraft part.
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Mandrel solutions for trapped & complex geometry composites
Smart Tooling explains how its shape memory polymer material can be used as a rigid layup mandrel, go through a cure process, elevated to elastic temperature, removed and reformed for re-use.
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Moving forward on the Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD)
Clean Sky 2’s MFFD program continues to move toward its goal of delivering a welded, thermoplastic composite fuselage demonstrator using next-generation manufacturing processes.
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Reprocessable thermosets and thermoplastic epoxies: An expanding landscape
New chemistries give thermosets new thermoplastic-like versatility.
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Composites in architecture: A hidden opportunity
Many applications in the aerospace and automotive industries apply equally to architecture, such as the use of FRP. Other opportunities for traditional composite materials may lie in seeking out creative applications.
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Composites durability and an asymmetrical pandemic
Highly engineered, long-life products, like those made with composites, even if thrown off stride by a recession, have a built-in time horizon that extends beyond the timescale of the pandemic.
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Leveraging towpreg to reduce the cost of CMC
High-denier, spread-tow Nextel 610 fiber and novel alumina matrix enable AFP production of Ox-Ox ceramic matrix composites.
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Using sensor data to improve composite parts and processes
nebumind software builds digital twins from manufacturing data to trace defects, compare manufactured parts, qualify processes, develop tolerance windows for process monitoring and more.
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Next-generation composites qualification
Fully digital qualification hasn’t yet arrived, but simulation and analysis software continue to evolve and work together with physical testing practices.
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Light resin transfer molding
Magnum Venus Products introduces its new Fast Flow light resin transfer molding (LRTM) system, which offers reduced injection times, minimal waste, and minimal post-processing.
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Composites Index marks first COVID-era expansion
Expanding new orders, production and employment activity send the Index over 50 for the month of September.
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The Alpha launch vehicle: Designing performance in, cost out
Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha 2.0 launch vehicle, designed to deliver satellites into low Earth orbit, gets a composites makeover in pursuit of larger payload capacity and more cost-effective performance.
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