CW Blog

Aerospace

High-speed engine blade manufacturing

High-speed video of GEnx engine blade manufacturing at CFAN offers a great look at the complexity of composites manufacturing.

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GE Aviation's CMC parts facility in Asheville, NC

CW's first-hand look at ceramic matrix composites production.

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Infrastructure

Plant Tour: GE Aviation, Asheville, NC, US

An avant-garde approach to unprecedented CMC parts production.

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Aerospace

SAMPE 2017: Highlights

SAMPE returned to Seattle, WA, US, May 22-25 and featured the usual mix of conference presentations and exhibit hall activity. CW was there and offers this summary of highlights from the event.

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Automotive

Automated Preforming, Part 2: Glide Forming

Flat layups are shaped into stringers with different cross-sections, lengths, thicknesses and curvatures using a single machine at rates up to 10 mm per second.

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3D TPC structural preforming process lightens car doors

Automated cell manufactures and pre-impregnates continuous-fiber 3D preforms for injection/compression overmolding of parts with complex shapes, and tailored structural properties.

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Sustainability

An aerocomposites wish list

Boeing R&T fellow Tom Tsotsis offers his vision of how design and manufacture of composite parts and structures might evolve in the aerospace industry.

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Feature

Preforming goes industrial: Part 1

ATL and AFP-based preforming options now abound for processing dry and/or impregnated reinforcements as quickly as 1 minute or less with potential yearly part yields in the millions.

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RTM

Composites recycling is gaining traction

Although CW’s coverage of composites recycling dates back over a decade, informal statistics still show that only ~2% of composites-related companies are active recyclers. That said, three years since our most recent feature on the subject, there is demonstrably greater interest and activity, and real applications of recycled fiber are growing.

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Out of Autoclave

Composites at AIA 2017

The ACMA Architectural Division exhibited its 4th annual Composites Pavilion and 2nd annual COMPOSITES CHALLENGE for architectural students.

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Autoclave

Composite submersibles: Under pressure in deep, deep waters

Manned deepsea exploration calls for a highly engineered composites solution that saves weight and preserves life — at 6,500-psi service pressure.

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Wind/Energy

Polyurethane’s processing speed, properties enable bigger blades

Decade-long development effort reaches key wind energy cost-reduction milestone using epoxy-besting infusion resin.

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Composite raw materials
Quickly Make Molds, Tools and Fixtures
Alpha’s Premier ESR®
prepeg and slit tape products