CW Blog
An open letter to the U.S. President-elect
Dear Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain, By now you have celebrated your hard-fought victory and are busy preparing to take office in January 2009.
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Wind Blade Manufacturing, Part I: M and P innovations optimize production
As demand for wind turbines reaches unprecedented levels, rotor blade manufacturers explore new production strategies, including automation and blade segmentation.
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Wind Blade Manufacturing: Are thermoplastic composites the future?
In a market dominated by thermoset composites, some wind turbine blade manufacturers are actively pursuing new composite blade designs featuring faster-processing reinforced thermoplastics.
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In-situ composite repair builds on basics
For on-aircraft repair, demand is on the rise for specialized composites training and expertise.
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Composites stabilize space-based telescope
Composite Primary Mirror Backplane Support Structure to hold James Webb Space Telescope’s thermal stability within extremely tight 38-nm dimensional tolerance.
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On the road with CW
Late summer and early fall is a busy travel time for the writers and editors of CT.
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Engineered fiberglass cladding replaces metal for retail architectural applications
When FormaShape's (Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada) engineering manager Henry Czenczek approached Husky Energy, one of Canada's largest energy companies, his demonstration of the way fiberglass composites could dramatically improve the look, weatherability and vandal-resistance of the ribbed tin architectural cladding on Husky's Travel Centre retail outlets was enough to persuade Husky execs to overhaul the entire network. For the Husky project, FormaShape applied NEi Nastran finite element analysis software, Solidworks 3D, supplied by Noran Engineering Inc. (Westminster, Calif.
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Composites and Polymer Concrete Refine Mining Processes for Nonferrous Metal
Cost-effective alternatives to steel-reinforced concrete offer corrosion-resistant acid tanks to electrolytic refinery operations.
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FRP forms enable fluted concrete column design
The Century Project, a 42-story luxury condominium tower in Los Angeles, Calif. , designed by Robert A. M.
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Standing Up to Natural Disasters
Composites are answering the call for residential and commercial structures that can weather future "perfect storms."
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New packaging machine uses lightweight carbon fiber airshafts
When Premier Paper Converting Machinery (New Berlin, Wis.) introduced its new custom machine for producing Kraft paper honeycomb used to make packaging materials, the device was equipped to hold four massive 98-inch/2.4m wide rolls of paper, each one weighing 5,300 lb/2,409 kg. To support these paper rolls during u
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Low-cost ultrasonic NDT method yields real-time results
Ultrasonic nondestructive inspection methods are based on the principle of wave propagation through a solid medium. A transmitter emits a sound wave, above the range audible to humans, that excites the structure, while the same (or a second) transducer picks up the resulting structural waves. In a typical setup, a C
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