CW Blog

Autoclave 1 Jan 2005

SITE Manufacturing

SITE Manufacturing (Redding, Calif.) has taken knowledge acquired during more than 23 years of producing hi-tech carbon composite components, such as telescope housings (for Celestron, see story on p. 20), and applied it to the sport of paintball. "One year around Christmas, we decided we wanted to do something else,"

Compression Molding 1 Jan 2005

Compression molding with structural carbon SMC

Aircraft weapon system gains the high performance of carbon/epoxy with the efficiency of compression molding.

Adhesives 1 Jan 2005

Composites on the frontlines

Armored vehicle applications on the ground and in the air fuel a growing, evolving market forhigh-performance materials.

RTM 1 Jan 2005

Carbon fiber raises consumer performance index

Carbon bridges gap between large-volume sporting goods and aerospace to satisfy discriminating tastes in consumer and professional markets.

Design/Simulation 1 Jan 2005

One-piece molded carbon steering wheel for yachts

Concurrent product and manufacturing system design creates lightweight, hollow spoked structure without joints.

1 Dec 2004

Hurricane And Tornado Protection Offered By In-home Shelter

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (Wilmington, Del., U.S.A.) has introduced a new residential protection product called StormRoom, for shelter from hurricanes and tornados. The StormRoom is designed to withstand wind speeds as high as 250 mph and to deflect debris, such as flying wood timbers, moving at 100 mph. Since

Sheet Molding Compound 1 Dec 2004

Composites Aboard High-Speed Trains

Greater demand for weight reduction and aerodynamics put railcar manufacturers on track to greater and more extensive use of composites.

Weaving 1 Dec 2004

Composites Cut Costs Of Repairing Corrosion-Prone Systems

Composites materials and processing methods extend the useful life of noncomposite structures in industrial and infrastructure systems.

Sustainability 1 Dec 2004

Designing-in Corrosion Resistance

The most cost-effective way to prevent corrosion is to select corrosion-resistant materials.

1 Nov 2004

EMCs provide tougher alternative to shape-memory alloys and plastics

Composites Technology Development Inc. (CTD, Lafayette, Colo., U.S.A.) has developed TEMBO Shape Memory Polymers, elastic memory composites (EMCs) that are less dense and about one-fifth the weight of shape-memory metal alloys but deliver greater strength than other shape-memory plastics. "Most people think of

1 Nov 2004

Composite speed sailboat readied to break 50-knot barrier

Sailrocket (Bitterne Manor, Southampton, U.K.) is using new design concepts and composites to make its Sailrocket speed sailboat, in hopes of breaking the existing speed record of 46.25 knots (the goal is 50 knots). Its unique counterfoil design bypasses the stability problems encountered by monohulls and multihulls.

1 Nov 2004

Abrasive machining methods for composites

Cutting, routing and drilling are important post-processing steps for cured composite parts.