Sara Black

Sara Black Senior Technical Editor Emeritus

Glass Fibers

New architectural composite hits the market

NewBrick by Dryvit (West Warwick, RI, US) is a new composite brick product, meant to substitute for venerable fired clay bricks and, the company says, revolutionize the installation of brick veneer façades and exteriors.

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Automotive

Clemson students design new Mini vehicle

Students at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR, Clemson, SC, US) unveiled their newest Deep Orange concept vehicle, sponsored by the BMW Group (Munich, Germany).

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Thermoplastics

Composites and Industry 4.0: Where are we?

As the tide of the Fourth Industrial Revolution rolls in, how will composite manufacturers ride the wave?

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Aerospace

Airbus to acquire majority stake in Bombardier's C Series

Airbus SE (Toulouse, France) and Bombardier Inc. (Montreal, ONT, Canada) are to become partners on the C Series aircraft program, with the agreement signed Oct. 16. 

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The big blue bear: Redux

It’s been 12 years since I wrote “Composite Sculpture Bears a Second Look” about the big blue bear sculpture in downtown Denver, CO, US. The project opened my eyes to digital design, and gave me the opportunity to meet the sculptor, Lawrence Argent. Argent passed away last week.

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Carbon Fibers

Another win on a carbon composite SUP - Update

CW’s June 2017 Focus on Design story was about the design and creation of a custom carbon composite racing SUP or stand-up paddleboard (that led to a similar production SUP for consumers) for paddle athlete Travis Grant. Grant just won this year’s Molokai to Oahu race, on a new carbon fiber SUP, and set a world record. 

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Infrastructure

Pultrusions growing in construction: new EPTA report

There’s a new report out from EPTA (European Pultrusion Technology Assn., Frankfurt am Main, Germany) that discusses new trends for pultrusion in building and construction.

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Aviation’s big US show: Oshkosh 2017 highlights

The 2017 edition of the Experimental Aircraft Assn.’s (EAA) AirVenture airshow event, held in Oshkosh, WI, US, from July 24 – 30, was another blockbuster.

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Plant Tour: Fraunhofer ICT, Pfinztal, Germany

This wide-ranging research center works with government and industry to develop the best of polymer composite processing, across a range of technologies.

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Consumer

Automated cutter enhances bicycle production

Precision and reliability keyed startup’s success. 

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Glass Fibers

CAMX 2017 show preview

At North America’s premier composites conference and exhibition, the business at hand is definitely not business as usual. 

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Aerospace

Carbures beats 2016 aerospace production record

Spanish Tier 2 composites producer Carbures (El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain) announced recently that it has reached an historical record for production of composite aircraft parts, with 45,695 parts produced at its plants in Illescas and Jerez de la Frontera in Spain.

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