A team of automotive researchers are engaged in a four-year project with goals of building a lighter, 100% recyclable, carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic door.
Bicycle manufacturer HIA Velo (Little Rock, AR, US), maker of carbon fiber bikes, is using a combination of composite materials to make their products more durable.
Cimarron Composites (Huntsville, AL, US) has made a leap forward in all-composite cryogenic tank development: development of a carbon fiber-reinforced composite storage tank capable of 15,000 micro-strain performance while in a pressurized liquid nitrogen environment.
Ford Motor Co. has announced that it will use graphene nanomaterial to enhance foam materials that reduce noise inside its vehicles and increase performance under the hood.
Prosthetics and orthotics often take advantage of composite materials’ strength and durability. Basalt fiber has given manufacturer Coyote Design (Boise, ID, US) a performance edge.
British company Prodrive Composites (Milton Keynes, UK) recently issued a press release about a process, called P2T (Primary to Tertiary), for manufacturing recyclable composite components that can satisfy future end-of-life requirements without any compromise in performance.
The Boeing Co. (Chicago, IL, US) and Thermwood Corp. (Dale, IN, US) have employed additive manufacturing technology to produce a large, single-piece tool for the 777X program.
Numerous supersonic concepts were announced at the National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA) annual meeting in Orlando in October, indicating it is a technology to watch.