Sara Black Senior Technical Editor Emeritus

Autoclave 17 May 2016

Using 3D printing for composite molds and tools: the trend continues

Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, is becoming more common in the aerospace tooling realm. Production tooling can be made quickly and on-demand, which helps the tooling industry keep pace with accelerating composite part design cycles and demand for faster overall part processing speeds.

Aerospace 10 May 2016

Oshkosh “Fly-In” preview: Multi-day infusion demo

Visitors to the Experimental Aircraft Assn.’s (EAA) AirVenture 2016 (July 25-31) will have the opportunity to attend a reprise of last year’s multi-day infusion processing demo, again sponsored by Innegra Technologies (Greenville, SC, US).

Ketones 9 May 2016

Thermoplastic composite wings on the horizon?

OUTCOME, a project under the Clean Sky 2 program, aims to industrialize out-of-autoclave thermoplastic primary aerostructure.

Aerospace 9 May 2016

Carbures, el Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain

On a rapid and audacious growth trajectory, this Tier 2 supplier based on the Iberian Peninsula opens the doors of three foundational facilities near Spain’s aerospace epicenter.

Adhesives 5 May 2016

Carbon/epoxy Cadillac hood in production

While they typically keep their research efforts close to the vest, automakers and automotive Tier suppliers nevertheless are always in the process of evaluating the multitude of materials available for lightweighting.

Consumer 29 Apr 2016

TeXtreme spotlights composite protective headgear

At JEC World 2016, spread-tow reinforcements specialist Oxeon AB (Borås, Sweden) had on hand the recently announced Avance MIPS, an innovative ski racing helmet made by protective headwear manufacturer Giro Sport Design (Santa Cruz, CA, US).

Automation 29 Apr 2016

Acell premiers Smart Panel fire-supression system

Acell Industries Ltd. (Dublin, Ireland), developer of a cost-effective architectural panel technology covered previously in CW has announced Smart Panel, an innovative building fire-suppression system.

Out of Autoclave 29 Apr 2016

JEC World 2016: Fully recyclable sailboat hull demonstrator

Arkema (Colombes, France), in addition to news of its collaboration with Polystrand (Englewood, CO, US), had as the centerpiece of its stand a complete carbon fiber sailboat hull made with the company’s trademarked Elium liquid thermoplastic resin.

Out of Autoclave 29 Apr 2016

JEC World: Aerospace highlights

Fokker Aerostructures BV (Hoogeveen, The Netherlands), a GKN Aerospace company, demonstrated at its stand a thermoplastic composite aircraft demonstrator spoiler, fully functional and consisting of only three parts: top skin, bottom skin and a single spar.

Automotive 29 Apr 2016

SAMPE Europe Summit 2016

SAMPE Europe held its one-day Summit Paris 2016 event at the Hotel Pullman Paris Eiffel Tower on March 7. CW’s technical editor Sara Black was in attendance and noted the following standout presentations.

Fabrics/Preforms 29 Apr 2016

A&P, TenCate test database compares slit-braid and woven fabric

A&P Technology Inc. (Cincinnati, OH, US) introduced at JEC World 2016 a new database of test data, developed with TenCate Advanced Composites (Morgan Hill, CA, US) to compare laminates composed of its trademarked QISO quasi-isotropic (0°, ±60°) fabric, a slit braid material, with laminates composed of conventional woven fabric, both prepregged with TenCate’s highly toughened TC275-1 epoxy resin.

Compression Molding 14 Apr 2016

More on Spanish composites: Solution providers

My pre-JEC Europe 2016 trip through Spain yielded much fodder for future editorial content, and proved to me that the country’s composites sector is brimming with innovation.