Sara Black

Sara Black Senior Technical Editor Emeritus

Defense

Multi-material rudder: Trailing-edge parts replaced

TCB Composite (West Haven, UT, US) molds replacment parts that keep legacy US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter aircraft, affectionately dubbed Warthogs, in the air.

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Weaving

A critical market sector: Downhole composites in oil and gas

Tremendous secrecy and non-disclosure has kept this profitable composites application out of the spotlight, while it has enabled the current shale oil energy boom.

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RTM

SPE ACCE report

Automotive composites still on the horizon — are they getting closer?

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Space

CAMX 2014 show report

Bigger, better and more inclusive than any previous U.S. composites trade event, the inaugural show turns North American eyes forward to the future.

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Sustainability

Buoyant buildings: Modular design relies on cored composites

Arquitectura en el Agua’s (AEEA, Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands) architects and engineers convert for metal to composites for their floating modular structures for marinas, harbors, restaurants, hotels and leisure centers.

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Adhesives

Graphene-toughened composites

Are we getting closer to commercialized, and functional, nanotechnology?

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RTM

SPE ACCE 2014 report

Automotive composites still on the horizon — are they getting closer?

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Carbon Fibers

PMI foam core outperforms honeycomb in infused nose landing gear doors

The results of Airbus (Toulouse, France) subsidiary Composite Technology Centre GmbH (CTC, Stade, Germany) studies in 2013 to find more productive but less costly methods of fabricating carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sandwich constructions.

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NDI

Carbon fiber: Key to cost-conscious rehab

Carbon composites are effective solutions for repairs and upgrades of reinforced concrete.

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Aerospace

Combining curing processes for faster part production

Regloplas USA (St. Joseph, Mich.) says it has demonstrated a tool heating method that overcomes poor temperature uniformity in autoclave curing processes.

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NDI

PMI foam core outperforms honeycomb in infused nose landing gear doors

The results of Airbus (Toulouse, France) subsidiary Composite Technology Centre GmbH's (CTC, Stade, Germany) studies in 2013 to find more productive but less costly methods of fabricating carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sandwich constructions.

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Dual-laminates: Scaling up to scrubbers

A double-protection strategy for this massive fiberglass vessel tests pushes the limits of this shop’s fabricating and logistical planning skills.

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