Autoclave
The half-full glass
During a recession — and I’ve only known relatively mild downturns until now — an editor always heads off to a trade show with, at best, some hesitancy and, at worst, gloomy pessimism.
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Composite wing key to high-speed stability
First mass-produced CFRP wing helps supercar achieve downforce and lateral acceleration values superior to many GT racing cars.
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The color purple: The "no complaints" movement
So, I finally heard about the “no complaints” movement the other day, which involves wearing a rubberized purple bracelet and switching it from one wrist to the other whenever one utters a negative word.
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COMPOSITES+POLYCON 2009 Showcase
Despite the deepening recession, composites pros returned to the show in its new time slot to explore the wealth of products and services collected here.
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Thermoplastic composites: Inside story
Reinforced thermoplastics buy their way into structural aircraft interior components.
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Inside R and D: A-VaRTM takes flight in Japan
Tests show out-of-autoclave process can reduce costs on new regional jet.
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Pultruding cost out of aerospace parts
Design-for-manufacturing effort proves to be cost-effective for carbon/epoxy airfoil on expendable UAV.
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Is it really low-tech vs. high tech?
I’ll bet that a lot of folks who read this column regularly — assuming I’m lucky and lots of folks are reading — have spent their entire careers working with E-glass without ever thinking they were high-performance geeks, too. To them, welcome to the club!
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"Metalworking" businesses find new niche with composites
Composite structures are replacing machined metal parts in certain applications — most notably, some aircraft components. As this happens, it would be easy to assume that businesses invested in machining metal will see activity decline. From the ground, however, there is plenty of evidence to support a different assumption.
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787 integrates new composite wing deicing system
The composite wing leading edge on Boeing’s Dreamliner features an integrated heating element that incorporates a sprayed metal conductive layer within the laminate stack.
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