Design & Tooling
Big museum, big structures
Massive aramid/carbon composite sandwich panels make Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum the largest composite-clad building in the world.
Read MoreDesigning for high pressure: Large-diameter underground pipe
Careful analysis is needed to ensure success of buried composite piping for industrial applications.
Read MoreComposite fuselage helps HondaJet upend biz-jet market
CFRP composites enable unitized structure with low-drag aerodynamics that transform aircraft performance and reduce cost.
Read MoreTooling block makes affordable patterns for new superlight aircraft
Tooling for a new canard-winged pusher airplane, the e-Go (e-Go Airplanes of Cambridge, U.K.), was created from patterns made of EP678 epoxy tooling block, supplied by the Advanced Engineering Materials Product Group of Trelleborg Offshore UK (Skelmersdale, Lancashire, U.K.)
Read MoreIntegrated, optimized aircraft door
This composites manufacturer is betting its one-piece 3-D preform and RTM process will trim weight from today’s fastener-intensive “black aluminum” aircraft doors.
Read MoreImpact testing of composite materials
Dr. Donald F. Adams (Wyoming Test Fixtures (Salt Lake City, Utah) discusses the methods for impact testing of composites.
Read MorePly placement: Largest laser projection system for wind blade manufacture
Following the recent installation of a 16-projector system for an aircraft fuselage application, Assembly Guidance Systems Inc. (Chelmsford, Mass.) recently delivered what it says is the largest unified laser-projection system of its kind, for wind turbine blade fabrication.
Read MoreThermoplastic Wind Blades: To be or not?
Will future wind blades incorporate thermoplastic composites? It depends on whom you ask.
Read MoreBig parts? Big tooling breakthrough
Electrically heated carbon fiber/PEEK/ceramic tooling and powdered epoxy resin system could revolutionize production of large composite aerospace structures.
Read MorePatented MECHTool system
Galway, Ireland-based ÉireComposites’ patented MECHTool (Mold Efficient Cooling and Heating) system was developed to replace traditional ovens in a number of thermoplastic molding processes.
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