Design & Tooling
Optimum unidirectional compression testing of composites
Dr. Daniel O. Adams, a professor of mechanical engineering, the director of the Composite Mechanics Laboratory at the University of Utah, and VP of Wyoming Test Fixtures Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT, US) discusses the complex relationship between composite tensile and compressive properties, why that makes it necessary to perform both tension and compression testing, and how best to perform the latter.
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Indiana Manufacturing Institute breaks ground
The Indiana Manufacturing Institute (IMI) is part of a $50 million project where Purdue University will advance research of composites manufacturing.
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3D Printing Moves Into Tooling Components
Some pundits predict that 3D printing, or additive manufacturing (AM), will change our world forever. While that may yet be, one thing is clear: The growth of 3D printing over the past two decades has wrought significant change in composites tooling. Although AM’s most obvious advantage is direct part production without tooling, the growing trend in the aerospace and automotive sectors at present is its use for fast, on-demand builds of mold tools to keep pace with accelerating composite part design cycles and demand for faster overall part processing speeds.
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Out-of-autoclave processing: <1% void content?
Research sheds light on air and air-bubble behavior in OOA aerospace prepregs.
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Heated composites
LaminaHeat enables heated composite tools and new opportunities for composites via multifunctional structures.
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Massive, bondline-free tooling block
A candidate for the biggest “bun” from high-density urethane foam?
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Virtual process chain + online process monitoring = first-time-right manufacturing
Co-authors Dr. Michael Bruyneel, Marc Attar and Dr. Christian Brauner (Siemens PLM Software, Liège, Belgium) illustrate the benefits of manufacturing simulation software in virtual trials of molding processes, using resin transfer molding as a reference.
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Weber Manufacturing Technologies: Midland, ON, Canada
With a long, storied history in composites moldmaking, this rare nickel vapor deposition specialist has built a strong niche, making large, high-quality tools.
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Ascent Tooling Group ascends via innovation
The world’s largest metal and composite moldmaker has a new name and continues to make a name for itself in closer control of large-part dimensional tolerance.
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Methods for interlaminar tensile testing of composites: A comparative evaluation
Dr. Daniel O. Adams, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Composite Mechanics Laboratory at the University of Utah and VP of Wyoming Test Fixtures Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT, US) compares and contrasts the direct and indirect loading methods for interlaminar tensile testing of composites.
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