Epoxies
The key to CNTs: Functionalization
An emerging supply base is integrating carbon nanotubes into commercial products that enable composites manufacturers to optimize part performance.
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Tough I-beam bridge for tank traffic
Immiscible polymer blending combines the strength of HDPE and the stiffness of glass-reinforced PP to create I-beams with specific strength greater than steel.
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Thermoplastic tubulars: Robust flexibility for offshore wells
In the oil and gas industry, a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite pipe (TCP) system from Airborne Composite Tubulars (The Hague, The Netherlands) is providing a less-expensive alternative to the traditional “rig” for flushing subsea wellhead stacks and injecting glycol under pressure.
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Urban turbine redesign taps benefits of additive fabrication
Michael R. LeGault details efforts to produce an anti-icing system for “small-wind” vertical-axis wind turbine blades.
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Boeing 787 Update
Approaching rollout and first flight, the 787 relies on innovations in composite materials and processes to hit its targets
Read MoreInterplay Of Materials And Use Conditions Key To Design
A wide variety of thermoplastic resins is used for the inner fluid/pressure barrier layer, which contains the conveyed material and eliminates any possibility of weeping through the fiber composite. The most common are families of polyolefins (e.g., polyethylenes), polyphenylene sulfides (PPS), nylons (polyami
Read MoreDownhole Composites Boost Durability, Drillability
Halliburton Energy Services, Schlumberger Oilfield Services, Weatherford International, and Baker Oil Tools, all based in Houston, Texas (U.S.A.), offer composite downhole tools — made with both thermoplastics and thermoset resins — for a variety of applications. Halliburton’s FasDrill packers and plugs
Read MoreDesign Issues With Subsea And Downhole Components
For structures below the water line and in the borehole, composites add to their list of benefits the key characteristic of design flexibility, because composite materials can be tailored to meet specific challenges. For example, composites can add buoyancy to low-pressure steel air cans on a spar platform’s r
Read MoreModular Cable Offers Flexibility
The Composite Carbon Cable system developed by Doris Engineering, IFP, Soficar and Freyssinet is based on a different design. Their concept is to assemble a tether from uniformly sized strands or “modules” made up of parallel rods. Each module is hexagonally shaped, allowing any number of modules (strands) to
Read MoreComposite Accumulator Bottles Perform In Service
A riser tensioning system for a TLP consists of a tensioning ring and framework, with four to eight hydraulic cylinders — each with an attached pressure vessel or “accumulator bottle” — to support and allow movement of the rigid riser pipe. Installed in the riser wellbay, this primary structural system is desi
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