Out of Autoclave
Bridging the Centuries with Composites
Bob Sweet, president/CEO of Creative Pultrusions Inc. (Alum Bank, Pa.), established in 1973, is a graduate of the University of the Pacific (BS, business administration) and an active member of the Market Development Aliance (MDA) and the Pultrusion Industry Council (PIC), as well as the American Composite
Read MoreThermoplastic Composites Making An Impact
Product/process developments accelerate use of long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics in automotive and industrial markets.
Read MoreBig Blades Cut Wind Energy Cost
Rapid growth rate of composite-intensive conversion systems drives market competition and innovation.
Read MoreAll-Composite Platforms?
Gibson describes how a team representing the Centre for Composite Materials Engineering, MSP (formerly Maunsell Structural Plastics, Beckenham, Kent, U.K.) and Odebrecht Oil and Gas, a Brazilian-owned platform fabrication company, were tasked with redesigning the topside of BP’s small, minimum-facility Davy-Be
Read MoreDesign Issues With Tendons
A composite tendon is essentially a rope made from small-diameter rods, which are pultruded with carbon fiber. Multiple rods are gathered together and twisted slightly to form a strand, using typical wire rope stranding methods. Depending on the performance requirements, 10 to 40 strands, about 2 to 3 inches/5
Read MoreManufacturing Methods
Composite parts can be made in a controlled factory environment and delivered to the site as finished pipe, beams or grating, or fiber and resin can be combined on site to make or repair structures. Regardless of the fabrication method and its location, a quality composite requires that the reinforcement be co
Read MorePetrobras Pioneers Topside Composites
Petrobras (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) was the first major oil company to experiment with molded gratings in the 1980s, though these early products proved unsatisfactory due to wide variations in mechanical properties. However, advances in pultrusion and filament winding technology coupled with the availability of
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 MoreStudies Support Viability Of Composites
Numerous studies have compared the performance and cost of steel and composite tendons. Conoco, Norske Conoco A/S (NCAS) and KOP headed several projects to qualify composite TLP tethers prior to launching a full sea test. In a recent study, they compared steel and composite TLP systems in water depths up to 9,
Read MoreChanging The Paradigm
In Gibson’s opinion, large composite structures will be proven onshore, in civil infrastructure. “What will happen is that large pultruded parts and those made with other means will become commonplace,” he maintains, “and then the technology will migrate to other areas, including offshore oil.” Dr. Char
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