Prepregs
Corvette's carbon hood creates shock and awe
North America’s first mass-produced, all-CFRP hood raises the bar for production sports cars.
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Challenge of engineering retrofit blades
Myriad interrelated design factors are considered in new blades for turbines originally built for high-wind regimes.
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Wind Blade Manufacturing: Cost-efficient materials-based strategies
The wind blade’s four key elements — the root, the spar, the aerodynamic shell or fairing, and the surfacing system — have present unique manufacturing challenges that must be met with carefully selected composite material systems and molding strategies.
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Shared composite material property databases
For more than a decade, NASA, FAA, industry and academia have been working toward the goal of creating a centralized composite material property database similar to that for metals. Their efforts, while productive, have not come with the war-like strength that the standardization of metals did. The composites industry is guided by Composite Materials Handbook 17 or CMH-17 (formerly known as MIL-HDBK-17).
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Prepreg forecast: Strong growth through 2013
Prepreg applications are on the rise in the composites industry as manufacturers in a variety of industries increasingly adopt this versatile material. Today, prepregs find use in commercial aerospace, military/defense, general aviation, space/satellite, marine, sporting goods, automotive, civil engineering, wind
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Polyurethane long fiber technology (LFT) replaces wood in spa surround
To many consumers, the thought of a relaxing soak in a hot tub is mighty appealing — but the thought of spa maintenance, particularly replacing rotted wood in the spa's cabinet-like enclosure, probably isn't. For spa manufacturer Clearwater Spas (Woodinville, Wash.), that reality and the fact that building decorativ
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Engineering Insights: Glass/Thermoplastic Hood Steps Toward Commercialization
The hood design for Hyundai’s QarmaQ concept car is evaluated against European and Japanese pedestrian safety requirements.
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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
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