Space
Natural fiber composites: Market share, one part at a time
Suppliers and adventurous composites fabricators put the “feel good” aspect in the rearview mirror, winning customers by competing on price and performance.
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First 3D woven composite for NASA thermal protection systems
A NASA-led team develops 3D woven quartz preform, hybrid process to infuse it with cyanate ester resin (0.5% voids) and achieves TRL5 in three years to replace CF/phenolic in the Orion spacecraft’s compression pads.
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Plant tour: Harris Corp., Rochester, N.Y., U.S.
High-technology telescope and space structures expertise has its roots in legacy Kodak programs.
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Meet VSS Unity, Virgin Galactic’s new all-composite SpaceShipTwo
The new SpaceShipTwo is the first vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Co., Virgin Galactic's wholly owned manufacturing arm.
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Composites manufacturing from a different angle
A bunch of really smart engineers showed up in Long Beach, CA, US this week for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ (SME, Dearborn, MI, US) AeroDef conference and exhibition. All were focused on looking at ways to manufacture products — composite or not — more efficiently.
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“Smart tooling” cuts time and risk for complex unitized composite structures production
One-piece bladder tooling helps to actualize NASA/Boeing’s revolutionary fluted core design for next-gen cryogenic fuel tank skirt.
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Alternative precursor R&D: What are the alternatives to PAN?
Carbon fibers made from other precursors are in use, commercially, and many more precursor alternatives have been investigated.
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Alternative precursor R&D: Lignin in the lightweighting limelight
This abundant, renewable resource shows promise as an alternative to PAN for low-cost, functional carbon fibers.
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NASA/Boeing composite launch vehicle fuel tank scores firsts
Subscale 5.5m-diameter cryogenic tank demonstrator with innovative fluted-core skirt is formed via robotic AFP and cured out of the autoclave.
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CW opens up on out of autoclave, in February
You may not know that CW has prepared a Supplement to the upcoming February 2016 issue that examines out of autoclave processing in detail. It asks the question: Can OOA options be matured sufficiently to yield parts with <1% void content, outside of the autoclave?
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