Materials Testing

Sustainability 8 Feb 2016

Low-density SMC: Better living through chemistry

Proprietary sizing, special glass roving and microspheres strip 9 kilos of weight from Corvette body panels.

Out of Autoclave 5 Feb 2016

“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.

Carbon Fibers 29 Jan 2016

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.

Materials Testing 29 Jan 2016

Alternative precursor R&D: First commercial use of lignin carbon fiber?

GrafTech International (Independence, OH, US) is working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN, US) and the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office to develop lignin fiber manufacturing and demonstrate it in viable products.

Carbon Fibers 29 Jan 2016

Alternative precursor R&D: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN, US) has been at the forefront of North American research into alternatives to the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor used to make aerospace-grade carbon fiber.

Carbon Fibers 28 Jan 2016

Fiber patch preforms help tailor kiteboard performance

Automated means for laying fiber only where needed offers new potential to fine-tune torsional stiffness and flexibility to board and rider styles.

Materials Testing 28 Jan 2016

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.

Wind/Energy 28 Jan 2016

Advanced composites — An idealized future

A CW columnist, a composites industry consultant and the chief commercialization officer for the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (Knoxville, TN, US), Dale Brosius imagines an ideal future for our industry then challenges us to make it real.

Design/Simulation 28 Jan 2016

CompoSIDE and Trace: Game-changer for development of composite parts

Structural design challenges (delamination, coupling and shape distortions, resin-driven failures, local stress concentration and the like) are inherent in laminate architecture. The author's contention is that a solution can be found in design simplification afforded by the work of Dr. Stephen Tsai in Trace-based analysis.

RTM 8 Jan 2016