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MAY 2011 / Vol. 19 / No. 3
■ Carrier jet-capable external fuel tanks
■ Reinforced thermoplastics in primary structure
■ Getting real about nanocomposites
■ SAMPE U.S. 2011 Preview/JEC Paris Highlights
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40 SAMPE 2011 Long BeachSAMPE returns to Long Beach in partnership with aerospace industry materials society ASM International.
By Mike Musselman
45 JEC Paris HighlightsThe news from this annual Parisian in-gathering of composites professionals is heavily weighted toward automotive lightweighting.
By Jeff Sloan & Sara Black
52 Thermoplastic Composites: Primary Structure?Yes, advanced forms are in development, but has the technology progressed enough to make the business case?
By Ginger Gardiner
60 Inside Manufacturing: Nanotechnology — Into the Realm of RealFast, scalable process grows nanostructures directly on composite reinforcements for “drop-in” use in volume production processes.
By Sara Black
FEATURES
ON THE COVER
An F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to the Gunslingers of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 105 takes off from an aircraft carrier flight deck, equipped with all-composite external fuel tanks that are attached, via pylons, to the plane’s bomb rack. The tanks are the subject of HPC’s “Focus on Design” feature (p. 78).Source: U.S. Navy
MAYvolume: nineteen
number: three 2011
18 NewsThe X-37B orbital vehicle, a possible unmanned replace-ment for NASA’s Space Shuttle, headlines a list that in-cludes thermoplastic composites on the Airbus A30X, a military jet update and ORNL’s new carbon fi ber line.
66 Calendar
67 Applications
69 New Products
74 Product & Literature Showcase
76 Marketplace/Ad Index
DEPARTMENTS
60
52
45
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
50
78 Carrier-Capable, All-Composite External Fuel Tank
How a shipboard tragedy, an investigation and new rules for survivability and in-fl ight load-bearing ca-pabilities introduced the U.S. Navy to the many ad-vantages of composites over metals in the con-struction of external fuel tanks for aircraft carrier-based jet fi ghters.
By Michael R. LeGault
FOCUS ON DESIGN
COLUMNS
7 From the Editor HPC editor-in-chief Jeff Sloan, fresh from his trip to Paris for the JEC Composites Show, wonders aloud whether thermo-plastic composites might represent the next megatrend in commercial aircraft materials selection.
9 Market TrendsA mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialist in the advanced materials world, investment banker Michael Del Pero pre-dicts the likely course of M&A activities in the near future as pent-up investment capital is released.
11 From the PodiumCompositesWorld Conferences director Scott Stephenson outlines four presentations at two recent CW conferences that brought into sharp focus the fact that nanoscale en-hancement of composites is no longer pie-in-the-sky.
15 Testing TechTesting guru Dr. Donald F. Adams follows up his discussion in the March issue of when and why composite test specimens should be tabbed with a practical explanation of the variety of ways tabbing can be accomplished.
50 Work in ProgressHPC editor-in-chief Jeff Sloan sidesteps the current debate between autoclave curing and emerging oven-cure strate-gies to highlight a prominent aerospace composites manu-facturer’s investigation of microwave curing.
69
18
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4 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 5
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
EDITORIAL OFFICESCompositesWorldPO Box 992 / Morrison, CO 80465p: 719.242.3330 / f: 513.527.8801 / www.compositesworld.com
Mike Musselman / Managing Editor
Sara Black / Technical Editor
Jeff Sloan / Editor-in-Chief
[email protected] / 719.242.3330
Dale Brosius
Ginger Gardiner
Michael R. LeGault
Peggy Malnati
Karen Wood
John Winkel
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EDITOR
FROM THE EDITOR
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 7
s an editor who re-
ports on and for the
composites indus-
try, I usually go to a trade
show with two primary
goals: First, to discover
as much information as
possible about new and emerging products and
technologies that might help our readers do their
jobs better; second, to look for macro trends and
themes that are shaping the composites commu-
nity. Occasionally, however, I fi nd myself at the
super-macro level, struck by themes that reach be-
yond the horizon and portend profound change to
come.
And so it was that I found myself, on the last day
of the JEC Composites Show (March 29-31, Paris),
after three very busy days, asking this question:
How much of the next generation of commercial aircraft pri-
mary structure will be made from thermoplastic composites?
This query did not come out of the blue. Ther-
moplastic composites (TPCs) were emphasized
by many companies at this year’s JEC Paris show,
and there was some discussion of Airbus, which
has been assessing TPC use in structures currently
made with thermoset composites. Layered over
this was the Airbus A30X, the company’s next-gen-
eration single-aisle, destined to succeed the forth-
Atuning that is certain to come
over the next several years. In
the meantime, thermoplastics
have earned their way into the
wing leading edges of the Air-
bus A330/340 and the Airbus
A380, the vertical tail of the
Gulfstream G650 business jet and other structures.
(For a update on ongoing efforts with aerospace
TPCs, see Ginger Gardiner’s timely report, “Ther-
moplastic composites: Primary structure?” in this
issue, on p. 52.)
Here in the U.S., Boeing is busy deciding how it
should proceed with a replacement for its single-
aisle 737. Re-engining is apparently not a consid-
eration, thus a new plane is in order. The question
is where and how a 737 replacement might employ
composites. Boeing currently produces about one
737 a day, a pace that cannot be met
by the fi ber placement technology
used on the 787. Out-of-autoclave ma-
terials and processes are promising in
this regard because they offer quicker
cycle times. And quicker still are ther-
moplastics, but how ready are they for
application in commercial aircraft structure?
Probably more ready than many of us realize. Un-
til now, use of TPCs in commercial aircraft outside
the passenger cabin has been limited and tenta-
tive, but successful all the same. Could we stand
at the cusp of a new era of ambitious use of TPCs
in aircraft primary structure? One that could, again,
as thermoset composites have, reshape the com-
mercial aircraft industry?
Jeff Sloan
coming, re-engined A320neo.
Might Airbus be looking at extensive use of TPCs
in the A30X? Possibly. The plane, at last check,
penciled in for a 2030 introduction (thus, my “be-
yond the horizon” reference), has time to await the
TPC research, developmental steps and the fi ne-
How much of the next generation of com-
mercial aircraft primary structure will be
made with thermoplastic composites?
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MARKET TRENDS
MARKET TRENDS
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 9
Michael Del Pero is
the head of Compos-
ites and Advanced
Materials coverage
at boutique invest-
ment banking firm
FocalPoint Partners
LLC (Los Angeles,
Calif.). For more than
10 years, he has pro-
vided strategic and
financial advice to middle-market firms
involved in M&A transactions, capital rais-
ing and financial restructuring. A regular
contributor and presenter for various
events and publications in the advanced
materials industry, Del Pero is the resident
chairperson of the annual Composites-
World Investment Forum.
T
M&A ACTIVITY IN THE COMPOSITES INDUSTRY
It comes as no surprise that
aerospace continues to be an
area of strategic growth.
he end of 2010 witnessed merger
and acquisition (M&A) activity remi-
niscent of the height of the market
in 2007. Despite concerns that deal
activity might fl atten out in 2011, the
M&A freight train rolled through the
New Year and headed into the second
quarter at full speed. After three years
on the sidelines, corporate America is
starting to chip away at the $1.5 tril-
lion (USD) in cash that accumulated
as companies spent the majority of their
efforts on cost-cutting and “right-sizing”
their businesses. Similarly, private eq-
uity investors are sitting on a record $500
billion in capital that must be invested
to justify additional fundraising activity.
What corporations and investors both
know is this: To grow, you must invest.
These factors are the primary drivers
of dealmaking in the composites indus-
try today. Through the end of the fi rst
quarter, ~25 acquisitions and fi nancing
transactions were announced, involv-
ing composites and advanced-materials
companies. These include several high-
profi le deals, such as Warren Buffett-
backed Berkshire Hathaway’s (Omaha,
Neb.) $9 billion takeover of publicly held
Lubrizol Corp. (Wickliffe, Ohio), and Cy-
tec’s (Tempe, Ariz.) long-anticipated di-
vestiture of its noncore building block
materials business to private equity
group H.I.G. Capital for $180 million. As
headline-worthy as these deals have
been, the real story is the strategies that
have driven them.
It comes as no surprise that aero-
space continues to be an area of strate-
gic growth. M&A interest in aerospace
composites is particularly high. Despite
the high interest, we don’t anticipate as
many M&A transactions in the aerospace
segment as one might expect. This isn’t
due to lack of either acquisitive interest
or available funding. In fact, strategic and
private equity-backed aerospace com-
panies approach my fi rm almost daily,
seeking aggressively to acquire assets
with composites capabilities in both ma-
terial technologies and component fab-
rication. The inhibiting factor is that few
targets currently meet the size criteria of
acquirers that need to deploy meaning-
ful amounts of capital. This should be
an indicator for any scalable aerospace
composites player who is entertaining an
exit in the near future. There will be high
interest expressed by acquirers who are
willing to pay a “scarcity premium” for a
competitively differentiating opportunity.
We do expect to see healthy deal ac-
tivity in composites, particularly in con-
struction and building products. For the
most part, acquirers have concluded that
the bottom has been reached in these
markets and that there is an opportu-
nity to invest ahead of the full recovery.
A good example of this trend is building
products manufacturer and distributor
Gibraltar Industries’ (Buffalo, N.Y.) pend-
ing acquisition of private equity-backed
D.S. Brown (North Baltimore, Ohio) for
~$100 million. H.I.G. Capital’s (New York,
N.Y.) refi nancing of composite building
products manufacturer Advanced Envi-
ronmental Recycling Technology (AERT,
Springdale, Ark.) is another. Although
acquirers are unwilling to completely ig-
nore the fi nancial downturn that affected
most composite building product com-
panies in 2009-2010, they seem willing
to structure transactions creatively, thus
giving sellers some upside credit for an-
ticipated growth in 2011. We also expect
to see increased deal activity in the auto-
motive sector as composite applications
continue to play an increasing role.
In several recent cases, parties on both
sides of the deal have been indicative of
noteworthy M&A trends. The majority
of recent deals we have seen involved
either corporate-to-corporate plays
or private equity-backed transactions.
These “smart money” players are gener-
ally more strategically and opportunisti-
cally motivated than many privately held
businesses; they are intent on timing the
market and achieving maximum valua-
tion. There appears to be a consider-
able disconnect between acquirers
who are fl ush with cash and looking
to deploy capital now and sellers who
hope that market valuations will re-
cover and grow to new peak levels over
time. The risk here is that the capital
available today might not be available
if and when the market fully recovers
two or three years from now. Those with
money want to invest now and will fi nd
the best opportunities available to sup-
port their growth today.
Another factor seems to be unique to
companies in this industry. Many do not
regularly employ experts who bring pro-
fessional and strategic guidance to their
growth objectives. Our experience is that
companies that enlist the services of an
investment banker or advisor, just as
they would an accountant or attorney,
tend to have more successful M&A and
overall growth strategies. Even when a
company is not considering immediate
action, it is prudent to have an advisor
on hand to act as a sounding board for
strategic decision-making purposes and
help them stay close to opportunistic
situations in the market.
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All rights reserved. 7238 (4/11)
FROM THE PODIUM
FROM THE PODIUM
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 1 1
Scott Stephenson is
CompositesWorld’s
conference direc-
tor. He has been
involved with carbon
f iber composites
since 1983 when he
started working for
Fiber Materials Inc. (Biddeford, Maine), a
leading manufacturer of carbon/carbon
composites. Since 1997, Stephenson
has organized conferences and published
studies to provide industry executives
with strategic information about and anal-
yses of the advanced materials and
technologies that drive innovative product
development.
A
NANOTECHNOLOGY: IT’S REAL
common theme at Composites-
World conferences in the past year
has been the speed with which nan-
otechnology is developing for compos-
ites applications. It’s no longer magic
foo-foo dust — it’s real, and it’s mov-
ing into the commercial realm. In this
column, I’ll outline four recent presen-
tations that highlighted nanoscale en-
hancements to fi bers and resins.
At Carbon Fiber 2010 (La Jolla, Calif.),
Dr. Tia Benson Tolle, nonmetallic mate-
rials division technology director at the
Materials & Manufacturing Technology
Directorate, housed at the Air Force Re-
search Laboratory (AFRL, Dayton, Ohio),
gave an overview from her perspective of
the nanomaterials research space, high-
lighting some promising approaches. A
key point, she noted, is that “control at
the nanoscale enables fundamentally
new material properties and functions
that can’t be predicted from bulk or
atomic-level understanding. It allows us
to circumvent the property tradeoffs that
are so common with conventional ma-
terials.” Starting with some of the earli-
est nanocomposites research conducted
by Tokyo, Japan-based Toyota Research
Group in the mid-1980s, she described
how that group modifi ed nylon 6 with
small amounts of nanoclay additive.
This seminal effort helped propel nano-
technology research, she says, on the
strength of eye-opening results: nearly
double the tensile modulus, a 55 percent
increase in tensile strength, 22 percent
better impact strength and reductions
in both water absorption and thermal
expansion of about 50 percent. In the
two decades since then, there has been
what Benson Tolle termed an “explosion”
of research and publications, worldwide,
with global investment, multiple confer-
ences and hundreds of market applica-
tions. “Technology challenges and hur-
dles remain,” she admits, “but nanoscale
control is defi nitely a part of today’s en-
gineered materials.”
Benson Tolle briefl y discussed on-
going research by Dr. Cate Brinson of
Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.).
Her work involves dispersing carbon
nanofi bers (CNF) in the matrix phase
of carbon-fi ber-reinforced composites
to increase the strength and stiffness
in matrix-dominated confi gurations, in-
cluding tension of quasi-isotropic com-
posites and short beam shear strength of
both quasi-isotropic and unidirectional
composites. Brinson’s work has high-
lighted the role of nano- and microre-
inforcement in composites that contain
fi bers and CNF. “The shape, chemistry,
surface treatment and dispersion of the
nanoparticles can impact the modulus,
strength, toughness, strain behavior,
conductivity and permeability of the
composite,” said Benson Tolle. “Selec-
tion of a nanoparticle should be guided
by the property one wishes to enhance.”
“Nanotailoring” is another interest
area for Benson Tolle. Research at the
University of Dayton, Case Western Re-
serve and Rice University, among others,
has demonstrated that nano-enhance-
ment of the matrix, the fi bers or the fi ber/
matrix interface can optimize many prop-
erties. For example, joint research by the
AFRL and Texas A&M University showed
that a mere 1 percent dispersion of car-
bon nanotubes (multiwalled and single-
walled) in the epoxy matrix of a four-ply
balanced laminate almost doubled its
electrical conductivity, Benson Tolle re-
ported, adding that the work has pos-
sible application for lightning strike pro-
tection. Elsewhere, Cambridge University
is attempting to spin multiwalled carbon
nanotubes from which high-strain-to-
failure yarns could be made for multi-
functional applications.
This research is important because air
and space platforms can no longer afford
parasitic weight or volume. “In the classic
structural design mode, a material could
often be optimized for a single function
or property.” Benson Tolle says. But to-
day, materials must perform functions
beyond the structural. Multifunctional
materials are the new reality; they pro-
vide sensing capability, thermal or elec-
trical conductivity and more, in addition
to structural function. But, Benson Tolle
cautions, not all nanotubes are alike;
their properties vary with their structures
(e.g., a fullerene vs. a chiral structure),
and can impact conductivity. Buyers
should be aware of the various nano-
structure shapes, their chemistries, their
resulting properties, and the differing ef-
fects they have on processing. “There are
proven benefi ts and new opportunities
for the carbon fi ber community,” said
Benson Tolle, “but take a ‘smart buyer’
approach so that you exploit the benefi ts
for your specifi c application.”
William Stringfellow, a composites
specialist at NanoRidge (Houston, Tex-
as), discussed several innovative nano-
technologies, obtained through licenses
with Texas universities, including Rice,
Texas A&M and others. The company’s
core competency, says Stringfellow, is
the functionalization of carbon nanotubes
and nanoparticles to more effi ciently ex-
ploit their benefi ts. “The natural carbon
bundles must be dispersed,” he explains.
“And the choice of functional group is
critical, since it has a major affect on
property enhancement.”
NanoRidge is exploring a number of
promising initiatives, including poly-
mers that incorporate nanotubes for en-
hanced electrical conductivity, structural
composites that include nanoparticles,
nanotube-enhanced ceramics and
FROM THE PODIUM
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 1 3
metals and a U.S. Air Force-sponsored
research program to grow carbon nano-
tubes directly on carbon fi bers. The lat-
ter is now in Phase II, after Phase I work
showed that carbon nanotubes could
be grown directly on polyacrylonitrile
(PAN)-based carbon monofi la-
ments. Balanced fi ber-reinforced
polymer nanocomposite (FRPNC)
laminates were resin transfer mold-
ed, using a common aerospace-
grade epoxy resin and 12 plies of nano-
enhanced Hexcel (Stamford, Conn,) IM7
fi ber in a satin weave. In tests, the FRPNC
showed signifi cantly improved tensile
strength, stiffness and fatigue life, and,
says Stringfellow, the PAN-based carbon
fi bers with nanotubes apparently hinder
fi ber/matrix interface cracking, a primary
cause of failure. More improvement is
possible, he adds, via variations on the
type of nanotube, the functionalization
and/or the weight percentage of growth.
At High Performance Fibers 2010
(Charleston, S.C.), David Hartman of
Owens Corning (Toledo, Ohio) also dis-
cussed growth of nanoparticles directly
on reinforcing fi bers. His company is
partnering with Applied NanoStructured
Solutions (ANS, Baltimore, Md.), a Lock-
heed Martin subsidiary, to produce car-
bon nanotube (CNT)-enhanced fabrics
for electrical conductivity applications,
such as lightning strike protection (see
“Inside Manufacturing,” p. 60).
Dr. Thomas Tsotsis, a technical fel-
low at Boeing Research and Technol-
ogy (Huntington Beach, Calif.), and
co-authors Satish Kumar, Han Gi Chae,
Young Ho Choi, Yaodong Liu and Prab-
hakar Gulgunje of the Georgia Institute
of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.) reported
on their investigation into hollow carbon
fi bers that incorporate CNTs and how
to produce them affordably, in large
volumes, with respectable properties.
“Maximum strength cannot be achieved
with discontinuous nanofi bers,” Tsot-
sis observed. “Further, you would need
many millions of nanofi laments spun
together to form a usable tow.” He re-
ports that hollow fi bers produced in a
bicomponent gel-spinning process (pat.
pend.) incorporate the benefi t of nano-
fi bers at a standard fi lament size. The
results include better properties and
seamless integration with existing fi ber
handling equipment. The spun fi bers,
which are afterward carbonized, begin
with a core of polymethyl methacry-
late (PMMA) inside an outer shell of
PAN combined with carbon nano-
tubes. By varying the gel-spinning
and drawing process, the fi bers
can be produced with islands of PMMA
within the sea of enclosing PAN. The
PMMA is then dissolved, leaving a hol-
low PAN shell. Tsotsis says the proper-
ties of traditional solid carbon fi bers are
mostly determined by the highly aligned
carbon in the outermost part of the fi ber,
rather than by the amorphous carbon
in the center. Thus, the PAN/CNT shell
contributes high performance at reduced
fi ber density. The CNTs in the shell con-
tribute to a highly aligned structure and
high in-plane stiffness and strength, says
Tsotsis, at a cost per unit of weight equal
to or less than that of current fi bers.
These promising efforts could soon
spawn multifunctional composite parts
with radical new functionality.
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 1 5
TESTING TECH
TESTING TECH
Dr. Donald F.
Adams is the
president of Wyo-
ming Test Fixtures
Inc. (Salt Lake
City, Utah). He
holds a BS and an
MS in mechanical
engineering and
a Ph.D in theo-
retical and applied
mechanics. Following a total of 12 years
with Northrop Aircraft Corp., the Aero-
nutronic Div. of Ford Motor Co. and the
Rand Corp., he joined the University of
Wyoming, directing its Composite Mate-
rials Research Group for 27 years before
retiring from that post in 1999. Dr. Adams
continues to write, teach and serve with
numerous industry groups, including the
test methods committees of ASTM and
the Composite Materials Handbook 17.
T
TABBING COMPOSITE TEST SPECIMENS: THE HOW
he when and why of tabbing compos-
ite test specimens were the subjects
of my previous column (see “Learn
More,” p. 17), which included a discus-
sion of tabbing materials, tab thickness
and taper angle, and adhesive selection.
This article describes the how. I must em-
phasize that there is no one right way, so
I will discuss several approaches. Without
a doubt, some approaches will have more
appeal than others to individual readers.
However, each approach meets our ob-
jective: to adhesively bond four strips of
tabbing material to a panel of composite
material from which individual test speci-
mens can be cut (see Fig. 1).
Perhaps the simplest approach is to
apply adhesive to each of the four tab-
bing strips and then position them on a
composite plate that has been marked to
indicate the desired gage length. Mask-
ing tape can be used as a marker and
will keep adhesive from getting onto the
panel’s gage section. It also can be used
to hold the tabbing strips in place dur-
ing adhesive cure. Inexpensive and read-
ily available, masking tape is often used,
but it can be diffi cult to remove when the
adhesive is cured at an elevated tempera-
ture. In that case, a more thermally stable
tape might be a better choice.
As discussed last time, the adhesive
can be paste or fi lm. When paste ad-
hesive is used, it can be applied to the
tabbing strips and the composite plate.
However, excessive application should
be avoided to minimize cleanup. The use
of a fi lm adhesive minimizes the risk of
excessive use and cleanup. But both ad-
hesive types, in the uncured state, make
it easy for the mating parts to slip out of
alignment. Therefore, keeping the mul-
tiple pieces accurately positioned while
the tape is applied can be a challenge.
But with a little practice, it can be done.
Tab alignment is made easier by us-
ing two spacer plates, typically made
of metal and similar in thickness to the
tabbing strips. The plates’ length should
equal the specimen gage length, but they
must be wider than the composite panel
so they can be bolted together at each
end with the panel sandwiched between
them. The spacer plates maintain the de-
sired gage length when the tabbing strips
are indexed against them. Tabbing strips
then can be taped to the spacer plates,
and to each other, to better prevent slip-
page during adhesive cure. Postcure
cleanup is easier because the tape does
not contact the composite panel.
The easiest approach is to use a self-
contained tab-bonding fi xture (two ex-
amples are shown in Fig. 2). The fi xture’s
base plate is fi tted with pins, against
which the tabbing strips are indexed to
establish the specimen gage length. That
is, the pins serve the same purpose as the
spacer plates of the previous approach.
A tensile specimen tabbing fi xture is
shown on the left in Fig. 2. The top pins
are spaced apart from the bottom pins
to establish the desired specimen gage
length. The right side of Fig. 2 shows a
tabbing fi xture for a Modifi ed D 695 Com-
pression specimen. Because this speci-
men has a very short (4.78 mm/0.188
inch) gage length, the fi xture features
two centered pins of this diameter (the
smaller pins in the fi gure), and the tab-
bing strips for both ends of the specimen
are indexed against them.
No matter which fi xture is used, adhe-
sive is applied to two of the tabbing strips,
and then each is placed, adhesive side up,
on the base plate and indexed to the ap-
propriate set of pins. Then the composite
panel is added and indexed against either
the left or right pair of pins. Note that the
tabbing strips must be wide enough to
engage the indexing pins, and the com-
posite panel must be narrow enough to
fi t between the left and right pins. Then
adhesive is applied to the two remain-
ing tabbing strips, and they are placed on
the composite panel against the index-
ing pins. Finally, the fi xture’s cover plate,
with hole locations that match the pins in
the base plate, is lowered into position to
complete the assembly.
Fixture plates are typically aluminum.
Its high thermal conductivity ensures ef-
fi cient heat transfer during elevated-tem-
perature curing. However, for adhesives
that have very high cure temperatures, it
might be desirable to use a material that
exhibits greater strength and stiffness
at high temperatures, such as stainless
steel.
Regardless of the fabrication method,
the bonding surfaces of both the
Fig. 1 Tabbed composite test panel.
Individual test specimens to
be cut from the tabbed panel
Tabbing strips (four places)
Composite test panel
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 1 7
TESTING TECH
Read this article online at http://short.
compositesworld.com/63DK3S6x.
Read Dr. Adams’ discussion of “Tabbing
composite test specimens: When and why,” in
HPC March 2011 (p. 18) or visit http://short.
compositesworld.com/l6ZbF6BA.
LEARN MORE @
www.compositesworld.com
composite panel and the tabbing strips
must be adequately prepared prior to ap-
plying the adhesive. The goal is twofold:
(1) remove all surface contaminants,
such as mold waxes, release agents,
greases and oils; and (2) roughen the
surface to enhance mechanical bonding.
On the panel, this is achieved by remov-
ing some of the plate’s thin, resin-rich
surface by either light hand sanding or
grit blasting. The latter is preferred when
such equipment is available because
sanding, if the panel has any surface ir-
regularities, will remove more material
at the high points, potentially damaging
the underlying fi bers. However, excessive
grit blasting also can damage fi bers. The
surfaces then can be washed in water
to remove debris, dried and then wiped
with acetone, alcohol or similar solvent.
If tapered tabs are used, the taper can
be achieved in several ways. The sim-
plest approach is to use a belt sander
with the tabbing strip resting on a ta-
pered block of the desired angle. A con-
ventional router also can be used. To
increase speed and accuracy, a milling
machine or surface grinder can be used,
with the tabbing strip held at the correct
angle by a clamping jig.
Another issue is control of the bond-
line thickness (typically 0.5 to 1.2 mm or
0.020 to 0.050 inch). Film adhesives are
not problematic because the fi lm is al-
ready a uniform thickness and typically
has a woven glass carrier cloth embed-
ded in it, which maintains the thickness
during cure. For paste adhesives, the
thickness can be controlled by placing a
few glass beads or a wire of the appropri-
ate diameter onto the adhesive at each
end of the tabbing strip to act as a stop.
Compaction during cure can be
achieved using weights, a vacuum bag, a
press (with heated platens, if required)
or an autoclave.1
R e f e r e n c e1D.O. Adams and D.F. Adams, “Tabbing Guide
for Composite Test Specimens,” Federal Avia-
tion Administration Report No. DOT/FAA/AR-
02/106, October 2002, online at http://www.
tc.faa.gov/its/worldpac/techrpt/ar02-106.pdf.
0’’ 3’’ 6’’Fig. 2
Specimen tabbing fixtures.
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1 8 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
NEWS
NEWSUnmanned X-37B orbital test vehicle begins second fl ight Crewless spacecraft could replace Space Shuttle and reduce costs
The Boeing Co. (St. Lou-
is, Mo.) on March 5 an-
nounced the successful
launch of the second Boeing-
built X-37B Orbital Test Vehi-
cle (OTV) for the U.S. Air Force
Rapid Capabilities Offi ce
(RCO). The mostly composite
OTV was launched on an Atlas
V rocket into a low Earth orbit
from Cape Canaveral Launch
Complex 41. It was the second
launch of the OTV; the fi rst
occurred in April 2010, and
the vehicle remained aloft in
orbit for approximately eight
months, then successfully re-
entered Earth’s atmosphere
and landed at Vandenberg Air
Force Base, Calif., in Decem-
ber 2010.
“History was made in De-
cember when the X-37B be-
came the United States’ fi rst
unmanned vehicle to return
from space and land on its
own,” said Craig Cooning, VP
and general manager of Boe-
ing Space & Intelligence Sys-
tems. “The success of that
mission validated this reus-
able and effective way to test
new technologies in space and
return them for examination.” According
to the Air Force, the objectives of the X-
37B include space experimentation, risk
reduction, and concept-of-operations
development for affordable and reus-
able space-vehicle technologies. The
Air Force also wants to trim turnaround
time between space fl ights from months
to days, prepping the X-37B for its next
fl ight at a fraction of the cost required to
do the same for NASA’s Space Shuttles.
The 11,000-lb/5,000-kg X-37B is one-
fourth the size of a Space Shuttle, re-
lies on the same family of lifting body
design and features a similar landing
profi le. It features many elements that
mark “fi rsts” in space use, says Boeing.
The vehicle was built using composite
structures, rather than traditional alu-
minum, and features a new generation
of high-temperature wing leading-edge
tiles made of toughened fi brous refrac-
tory oxidation-resistant ceramic, replac-
ing the carbon/carbon wing leading edge
segments on the Space Shuttle. The X-
37B also features toughened uni-piece
fi brous insulation (TUFI) impregnated
silica tiles that are signifi cantly more du-
rable than the fi rst-generation tiles used
on the Space Shuttles. Advanced confor-
mal reusable insulation (CRI) blankets
also are part of the vehicle. And the X-
37B is powered by gallium arsenide solar
cells with lithium-ion batteries, rather
than the hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells used
in the Shuttle orbiters
The unmanned X-37 pro-
gram began more than a de-
cade ago with the Boeing
X-40A, the fi rst-phase fl ight
test vehicle for the U.S. Air
Force’s Space Maneuver Ve-
hicle (SMV) program of the
late 1990s. The SMV program
aimed to develop small, re-
usable, highly maneuverable
space vehicles for deploying
satellites, surveillance, and
logistics missions. Built by
Boeing in partnership with the
Air Force Research Laboratory
(Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio),
the X-40A was produced at
Boeing’s Phantom Works facil-
ity at Seal Beach, Calif., as a 90
percent-scale version of what
would later be designated the
X-37 space plane. HPC report-
ed in the July/August 2000 is-
sue that the X-40A’s airframe
was constructed of carbon/
bismaleimide prepreg. Boe-
ing has yet to release specifi cs
about the X-37B’s composite
construction.
The X-37 program eventu-
ally was taken over by the De-
fense Advanced Research Proj-
ects Agency (DARPA), which
conducted a series of tests in Septem-
ber 2006 that included captive carry and
free fl ight of the X-37, lifted aloft by and
launched from the WhiteKnight aircraft,
built by Scaled Composites (Mojave,
Calif.). The X-37 vehicle envisioned by
NASA formed the basis for the current X-
37B Orbital Test Vehicle program.
Boeing’s commitment to this space-
based unmanned vehicle spans a decade
and includes support for the original
Air Force Research Lab, NASA’s X-37
program, and DARPA’s X-37 approach.
Boeing program management, engineer-
ing, test and mission support functions
for the OTV program are conducted at
Boeing sites in Huntington Beach, Seal
Beach, and El Segundo, Calif.
Sourc
e:
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 1 9
Thermoplastic composites on tap for the A30X, new process in testing
new technology called Flash TP
made its debut Feb. 4 at Techno-
campus IMC2 (Nantes, France).
The €1.5 million ($2.13 million USD)
automated fi ber placement machine for
thermoplastic composites is located at
Technocampus EMC2, a research and
technology center focused on new com-
posite materials implementation. The
Flash TP program was funded by EADS
(Leiden, The Netherlands) and two
of EAD’s divisions, Airbus (Toulouse,
France) and Astrium (Paris, France), as
well as corporate research and technol-
ogy unit Innovation Works (IW, Paris,
France and Munich, Germany). Also
among the project partners is the Ecole
Centrale de Nantes, which will numeri-
cally model the thermal/mechanical
characteristics of the materials and parts.
According to Technocampus, the ma-
chine will enable R&D teams from each
of the three divisions of EADS to iden-
tify the advantages and disadvantages
of thermoplastic technologies and thus
validate the choice of technology best
suited to the design of future aerostruc-
tures, including those used in space
launch vehicles. Toward this end, each of
the fi nancing partners will use the ma-
chine in the coming months to produce
a demonstrator part. The fi rst will be an
A30X (next-generation A320) double-
curvature lower fuselage skin measuring
5m/16 ft long by 1.6m to 2m (5.3 to 6.6
ft) in radius, made from 20 plies of high-
strength carbon and PEEK or PPS matrix.
Coriolis Composites (Queven, France)
developed the machine. Its laser heat-
ing head, designed by Irepa Laser
(Illkirch, France), has been modifi ed to
make the thermoplastic tapes fl exible
for precision application via a silicone
roller. The head is mounted on a KUKA
Robotics (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) ro-
botic arm, which moves longitudinally
on fi xed rails. EADS cites economy as
a driver for the thermoplastic system.
Use of thermoplastics eliminates the
need for frozen storage and autoclave
processing currently required for ther-
moset prepregs, which increases pro-
ductivity. Because thermoplastic pre-
preg is not tacky, it leaves no residue to
clog tools or machinery. That fact, Tech-
nocampus offi cials report, has made it
unnecessary to stop the machine for
maintenance during the fi rst six months
of trial service.
A
Advanced Composites Group Inc.,
(Tulsa, Okla.) recently received the
2010 Boeing Performance Excel-
lence Award. The Boeing Co. (Chi-
cago, Ill.) issues the award annu-
ally to recognize suppliers who have
achieved superior performance.
ACG Inc. maintained a silver com-
posite performance rating for each
month of the 12-month perfor-
mance period from Oct. 1, 2009 to
Sept. 30, 2010.
BIZ BRIEF
2 0 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
NEWS
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he last few months have seen sev-
eral developments in military pro-
grams served by the composites
community, a mix of endings, promising
starts and meaningful progress. Matrix
Composites (Rockledge, Fla.) has fi n-
ished its last critical structure on the
U.S. F-22 Raptor fi ghter jet program. Ma-
trix was one of four companies qualifi ed
worldwide to produce specifi c compo-
nents related to the aircraft’s low-observ-
able fuselage and critical airframe struc-
tures. The composites-intensive F-22
was discontinued by the Obama Admin-
istration in 2010 in a cost-cutting effort.
Matrix Composites has been manufac-
turing components on the Raptor since
2005. More than 20 trained aerospace
technicians were employed at Matrix us-
ing advanced manufacturing methods
and proprietary processes to build these
components. Although the company has
felt the impact from F-22 program termi-
nation, it anticipates signifi cant growth
in the coming three years as other key
programs get underway.
Lockheed Martin (Ft. Worth, Texas) an-
nounced on Feb. 25 that the fi rst produc-
tion model of the F-35 Lightning II (photo)
made its inaugural fl ight in preparation
for delivery to the U.S. Air Force this
spring. The jet will head to Edwards Air
Force Base, Calif., to support develop-
mental testing shortly after the Air Force
takes delivery. During the fl ight, the con-
ventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-
35A variant, known as AF-6, underwent
basic fl ight maneuvering and engine
tests. Designed to meet U.S. Air Force
requirements — this variant also is the
primary export version of the Lightning II.
The air forces of Italy, The Netherlands,
Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Nor-
way and Israel will employ the F-35A.
Australian advanced materials com-
pany Quickstep Holdings Ltd. (North
Coogee, Western Australia) has secured
another opportunity for aerospace/de-
fense manufacturing work in Australia,
announcing in early March that it has
signed a Memorandum of Understand-
ing (MOU) with helicopter manufacturer
Sikorsky (Stratford, Conn.), a fi rst step
toward membership in Sikorsky’s global
supply chain. The MOU is contingent
Military aerospace
programs update
T
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 2 1
on Sikorsky’s ability to secure a contract
for the purchase of its MH-60R helicop-
ters under the Australian Department
of Defence’s Air 9000 Phase 8 program.
Sikorsky is one of two helicopter suppli-
ers that have tendered for the program,
which is the Australian Department of
Defence’s acquisition program for a new
naval tactical helicopter fl eet. If Sikorsky
wins the contract (the award is expected
in the third quarter of this year), the two
companies intend, under the MOU, to
conduct joint development work aimed
at preparing Quickstep’s patented Quick-
step Process for use in the Sikorsky sup-
ply chain.
The Boeing Co. (Chicago, Ill.) and Bell
Helicopter (Ft. Worth, Texas) on March
2 congratulated the Naval Air Systems
Command (NAVAIR) V-22 Joint Program
Offi ce following its announcement that
the Bell Boeing-built, composites-in-
tensive V-22 Osprey fl eet has surpassed
100,000 fl ight hours. The milestone oc-
curred Feb. 10 during a U.S. Marine
Corps MV-22 Osprey combat mission in
Afghanistan. Marine Medium Tiltrotor
Squadron 264, operating out of Camp
Bastion in Helmand Province, was iden-
tifi ed as the squadron that eclipsed the
100,000-hour mark. According to Naval
Safety Center records, the MV-22 has
had the lowest Class A mishap rate of
any rotorcraft in the Marine Corps during
the past decade. The aircraft’s reduced
susceptibility, lower vulnerability and
advanced crashworthiness have made
it the most survivable military rotorcraft
ever introduced.
So
urc
e:
Lo
ckh
eed
Mart
in
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2 2 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
NEWS
The revolutionary Sailrocket has undergone design changes
that its builders say will give the unusual sailing craft the
opportunity to make greater speed as it aims to break
the outright world speed-sailing record. The mark, a measure
of the average speed of an unpowered watercraft between two
points set 500m/1,625 ft apart, currently stands at 55.65 knots
(around 64 mph). At HPC’s press time, the Sailrocket 2 was be-
ing prepared for shipping to Walvis Bay, Namibia, where an
earlier attempt took place in April.
“This project is a strong representation of the willingness
to innovate and create,” says Paul Larsen, Sailrocket’s project
leader and pilot, pointing out, “Of course, there are risks in-
volved. That’s the challenge.”
The revised craft — the original was described in HPC’s
January 2009 issue (http://short.compositesworld.com/zR-
WoPW48) — was launched March 8 at an empty weight of
only 275 kg/605 lb. Fabricated with materials from SP-High
Modulus, the marine business of Gurit (Isle of Wight, U.K.),
the main structure is an autoclave-cured sandwich construc-
tion, comprising carbon fi ber/epoxy prepreg skins over an ar-
amid honeycomb core. Prepregs included Gurit’s Ampreg 22,
SE84LV and SE70 and some dry reinforcements. Its wing-like
sail is built around a CompoTech (Sušice, Czech Republic)
carbon tube that acts as a spar. The wingskins are a polyester
New version of Sailrocket aims to
break sailing speed world record
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Phone (216) 398-8550
North Coast Tool & Mold Corp.Mold design and manufacturing
North Coast Composites Inc.RTM process development and
serial part manufacturing
ISO9001-2000AS9100B
C o m p o s i t e s
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 2 3
HHigh Temperature Bond Tools x� BMI
x� Epoxy
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Pressure Intensifiers / Cauls
Backup Structure Materials x� Panels, Tubes, Angles
Backup Structure Kits
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6262 W. 34th Street South Ɣ Wichita, KS 67215
Phone: 316-946-5900 Ɣ Email: [email protected]
heat shrink fi lm supplied by HIFI Films (Stevenage, U.K.).
According to Larsen, the entire boat, including rigging,
has the equivalent aerodynamic drag of a 74 cm/30-inch
diameter sphere, and its revised design enables the pilot
to maneuver the craft in much rougher water than the fi rst
version could handle.
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for
Sai
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Hot Melt PrePreg Machinery
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offered by C. A. Litzler Co., Inc.
C. A. Litzler Co., Inc. �t��4800 W. 160th Street��t��Cleveland, OH 44135 USA
Phone: 216-267-8020 t Fax: 216-267-9856 t [email protected] t www.calitzler.com
For more information, please visit calitzler.com and litzlerautomation.com.
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 2 5
L
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TEL: 201-343-8983 ■ FAX: 201-343-2132
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Epoxy Serviceable Up To 600˚FMaster Bond EP46HT-1
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MULTIPLE SPREADING &
CUTTING SOLUTIONS.
IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES.
Visit us at SAMPE Booth #921
[email protected] www.eastmancuts.com
1-716-856-2200
Design & Cut Software
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More importantly, imagine the profits you’ll make from the right cutting solution. Eastman® specializes in customized options for new and high tech materials. From software to equipment, Eastman will design a full-service system that will be versatile, reliable, robust and easy to use. So now you’ll only be limited by your imagination and not your capabilities.
hermal processing equipment manufacturer Harper In-
ternational (Buffalo, N.Y.) fi nalized in late March a con-
tract with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DoE) Oak
Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tenn.) under
which Harper will provide a full pilot-scale carbon fi ber pro-
cess line. Valued at more than $12 million (USD), the custom-
designed conversion process will support ORNL’s ongoing
Low Cost Carbon Fiber research and technology-transfer pro-
gram. The line will be built around Harper’s proprietary multi-
fl ow oxidation oven technology; advanced LT and HT slot
furnaces, rated for 1000°C/1832°F and 2000°C/3632°F, respec-
tively; pre- and posttreatment fi ber conditioning as well as
gas treatment and handling, and material transport systems.
ORNL researchers will use the line to negotiate the next
steps in an effort to use lignin as a precursor, enabling low-
cost production of carbon fi bers. A renewable resource, lig-
nin is separated from paper-mill and/or bio-refi nery cellulose
and is far less costly than traditional precursors. The primary
objective is to develop more energy-effi cient, cost-effective
materials and processes for production of affordable carbon
composites. A key target market is automotive manufactur-
ing, where carbon composites would substantially reduce ve-
hicle weight, decrease fuel consumption, and result in lower
greenhouse gas emissions.
ORNL to install full-scale carbon
fi ber pilot line from Harper Int’l
T
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 2 7
C.A. Litzler Co. Inc. (Cleveland, Ohio) has acquired the
technical assets of Western Advanced Engineering Co.
(WAECO, Orange, Calif.), a worldwide supplier of custom
hot-melt prepreg machines. Says Matt Litzler, president of
C. A. Litzler Co., “We have long admired the technology
that Steve Velleman developed over the years at WAECO,
and we are very pleased that Steve has entrusted Litzler
with carrying on the WAECO name.” WAECO is the origi-
nator of the trademarked “S-wrap” prepreg process, which
can increase production speed on a standard hot-melt
prepregging line to as high as 100 ft/min (30.5 m/min).
The Tomcat Group (Wichita, Kan.) and Growth Manage-
ment and Constructive Changes (GMC2, Laguna Niguel,
Calif.) announced Feb. 22 an agreement whereupon they
will team to provide consulting services to the global
aerospace and defense industry. The primary mission
of the Tomcat Management Group, headed by Charles
(Chuck) Gumbert, is to provide senior-level interim man-
agement services to the aerospace manufacturing and
MRO market segments with a focus on underperforming
assets. GMC2 provides professional services involving
contract changes & claims and/or litigation research, and
is headed by Edward G. Carson.
BIZ BRIEFS
See us at SAMPE 2011 booth 1505
For worldwide representation visit www.olympus-ims.com
PHASED ARRAY INSPECTION SOLUTIONS FOR CFRP
OmniScan¨
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Olympus offers complete solutions for the inspection of carbon fiber reinforced polymers flat panels and radii. These solutions are based on the field-proven OmniScan® PA flaw detector, the GLIDER™ scanner (flat panels), and phased array probes dedicated to CFRP inspections.
The Olympus CFRP inspection
solutions offers important benefits:
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 2 9
oltek Corp. (St. Louis, Mo.) has formally restructured
its growing commercial-grade carbon fi ber business.
One result is the creation of three business units: Wind
Energy, Composite Intermediates, and Technical Fibers.
The new units join Zoltek Automotive, which was estab-
lished in April 2010 as a major applications-development
center. According to the company, the restructuring effort
more accurately refl ects the way that Zoltek resources align
with specifi c market opportunities and the anticipated fu-
ture growth within those markets.
The Wind Energy Business Unit, led by Dr. Philip Schell,
is structured to capitalize on the market that is generating
the most immediate need for Zoltek’s products and has the
greatest potential for growth in the future.
The Composite Intermediate Business Unit will focus pri-
marily on the commercialization of value-added carbon fi -
ber products via higher-throughput, lower-cost conversion
methods that will consolidate the supply chain and open
up new market applications. These value-added products
are being developed by Zoltek’s R&D group under the lead-
ership of vice president David Purcell.
Zoltek also will expand its Technical Fibers Business
Unit, which includes the Pyron and Panex 30 product lines
for aircraft brakes and fl ame- and heat-resistant applica-
tions in automotive and protective clothing.
Peter Oswald, a 25-year veteran in this sector and the
former VP of marketing at Toho Tenax America Inc. (Rock-
wood, Tenn.) has been named VP, technical fi bers. He and
his team have been tasked with strengthening Zoltek’s po-
sition in these markets and developing new applications
for heat- and friction-resistant technical fi bers.
Commercial-grade carbon fi ber
supplier restructures for growth
Z
European Precursor GmbH (EPG), a joint venture be-
tween SGL Group – The Carbon Company (Wiesbaden,
Germany) and Lenzing Group (Kelheim, Germany), re-
ported on Feb. 17 that it has received a €1.5 million/$2.12
million (USD) grant from the Bavaria FIT program under
the Bavarian undersecretary of the state of Katja Hessel.
The grant will fund EPG’s development of a novel high-
performance carbon fi ber precursor, the nature and com-
position of which was not revealed by SGL. Founded at
the end of 2006 and based in Kelheim, EPG’s objective is
to develop and supply carbon fi ber precursor exclusively
for SGL Group and European production. Since the es-
tablishment of the joint venture, both parties have in-
vested approximately €25 million in a production facility
that serves industrial applications, particularly in the au-
tomotive engineering and wind energy sectors. This joint
venture secures SGL Group’s long-term supply of raw ma-
terials for carbon fi ber targeted to these applications.
BIZ BRIEF
• SAMPE 2011
May 23-26, Long Beach, USA
• CFK-Valley Convention 2011
June 07-08, Stade, Germany
• Composite Europe 2011
Sep 27-29, Stuttgart, Germany
Design and produce composite components with
the greatest of ease. With ROHACELL® you can
optimize integral construction. Whether by thermo-
forming or high-speed CNC, ROHACELL® eliminates
geometric challenges by combining creativity and
mechanical eff ectiveness. Realize your own individual
lightweight construction solutions with ROHACELL®.
You can fi nd a contact person at www.rohacell.com.
A worthwhile idea.Design without limits.With ROHACELL®.
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 3 1
Video extensometrymade easy.
And more valuable.
(215) 675-7100
www.TiniusOlsen.com
We give you more ways
to collect more precise
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extensometer systems.
• Point-to-point real time
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compliant to ISO 9513
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North Coast Composites (Cleveland, Ohio) reported on
Feb. 24 that it has been chosen by Israel Aerospace In-
dustries (IAI, Tel Aviv, Israel) not only to build the tooling
for the composite rudder assemblies for the Gulfstream
G250 business jet but also to manufacture them via resin
transfer molding (RTM). The contract, for 250 rudders, is
valued at $6 million (USD). The carbon fi ber/epoxy G250
rudder integrates lightning strike protection, net-molded
ribs and spars, and rudder skins into a comolded, single-
piece, solid laminate. North Coast reports that this com-
plex part is the fi rst of its kind and was made possible
by specially designed RTM tooling and a streamlined,
highly effi cient manufacturing process.
GRPMS, a member of Umeco Composites Structural Ma-
terials (UCSM, Heanor, Derbyshire, U.K.), reported on
April 11 that it has entered into a distribution agreement
with Sigmatex (UK) Ltd. (Runcorn, U.K). GRPMS will dis-
tribute the Sigmatex product range in the U.K., Ireland,
France, Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic states. Sig-
matex products include woven, unidirectional, multiax-
ial and three-dimensional carbon fi ber reinforcements.
GRPMS provides service in the composites market, work-
ing through its network of distribution centers.
BIZ BRIEFS
TCA
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alfH
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11
Photos courtesy of the U.S. Military,
Boeing, AirBus, NASA and Gulfstream
TenCate - Leaders in thermoplastic and thermoset advanced composites
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TENCATE ADVANCED COMPOSITES
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Tel: +1 408 776 0700 Tel: +31 548 633 700
www.tencateadvancedcomposites.com
E-mail: [email protected]
TENCATE ADVANCED COMPOSITES
TENCATE ADVANCED ARMOR
3 2 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
NEWS
AdamWorks LLC (Centennial, Colo.) has announced that
Dennis Olcott, Ph.D., P.E., has joined the company as
senior VP of engineering and chief engineer. Olcott has
more than 20 years of experience in composite structures
design and certifi cation, new product development, pro-
duction support engineering, and program management.
Most recently, he served as VP of engineering at Piper
Aircraft, with responsibility for new product develop-
ment, aircraft certifi cation, fl ight test, and production
support engineering. He previously worked at the now
defunct Adam Aircraft and at Scaled Technology Works,
as well as Columbia Aircraft ... Cutting equipment manu-
facturer Lectra (Paris, France) has appointed Adriana
Vono Papavero to the position of managing director of
Lectra South America. Based in São Paulo, Brazil, Papav-
ero will report directly to Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO. She
replaces Edouard Macquin, who was recently promoted
to worldwide director of sales for Lectra … Wichita State
University’s National Institute for Aviation Research has
hired Paul Jonas as director of the Environmental Test
Labs and Special Programs. Jonas, formerly of Hawker
Beechcraft (Wichita, Kan.) takes over the position from
interim director, John Laffen. He will be responsible to
extend the lab’s reach to OEMs and suppliers.
PEOPLE BRIEFS
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 3 3
Weber Manufacturing Technologies Inc
Tel 705.526.7896 • Midland, ON
www.webermfg.ca
Precision Tooling and CNC Machining
for the Composites Industry
Invar
Steel
NVD Nickel
Precision
n Feb. 18, the X PRIZE Foundation (Playa Vista, Calif.)
announced the offi cial roster of 29 registered teams
that will vie for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE.
Contestants will try to be the fi rst privately funded group to
deliver to Earth’s moon a robot that, upon arrival, travels
at least 500m/1,640 ft and successfully transmits video and
still images and other data back to the Earth. The compet-
ing teams range from nonprofi ts and university consortia to
billion-dollar businesses, representing 17 nations on four
continents. Composites are expected play a role in many of
the teams’ launch vehicles and robots.
On the list: U.S.-based Mystical Moon, Space Il of Israel,
Puli of Hungary, SpaceMETA of Brazil, Angelicum Chile of
Chile and Phoenicia of the USA (earn more about the teams
and competition details at www.googlelunarxprize.org).
The X PRIZE roster was named as NASA, the U.S. civil
space agency, announced that it will purchase data related
to innovative lunar missions from six of the Google Lunar
X PRIZE teams. Reportedly, NASA will offer each of the six a
contract worth as much as $10 million (USD). The agency’s
interest demonstrates how public and private space explo-
ration efforts can be interwoven, and how such coopera-
tion could play an important role in making missions to the
Moon fi nancially sustainable.
X PRIZE Foundation announces
private moon race contestants
O
3 4 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
NEWS
The world’s leading supplier of boron and silicon carbide fiber products
and advanced composite materials. Our fibers are used in aircraft, aerospace,
sporting goods and industrial applications where the highest mechanical
and physical performance properties are required.
Specialty Materials, Inc.
1449 Middlesex Street
Lowell, MA 01851
(978) 322-1900
CVD Fibers
Produced in single-filament reactors by
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), boron
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combinations of High Strength, High
Modulus and Large Diameter.
Fiber Preforms
Boron and SCS silicon carbide fibers are
available on spools or in appropriate
preforms for composite applications.
Experience
Boron composites have a large design
database and a proud history in past and
present military aircraft.
General Atomics Predator-B UAV
Used selectively in an advanced composite
design, Hy-Bor™ prepreg tape can deliver
up to double digit weight savings to
compression-critical components.
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Material Testing Technology
1676 S. Wolf Road—Wheeling, IL 60090 PH: (847) 215-7448 Fax: (847) 215-7449 Website: www.mttusa.net
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Torque and Fastener Testers ASTM D6641 Combined Loading
ir Richard Branson announced in April the launch of the
new Virgin Oceanic business unit, and with it a compos-
ites-intensive submarine that “represents a transforma-
tional technological advance in submarine economics and
performance.” The single-occupant submarine will be used
over the next several months to explore the deepest parts of
the Earth’s oceans, using composites technology and a unique
wing to “fl y” up to 10 km/6.2 miles over the ocean fl oor while
collecting video and data. Many times less expensive to man-
ufacture and operate than less-capable counterparts, Virgin
Oceanic reports, the submarine was originally commissioned
by Branson’s friend, the late adventurer Steve Fossett, who was
to use it to complete the fi rst solo dive to the deepest place on
the planet, the Mariana Trench, 11 km/7 miles below the sur-
face of the Pacifi c Ocean. Branson intends to fi nish what Fos-
sett started (see http://short.compositesworld.com/6TjCL4Lz).
The vehicle is made from carbon fi ber/epoxy composites and
titanium. Designed by Graham Hawkes, the submarine is, says
Virgin Oceanic, the only piloted craft in existence that has an
operating depth of 37,000 ft/11,278m and can operate for 24
hours unaided from the surface. Pressure testing of the craft
will be conducted over the next three months. Through 2012,
the craft will journey to the deepest part of each of Earth’s fi ve
oceans. The fi rst dive will be to the Mariana Trench.
Virgin Oceanic to launch deepsea
business and submersible vessel
S
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 3 5
eijin Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced
on March 9 that it has established
a mass-production technology for
carbon fi ber-reinforced plastic (CFRP),
achieving a cycle time of less than one
minute. Teijin’s new technologies in-
clude use of the press forming process
combined with intermediate prepreg
materials made of thermoplastic resin
instead of conventional thermosetting
resin. Teijin reports that it also has de-
veloped welding technologies that can
join thermoplastic CFRP parts and bond
thermoplastic CFRP with metals, which
will help to reduce the use of metal in
manufacturing processes. Teijin says it
intends to develop mass-production ap-
plications for CFRP in automobiles and
many other items that require certain
levels of structural strength, such as ma-
chine tools and industrial robots.
Teijin says it has developed three inter-
mediate materials, each of carbon fi ber
impregnated with thermoplastic resin, for
the production of CFRP suited for use in
mass-production vehicles. The materials
Sixty-second cycle time for carbon composites?
Tcan be used selectively, depending
on the required strength and cost of
the part, and they can be made with
various thermoplastic resins, includ-
ing polypropylene and polyamide.
The intermediate materials include:
• Unidirectional intermediate: ultrahigh
strength in a certain direction.
• Isotropic intermediate: a balance
between shape fl exibility and
multidirectional strength.
• Long-fi ber thermoplastic pellet: a high-
strength pellet made from carbon
fi ber, used for injection molding
of complex parts.
To demonstrate its new technolo-
gies, Teijin has developed an electric-
vehicle (EV) concept car (see photo) that
features a cabin frame made entirely
from thermoplastic CFRP and weighing
only 47 kg/104 lb, or roughly one-fi fth
the weight of a conventional automobile
cabin frame. The four-seat EV is capable
of speeds up to 60 kmh/37 mph and has
a cruising range of 100 km/62 miles. (An-
other four-seat EV concept with a CFRP
passenger cell, from SGL/BMW, was on
display at the JEC Composites show (see
our “JEC Highlights” on p. 40).
Teijin says it will use the concept to in-
troduce its technologies to automakers
and parts suppliers and to promote joint
automotive lightweighting initiatives.
Teijin aims to establish new midstream
and downstream business models for
its carbon fi ber composites business by
supplying CFRP parts to the market.
Source: Teifjin Ltd.
5-AxisMachiningCenters ForCompositesPhone: 330.920.9200, ext 137 • Fax: 330.920.4200 • Website: www.quintax.com • E-Mail: [email protected]
3 6 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
NEWS
eneral aircraft manufacturer Cir-
rus Industries Inc. (Duluth, Minn.)
announced on Feb. 28 that it will
be acquired by China Aviation Industry
General Aircraft Co. Ltd. (CAIGA, Zhuhai,
China), a business unit of Aviation Indus-
try Corp. of China, or AVIC. The terms of
the deal were not disclosed. Within two
weeks, however, Brian Foley, president of
general aviation-related consulting fi rm
Brian Foley Associates (BRiFO, Sparta,
N.J.), claimed that he and his fi rm will at-
tempt to quash the Cirrus/AVIC transac-
tion, solicit capital support from U.S. in-
vestors and reach out to Cirrus’ primary
owners to see if they’d accept a serious
counter-offer.
“Cirrus is an American success story
that started in a humble dairy barn, and
introduced important new technologies
and rocketed to market leadership. What
surprised me was the speed, passion
and near-unanimity of the feedback we
received from the aviation community,”
says Foley, pointing out, “People want
this company to be owned and operated
Cirrus Aircraft: Will U.S. investors fend off buyout by Chinese fi rm?
on American soil, period.” Cirrus execu-
tives have, so far, downplayed risk asso-
ciated with the impending deal, noting
that relocation to China is unlikely and
that Cirrus is not presently American-
owned: Arcapita, a Bahrain-based invest-
ment group, owns a 60 percent share.
If the AVIC transaction goes forward,
Cirrus says the deal is expected to close
in mid-2011, subject to customary clos-
ing conditions, including clearance
under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust
Improvements Act and by the U.S. Gov-
ernment’s Committee on Foreign Invest-
ment in the United States (CFIUS), as
well as all relevant Chinese government
approvals.
Acquisition of Cirrus will mark the
third takeover by AVIC of a U.S. aviation
company. AVIC previously bought the
Source: Cirrus
G
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 3 7
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assets of Bend, Ore.-based Epic Aircraft
(reported by HPC in May 2010) and avia-
tion engine-builder Continental Motors
(Mobile, Ala.) in December 2010.
Cirrus Aircraft has led sales of four-
place light aircraft for nine consecutive
years, delivering nearly 5,000 new piston-
engine composite airplanes during the
last decade, and is second only to Cessna
(Wichita, Kan.) in the sales of single-en-
gine general aviation aircraft. According
to Brent Wouters, Cirrus’s president and
CEO, “This transaction will have a positive
impact on our business and our custom-
ers because we share a common vision
with CAIGA to grow our general aviation
enterprise worldwide. CAIGA brings new
resources that will allow us to expedite
our aircraft development programs and
accelerate our global expansion.” Says
Cirrus’ chairman and cofounder Dale
Klapmeier, “With this transaction, Cirrus
will continue to develop and build the
best, most exciting aircraft in the world.
The original dream remains alive and well
at Cirrus. We are just embarking on our
next chapter on a global stage.”
CAIGA provides general aircraft prod-
ucts and related services and is head-
quartered in Zhuhai in the Guangdong
Province of China. CAIGA’s president
Meng Xiangkai says, “CAIGA is dedicated
to being an international leader in the
provision of general aviation products
and services, and light piston aircraft is
one of CAIGA’s business focuses. We are
very optimistic to begin our partnership
with Cirrus and add Cirrus’s strong brand
as the cornerstone in our aviation prod-
uct portfolio.” According to a published
story in China Daily (dated March 2, 2011,
by Xin Dingding) Meng was quoted as
saying that CAIGA will also consider
building a production line on the Chi-
nese mainland to produce Cirrus planes
at a lower cost, if demand in China and
southeastern Asian countries warrants
the move. In General Aviation News (March
16, 2011), Ben Sclair says that general
aviation (GA) in China has nowhere to go
but up: between 1999 and 2009, general
aviation fl ight hours in China jumped
from 40,000 to 130,000. In contrast, be-
tween 1999 and 2005, estimated GA
fl ight hours in the U.S. fell from 27 mil-
lion to 22 million, according to FAA sta-
tistics. While minimal compared to U.S.
GA activity, Sclair says “Whether you are
pro-China or not, China’s aviation mar-
ket is opening up and growing.”
3 8 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
NEWS
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. (Stratford,
Conn.) offi cially opened a new fa-
cility at its Florida Assembly and
Flight Operations (FAFO) campus
on March 22, establishing experi-
mental assembly-line operations
for the new CH-53K heavy-lift he-
licopter. The 60,000 ft2/5,574m2
facility, previously home to Pratt
& Whitney-Rocketdyne, has been
completely updated, with overhead
power and air dropdowns, new
aircraft workstands and overhead
cranes that will support aircraft
fi nal assembly and rotor head/
quality control assembly opera-
tions. Five System Development
and Demonstration (SDD) proto-
type aircraft will be built at the
FAFO facility. Two additional air-
frame test articles will be produced
at Sikorsky’s main manufacturing
plant in Stratford. Once assem-
bled, the aircraft will be delivered
to the Sikorsky Development Flight
Center (DFC) in West Palm Beach,
Fla., for fl ight testing. The new air-
craft program, currently in the SDD
phase, could produce as many as
200 aircraft, The CH-53K helicop-
ter’s major subcontracts have been
awarded and are valued at more
$1.1 billion (USD).
• Reduced overcall cycle time by as much as 35%
• Maintained more uniform temperature gradient across the surface of the mold
• Simpli⇒ed mold design
• Signi⇒cantly smaller equipment footprint
• Reduced cost and Eco-friendly
• Advantage of water’s speci⇒c heat vs. oil’s during ramp down cycle
Proven Signi⇒cant Bene⇒ts Over Typical Mold Temperature Control Techniques
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���DPOWFSUJOH�UFDIOPMPHZ
ombardier (Montreal, Quebec,
Canada) reported on April 7 that it
has started work at its aircraft pro-
duction facility in Mirabel, Québec, to
accommodate fi nal assembly of the fi rst
fl ight test CSeries aircraft, the CSeries
aircraft, which has composites-inten-
sive wings and fuselage. This is another
step in a fi ve-phase development plan
for the Mirabel plant, which will ulti-
mately double in size to ~860,000 ft2
(~79,897m2).
Production, quality and ergonomic
requirements are driving Bombardier’s
technical approach to CSeries fi nal as-
sembly. Although the CSeries jet will be
shorter than the company’s 128-ft/39m-
long CRJ1000 NextGen regional jet, the
fuselage will have a larger diameter
and its wings will be longer and its tail
taller than those on the CRJ1000. Final-
assembly techniques, therefore, will dif-
fer. For example, two pairs of robots will
be used to drill holes, apply sealant and
install fasteners to join the major sec-
tions of the CSeries fuselage.
“The fuselage of the CSeries aircraft
is 12 ft [3.7m] in diameter, which pres-
ents an assembly challenge using our
conventional methods,” says Francois
Minville, VP, CSeries Manufacturing,
Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “The
benefi t of the robots is they can work
on the top, the side and underneath the
aircraft, without any limitations.”
A moving production line is being
introduced at Bombardier’s St-Laurent
Manufacturing Centre, where major
components of the CSeries aircraft, such
as the cockpit and aft fuselage, are pro-
duced, and a moving fi nal-assembly line
is planned for Mirabel. These innova-
tions are expected to create a dynamic
environment that improves production
effi ciency.
Bombardier claims that CSeries air-
craft, optimized for the single-aisle,
100- to 149-seat commercial passenger
segment, will deliver the lowest oper-
ating costs in that class. Bombardier’s
goal is to capture as much as half of its
forecasted market demand for 6,700 air-
craft in the 100- to 149-seat segment.
This segment is valued at $393 billion
(USD) over the next 20 years.
Bombardier gears up
for CSeries assembly
B
4 0 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
SHOW PREVIEW
SAMPE returns to Long Beach in partnership with aerospace
industry materials society ASM International.
SAMPE 2011 LONG BEACH
fter successful events in the Pa-
cifi c Northwest in 2010 and on the
East Coast in 2009, the Society for
the Advancement of Material and
Process Engineering (SAMPE) brings its
annual U.S. Conference and Exhibition
home to Southern California this year.
For the fi rst time, SAMPE and ASM In-
ternational, the society for aerospace
materials engineers and designers, are
colocating SAMPE 2011 and ASM’s Aero-
Mat 2011 at the Long Beach Convention
Center (Long Beach, Calif.).
The SAMPE conference features four
days of technical education, beginning
with a full day of tutorials (May 23) and
three days of technical paper presenta-
tions (see “SAMPE 2011 at a Glance,” p.
42). Among the highlights is a panel dis-
cussion that wraps up the day on Mon-
day, titled “The Other 95%: Opportunities
Outside Aerospace.”
Moderators William Kreysler, presi-
dent, Kreysler & Associates (American
Canyon, Calif.), and Craig Riley, vice-
president, Composites West LLC (In-
cline Village, Nev.), say the composites
know-how amassed in the aerospace in-
dustry has been tapped, thus far, by less
than 10 percent of the fabricators who
power the annual $2 billion (USD) com-
posites industry. Panelists will discuss
how aerospace manufacturers and their
materials suppliers can turn this lack
of widespread expertise to their advan-
tage by pursuing business opportunities
in construction and architecture, where
recent developments in building codes,
material systems, design methods and
environmental concerns have opened
the door to composites.
The keynote presenter on Tuesday
(May 24), Anthony Lawson, president
of Gardena, Calif.-based HITCO Carbon
Composites, will examine the upside
and lessons learned during his com-
pany’s recent integration of automated
composites manufacturing technologies.
Following a full day of technical paper
sessions, conference attendees can net-
work at SAMPE’s Welcome Reception, a
free event open to all badged visitors,
from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. in room 104 at the
convention center.
The following morning (May 25), key-
noter Andreas Wüllner, managing di-
rector, SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers
GmbH (Wiesbaden, Germany), will take
a look at the 2009 SGL/BMW joint ven-
ture behind the BMW Megacity Vehicle
project, which is expected to produce the
four-passenger all-electric i3 commuter
car, with many structural components
made of carbon fi ber-reinforced polymer,
including its “life module” or passenger
cell. The joint venture provides a dedi-
cated supply of carbon fi ber reinforce-
ment for the project (manufactured at a
new factory in Moses Lake, Wash.). Wül-
lner will review the challenges involved in
opening a new carbon fi ber manufactur-
ing facility and discuss SGL’s vision of the
large-scale use of carbon fi ber-reinforced
plastics in automotive applications.
In addition to the keynotes, SAMPE
will offer three featured lectures, given
concurrently, at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
Dave Inston, project leader, out-of-auto-
clave technologies at Airbus’ (Toulouse,
France) U.K. facility, will discuss his
company’s work to develop “‘Out-of-Au-
toclave’ Composites Curing Technology.”
The technology uses several methods to
defray the cost of energy consumption
for the 90 percent of Airbus composite
aircraft components that are now cured
in autoclaves.
In “Carbon Composites e.V.: The Com-
petence Network,” Klaus Drechsler, head
of the Institute for Carbon Composites
at TU München (Munich, Germany),
will introduce listeners to Carbon Com-
posites e.V. (CCeV), an association of
German-speaking fi ber-reinforced plas-
tic processors and research institutions
that fosters research in the aerospace,
automotive, transportation, energy and
mechanical-engineering arenas.
The third presentation is titled “As-
sessing and Managing Technical Risk in
Transition of Technology into Systems.”
Lecturer James J. Thompson, director,
major program support in the Offi ce of
the Deputy Assistant Secretary of De-
fense (Systems Engineering) for the U.S.
Department of Defense (DoD), will out-
line evolutionary changes to the DoD’s
governance of technology transfer in
large defense programs, made in an ef-
fort to improve what resulted previously
in mixed or unintended results.
Bridge and wing building contests
For 13 years, SAMPE has hosted a com-
petition for student members to de-
sign, analyze and build either a wing or
a bridge for testing at the annual U.S.
SAMPE Convention. Last year 69 teams
from 18 universities and colleges partici-
pated in this competition.
The students engineer and fabricate
test articles from either self-supplied
materials or kits that SAMPE donors pro-
vide. At the SAMPE conference each year,
the teams present their designs; they are
weighed and then loaded to failure. The
teams that have the best designs are
recognized at the conference and are
awarded prizes. Testing for the 14th an-
nual contest will take place Wednesday,
May 25, on the show fl oor.
AeroMat agenda
One day shorter than the SAMPE trade
show, the AeroMat conference will run
from May 23-25. Organizers expect tech-
nical experts from more than 200 com-
panies in the aerospace materials supply
A
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 4 1
1639 Co
mp
osit
esW
orl
d
WHAT: SAMPE 2011
Conference &
Exhibition
WHEN: May 23-26
WHERE: Long Beach
Convention
Center
chain to attend, including material sup-
pliers to processors, airframe and engine
designers, equipment manufacturers,
university researchers and government
end-users. Conference-goers will attend
a plenary session on Monday afternoon
(May 23) and will have the choice of
technical paper sessions in eight general
subject tracks, under the 2011 theme,
“New Era in Flight: Design and Manu-
facturing of Advanced Materials for the
Future.”
Of potential interest to HPC readers,
papers presented as part of AeroMat’s
Emerging Materials and Processes track,
Session 4 (Wednesday, May 25, 1:30
p.m. to 5:30 p.m.), will explore “Poly-
mers, Composites and Nanomaterials.”
Additionally, Session 1 of the Model
Development and Implementation/Vali-
dation track will cover “Modeling and
Simulation of High-Temperature Materi-
als” (Monday, May 23, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00
noon). Finally, Session 3 of the Welding
and Joining Technologies and Methods
track (Wednesday, May 25, 1:30 p.m. to
5:00 p.m.) will feature “Joining Technolo-
gies,” which will include mechanical-fas-
tening and welding techniques used to
join metals to composites. As an added
bonus, SAMPE conference attendees can
attend AeroMat 2011 conference pro-
grams at no additional charge.
The HPC staff, of course, will be on hand in
Long Beach, in booth 1639. Look for our an-
nual SAMPE show wrap-up in the July issue.
For more information about SAMPE 2011,
contact Priscilla Heredia,Tel.: (626) 331-0616
x610; e-mail: [email protected].
For more information about AeroMat 2011,
visit http://www.asminternational.org/content/
Events/aeromat/.
SAMPE 2011 Exhibition Hall Plan
4 2 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
SHOW PREVIEW
SAMPE 2011 at a Glance
Monday, May 23
Registration 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Closed
Tutorial ........................9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
• Thermoplastic Composites
• Design, Analysis
• Composite Tooling
• Nanocomposites Technology
Tutorials ........................ 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Introduction to Composite Materials
• Test Methods for Composites
• Out-of-Autoclave Processing
• Overview of Composite Repair
Sessions ....................... 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Nanomaterials: Natural Composites
• Nanomaterials: Applications, Textiles,
Preforms*
• Simulation-based Optimization I
• Liquid Composite Molding
• Thermoplastics I
Panel ............................. 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• The Other 95%: Opportunities Outside
Aerospace
Fellow Banquet ..................................6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, May 24
Registration 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Open ........ 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Keynote Presentation.... 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
• A Journey in Automated Carbon
Composites Manufacturing
Sessions .....................9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
• Nanomaterials: Technology & Composites
• Simulation-based Optimization II
• Tooling for Composites I*
• Thermoplastics II
• Composites Durability, Reliability &
Material Characterization
• Resin & Polymer Materials
• Sandwich & Foam Core
• Composite Mfg. & Process Technology I
• University Research I
Panel ........................... 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• Green Applications: Alternative
Energy Applications
Sessions ....................... 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Simulation-based Optimization III
• Nanomaterials: Technology & Composites
• Coatings, Sealants & Surface Treatments
• VARTM & High Temperature
• Out-of-Autoclave Processing I*
• Design & Analysis I
• Composite Mfg. & Process Technology II
• University Research II
Panel .............................. 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Tooling for Composites
Welcome Reception ....... 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, May 25
Registration 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Open ........ 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Keynote Presentation..... 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
• SGL Group – BMW Group: A Visionary
Joint Venture for Carbon Fiber Composites
in Automotive Applications
Featured Lectures ...............................2:00 p.m.
• The Second Design Revolution in
Aerospace Materials, Manufacturing and
Structures
• A Comparison of Nadic Anhydride and
4-Phenylethynyl Phthalic Anhydride for
High Tg Polyimides
Sessions ...................... 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
• Nanomaterials: Process & Fabrication
• Composite Matrix Science
• Design & Analysis II
• Tooling for Composites II
• Green & Renewable Materials
• Adhesives & Adhesive Bonding
• High Temperature Materials*
• Carbon Fiber & Preforms
Panel ...........................9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
• Out-of-Autoclave Curing
Featured Lectures ...............................2:00 p.m.
• “Out-of-Autoclave” Composites Curing
Technology
• Carbon Composites e.V.: The Competence
Network
• Assessing and Managing Technical Risk in
Transition of Technology into Systems
Sessions ........................ 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Nanomaterials: Applications
• Composite Fatigue & Fracture
• Composite Repair
• Thermal Management*
• Green Mfg. & Technology
• Out-of-Autoclave Processing II*
• Fire Safety & Flammability Technology
• Carbon Composites Society e.V. of Germany
• Technology Maturity in M&P Risk
Management
Panel .............................. 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Fibers
Student Reception ............5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, May 26
Registration ...................7:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Exhibit Hall Open .........9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Sessions ..................... 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
• Nanomaterials: Polymers*
• Novel Materials & Fibers
• Design & Analysis III*
• Civil Infrastructure
• Space Applications*
• Recycling & Reuse of Composites
• Ceramics & Ceramic Composites
• Nondestructive Testing & Evaluation
Panel .............................8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
• NASA: Advanced Material & Processing
Technology Briefi ng
Luncheon .....................12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Plant Tours ..................... 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Northrop Grumman
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory
*ITAR-restricted papers. Convention attendees who wish to attend these presentations must have ITAR clearance.
Tuesday, May 24 (continued) Wednesday, May 25 (continued)
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 4 3
SHOW PREVIEW
SAMPE 2011 LONG BEACH
EXHIBITOR LIST
2Phase
Technologies
652
3M Aerospace 1111
A&P Technology 1321
A.B. Carter Inc. 739
AAR Precision
Systems
548
ABARIS Training 922
Accudyne Engineer-
ing & Equipment Co.
941
ACE-Anaglyph 931
Adhesive Packaging
Specialties Inc.
834
Advanced Ceramics
Manufacturing
626
Advanced Compos-
ite Products and
Technology Inc
1610
Advanced
Composites Group
Inc. (ACG)
911
Advanced
Composites Inc.
742
Advanced
Integration
1334
AFRL/RX 829
AGY 643
Airstar Inc. 1254
Airtech
International Inc.
1305
Akron Polymer
Systems Inc.
620
AKSA Carbon Fibers 1141
Alpha STAR
Corporation
534
Alpha Technologies
Services LLC
535
Altair Engineering 1545
American GFM
Corporation
961
Anton Paar USA 1608
Apex Machine
Tool Company
1530
Applied Aerospace
Structures
Corporation
1543
Aramicore
Composite Co. Ltd.
637
Archer Daniels
Midland
632
Arkema Inc. 736
ASC Process
Systems
721
Assembly Guidance
Systems Inc.
651
Automated
Dynamics
1048
Axiom Materials Inc. 1054
BAE Systems 1357
Bedford Reinforced
Plastics
827
BigC: Dino-Lite
Scopes
1061
Bondline Products 916
Bondtech
Corporation
1417
Brenner
Aerostructures
1232
Breton SpA 1240
BriskHeat
Corporation
1538
Bron Aerotech Inc. 942
Burnham Compos-
ite Structures Inc.
1215
C.A. Litzler Co. Inc. 1021
C.R. Onsrud Inc. 1343
Carl Zeiss MicroIm-
aging LLC
1521
CASS Polymers of
Michigan Inc.
252
CGTech 437
Cincinnati Testing
Laboratories
817
Click Bond Inc. 1028
CMS North
America Inc.
1131
Cobham 1249
Collier Research
Corporation
1434
Composite Fabrics
of America
1052
Composite Technical
Services LLC
634
Composites Atlantic
Limited
852
Composites Hori-
zons Inc./Texstars
1030
Composites One 826
Composites Training
Center - Cerritos
College
1631
CompositesWorld 1639
CompuDAS 1649
Conductive
Composites Co.
1252
Continental
Diamond Tool
244
Coriolis
Composites SAS
749
Cornerstone Re-
search Group Inc.
1327
Correlated
Solutions Inc.
1451
CPS
Technologies Corp.
1153
Creaform 954
CTS
Composites Inc.
951
Cuming Microwave 1256
Cytec Engineered
Materials Inc.
1156
Dantec
Dynamics Inc.
1551
Dassault Systemes
Americas Corp.
543
David H. Sutherland
& Co.
1121
DCM Clean-Air
Products Inc.
432
De-Comp
Composites Inc.
1140
DEKUMED 937
Delsen Testing
Laboratories Inc.
1217
DelStar
Technologies Inc.
1413
Despatch Industries 1259
Dexmet Corporation 845
DIAB Sales Inc. 1059
Directed MFG 731
Diversifi ed Machine
Systems Inc.
1641
DSM Dyneema 848
Dunstone
Company Inc.
1316
Dynamic Fabrica-
tion Inc.
1460
E.T. Horn Company 1621
E.V. Roberts 1034
Eastman
Machine Co.
921
Eeonyx Corporation 340
EHA Spezialmas-
chinenbau GmbH
338
Elantas PDG Inc. 1548
Electro-Tech
Machining
1448
Endurance Tech-
nologies Inc.
1328
Euro-Composites
Corp.
821
Evonik 1049
EXAKT
Technologies Inc.
1534
Exova OCM 1023
e-Xstream
engineering LLC
1040
Fabric Development 920
Fatigue Technology 1560
Ferry Industries 552
Fiberforge Corpora-
tion
528
Fiber-Line Inc 1526
Finish Kare Products
Inc.
1243
Firehole Technolo-
gies Inc.
1627
FlackTek Inc. 838
Flight Safety
International
1314
FLIR Systems 1606
Freeman Manufac-
turing & Supply Co.
440
Geiss LLC 624
General Plastics
Manufacturing Co.
1116
Genesis Systems
Group
349
Gerber Technology 1221
GKN Aerospace 926
Global Silicones Inc. 1508
Graco Supply &
Intergrated Services
744
Gunnar USA Inc. 443
Hawkeye Interna-
tional Ltd.
1300
HEATCON Compos-
ite Systems
1405
Helman Tensioners
Inc.
1340
Henkel Corp. 1011
Hexcel Corporation 1421
Hi-Performance
Products Inc.
449
HITCO Carbon
Composites Inc.
743
Hollingsworth &
Vose Co.
1356
HOS-Technik GmbH 1129
Huntsman Advanced
Materials
1209
Idex Solutions 1261
IEST Co. Ltd. 622
IKONICS 1609
Imperium Inc. 1528
Industrial Summit
Technology Corp.
1239
Ingersoll Machine
Tools Inc.
544
Innovative Compo-
site Engineering (ICE)
1427
Integrated Technolo-
gies Inc. - INTEC
1411
Intertek 1510
iPhoton Solutions 1143
ITT 1315
Izumi
International Inc.
1504
J.D. Lincoln 911
Janicki
Industries Inc.
833
JEC 1557
JPS Composite
Materials
914
KAMAN Composites 442
Kaneka Texas Corp. 1032
KEYENCE
Corporation
1415
KNF FLEXPAK
Corporation
1344
Knowlton
Technologies LLC
1248
LAP Laser LLC 938
Laser
Technology Inc.
812
Lectra 1531
Lewco Inc. 751
Lewcott Corp. 738
Lingol Corp. 1461
Lintech International
LLC
1228
LMT Onsrud LP 1338
Lucas Industries 251
Luna Innovations 836
M.C. Gill
Corporation
930
Magestic
Systems Inc.
350
Magnolia
Plastics Inc.
933
Magnum Venus
Plastech
853
Manufacturers
Supplies Co.
1539
Marathon
Heater Inc.
533
Matec Instrument
Companies Inc.
1139
Matrix
Composites Inc.
1527
Maverick
Corporation
627
McGill AirPressure
LLC
441
McLube Div. of
McGee Industries
645
MECNOV 641
Exhibitor Booth# Exhibitor Booth# Exhibitor Booth# Exhibitor Booth# Solutions for Controlling
Process TemperaturesTemperatures range
from 5° to 650° F (-15° to 343° C)
water and oil temperaturecontrol systems
portable chiller and heating/cooling systems
centralized cooling systems,pump tanks and control panels
SM
Phone: 716-876-9951
www.mokon.com
Bold = HPC advertisers in this issue.
4 4 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
Melco Steel Inc. 753
Microtek
Laboratories
1154
Miki Sangyo
USA Inc.
1245
Miller-Stephenson
Chemical
949
MISTRAS Group Inc. 819
Mitsubishi Plastics
Composites America
Inc.
1645
Mondi Akrosil LLC 1512
MTS Systems Corp. 1552
Myers
Engineering Inc.
740
Nammo Composite
Solutions
1435
NanoSperse LLC 627
National Aerospace
Supply Co.
343
National
Diamond Lab
439
National Research
Council Canada
1257
NDT Solutions Inc.
(NDTS)
348
Newport Adhesives
and Composites
1234
Nida-Core
Corporation
843
Nippon
Graphite Fiber
927
North Coast
Companies
1549
NuSil Technology 1017
OEM Press
Systems Inc.
1019
Olympus 1505
Osai USA, CNC &
Automation Controls
1358
Oxeon Inc. 953
Pacifi c Coast
Composites
1642
Parabeam BV 1361
Paragon D&E 1509
Park Electro-
chemical Corp
549
Parpas
America Corp
1159
Pathfi nder Australia
Pty. Ltd.
539
Patz Materials &
Technologies
1036
PCM Innovation 956
Pepin
Associates Inc.
1160
Piercan USA 1235
Pinette Emidecau
Industries
1540
Plascore Inc. 540
Precision
Measurements &
Instruments Corp.
1226
Precision
Quincy Corp.
835
Prospect Mold 1529
Pyromeral Systems 944
Qingdao Fundchem
Co. Ltd.
1229
Quantum
Composites
1233
Quartus
Engineering Inc.
1536
Quatro Composites 635
RAMPF Group 861
Renegade
Materials Corp.
627
Reno Machine
Co. Inc.
1443
Revchem
Composites Inc.
737
Richmond Aircraft
Products Inc.
911
RT Instruments Inc. 451
Rubbercraft 733
Saertex USA LLC 1220
Saint Gobain
Technical Fabrics
1439
SAMPE 1635
Sandvik Process
Systems
857
Schlumpf USA Inc. 1241
SCRA 1431
SDI/Talon Test
Laboratories Inc.
955
Sealant Equipment
& Engineering Inc.
1400
Seifert and Skinner
& Associates Inc.
952
Sensitech Inc. 1231
Sigmatex 1615
SL Laser
Systems LP
1437
Smart Tooling 1330
Solid Concepts Inc. 1517
Solvay Advanced
Polymers
1456
Southland
Polymers Inc.
735
Specialty
Materials Inc.
1244
SP-High Modulus,
the Marine Business
of Gurit
1513
StateMix Ltd. 1433
Stepan Company 1409
Stiles Machinery Inc. 1553
Stratasys Inc. 1144
Super Resin 1237
Surface Generation
America
1449
Swift
Engineering Inc.
849
SWORL div. of
Prairie Technology
1605
Synasia Inc. 1432
TA Instruments 1055
Taricco Corporation 1149
TCR Composites 1604
TE Wire & Cable 1230
Technical Fibre
Products (TFP Inc.)
1333
Technology
Marketing Inc
939
TenCate Advanced
Composites USA
1027
Textile Products Inc. 918
The University of
Southern Mississippi
1041
The Warm Company 1258
Thermal Wave
Imaging Inc.
1326
Thermwood
Corporation
1042
Thinky USA Inc. 630
Ticona Engineering
Polymers
727
Tinius Olsen 242
Tiodize Co. Inc. 1648
TMP - Technical
Machine
Products Inc.
253
Toho Tenax America 1043
Tokuden Inc. 1614
Torr
Technologies Inc.
1407
Torrey Hills
Technologies,Inc.
1238
Touchstone
Research
Laboratory Ltd.
1227
Trelleborg Offshore
Boston Inc.
1626
Trilion Quality
Systems
1556
Tri-Mack Plastics
Manufacturing Corp.
1511
TSC LLC - The
Spaceship Company
752
UBE America Inc. 716
Ultracor 654
United Testing
Systems Inc.
250
University of Dayton
Research Institute
627
Upland Fab Inc. 1145
Utah 1035
Venango Machine
Company
531
Verisurf Software 1633
Vermont Compos-
ites Inc.
934
Victrex USA Inc. 830
VISTAGY Inc. 1339
VMS Aircraft Co. Inc. 1515
Wabash MPI 734
Wacker
Chemical Corp.
436
Walton Process
Technologies Inc.
1359
Waukesha Foundry
Inc.
1532
Wausau Paper 741
Web Industries 1514
Weber
Manufacturing
Technologies Inc.
839
West Virginia Devel-
opment Offi ce
536
Westminster
Solutions
1151
WichiTech
Industries Inc.
750
Windsys
Solutions LLC
937
Wisconsin Oven
Corporation
1450
Wolff Industries Inc. 1613
XG Sciences Inc. 1057
Zotefoams Inc. 1457
Zyvax Inc. 1122
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SHOW PREVIEW
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 4 5
SHOW COVERAGE
S
JEC PARIS HIGHLIGHTSThe news from this annual Parisian in-gathering of composites professionals is heavily weighted toward automotive lightweighting.
kies outside were gray but the at-
mosphere inside was all sunshine
at the 2011 JEC Composites Show in
Paris. Held March 29-31 at the Paris Expo
in Porte de Versailles, the event’s upbeat
buzz refl ected the current upward trend
in the composites industry. You wouldn’t
be blamed if, while wandering the aisles
of the show this year, you thought your-
self not at a composites event, but a car
show, and a high-end one at that.
Among the many autos on dis-
play was a carbon-fi ber intensive
Lamborghini Aventador hypercar,
carefully encased in a customized
black-fabric booth. It was clear,
judging by the number of cars,
passenger cells and car parts —
almost all molded of carbon fi ber
— that many exhibitors believe
the future of the composites com-
munity is riding on four wheels.
Carbon car cornucopiaCarbon fi ber manufacturer SGL
Group (Wiesbaden, Germany),
made a splash at this show a year
ago when it announced that its
joint venture with BMW Group,
SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers,
was going to build a new car-
bon fi ber manufacturing plant in
Moses Lake, Wash., to produce
material for the passenger cell of
the forthcoming all-electric BMW
i3 (dubbed Megacity Vehicle at
the time). Since then, much has
changed. Offi cials at this year’s
show confi rmed that the new facili-
ty in Washington State is on sched-
ule for completion this summer, to
be followed in the third quarter by
commissioning of the lines and delivery
of the fi rst of the carbon fi ber. The plant’s
capacity will be 3,000 metric tonnes
(6.613 million lb) per year of 50K stan-
dard-modulus carbon fi ber.
The Moses Lake facility will be fed by
polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor from a
Mitsubishi/SGL joint venture in Japan.
Finished 50K tow will leave Moses Lake
and arrive in Wackersdorf, Germany,
where it will be woven into noncrimp fab-
rics, which then will travel to Landshut,
Germany, for stacking, preforming,
stamping, resin transfer molding (RTM)
and machining for the passenger cell.
Andreas Wüllner, managing direc-
tor of SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers,
says SGL already is testing the weav-
ing technology that will produce the
noncrimp fabrics in Wackersdorf and
is confi dent that the car, due
on market in 2013, will remain
on schedule. Indeed, SGL dis-
played in its booth a completed
passenger cell (see photo, p. 49)
for the four-door BMW i3. It fea-
tured blue and white tape over
the cell’s joints to hide some of
the technology behind the cell.
Look for similar technology in
the just-announced hybrid-elec-
tric BMW i8, also due out in 2013.
In fact, Wüllner says BMW is so
committed to the use of carbon
fi ber composites in its cars that
SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers
is already planning to expand
the Moses Lake plant. BMW, in
fact, had a recruitment booth
at the show, to hire composites
engineers.
Another attention-getting auto
was the new, yet to be released
Audi RS3, with carbon fi ber fend-
ers that are resin transfer molded
by Sora Composites (Change,
France), a fi rst for Audi, says
Sora. Fabrication details weren’t
available, but Sora says the thin,
complex parts require care in the
preforming process to achieve
Audi’s exacting standards.
High-end auto heaven
Lamborghini’s Aventador display was among the most popular at JEC 2011. The supercar features a carbon-fiber passenger cell developed by Lamborghini’s Advanced Composite Research Center in Bolognese, Italy.
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4 6 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
SHOW COVERAGE
Aerospace out of the autoclaveAlso in abundance were materials, equip-
ment, tooling and process concepts,
many of which included automation, for
producing composites faster and more
effi ciently — and out of the autoclave.
One of the winners of the JEC Innova-
tion Awards competition was an aircraft
seat back, developed by A&P Technology
(Cincinnati, Ohio), Ticona (Florence, Ky.),
TenCate Advanced Composites (Morgan
Hill, Calif.) and processor Cutting Dy-
namics Inc. (CDI, Avon, Ohio). More than
18 months in development, it features a
compression-molded pan that uses AS4
carbon fi ber unidirectional tape from
Hexcel (Dublin, Calif.). The tape is pre-
pregged by TenCate, using Ticona’s For-
tron PPS thermoplastic resin.
The rim of the seat, which provides
structural support against torsional forces
(consider the abuse a typical aircraft seat
back endures), also comprises AS4 carbon
fi ber prepregged by TenCate, then split
by A&P into strips 0.1875 inch/4.8 mm
wide and braided into a biaxial tubular
shape to provide noncrimping conformity
around the edge of the seat back. The rim
likely will be welded to the pan, says Mike
Favarolo, technical marketing manager at
Ticona, although CDI also is considering
an adhesive. CDI molds the seat back in
a cycle described as “minutes” long and
expects to produce several thousand for a
major aircraft manufacturer.
Another impressive out-of-autoclave
concept was a composite aircraft door
designed and produced by Latécoère
(Toulouse, France) together with its Eu-
ropean partners. The large and complex
part with integral stiffening frames was
made with a 3-D preform stitched to-
gether with a new 1K (two-ply) carbon fi -
ber sewing thread developed by Schappe
Techniques (Blyes, France). The part ma-
Pipe dream
Carbon Grossbauteile GmbH (CGB, Wallerstein, Germany) couldn’t get its massive filament-wound carbon fiber-reinforced pipe into the show hall, but the behemoth did stop passersby in the parking lot. CGB was featured in the March issue of HPC for its work developing large structures like this for use in the massive Mae West civic sculpture in Munich, Germany’s Effnerplatz (see Learn More,” p. 49).
Lightweight passenger protection
The McLaren MP4-12C supercar appeared on the JEC show floor with and without body panels, the latter giving visitors a look at the car’s carbon fiber “tub” that forms the passenger compartment. It’s one in a long line of recently developed vehicles that uses carbon fiber in the passenger cell (see “Learn More,” p. 49).
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 4 7
terials, which included dry carbon and
fi berglass and metallic mesh for light-
ning strike, were layed up in a complex
multipart mold and then resin-infused,
with assembly time reduced by 10 to 15
percent thanks to the preform and fewer
steps required. The fi nished part is re-
portedly 10 to 15 percent lighter com-
pared to current door designs.
Innovation award fi nalist Techni-mod-
ul Engineering (Coudes, France) showed
a new concept for tools capable of out-of-
autoclave, high-rate production of com-
posites. The patented concept
involves a thin skin, which can
be either metallic or composite,
integrally heated via fl uid chan-
nels. The fl uid can be oil-, water-
or metal-based. The company
claims a very fast rate of tool
heating and a high ultimate tem-
perature (around 400°C/752°F).
Because the tool is much less
massive than a conventional
counterpart, it can be handled
and moved more easily and less
power is consumed during part
cure. The target market is out-of-
autoclave processing and resin
transfer molding. Equally buzz-worthy
was the winner of the Equipment Cate-
gory Innovation Award, a metal-surfaced
composite tool produced by partners
Advanced Composites Group Ltd. (ACG,
Heanor, Derbyshire, U.K.) and Integran
(Toronto, Ontario, Canada). The tool has
a nanocrystalline, ferromagnetic cladding
or tool face over a carbon fi ber composite
tool base, to take advantage of the best
aspects of metallic tooling with the re-
duced weight and lower thermal mass of
composite tooling.
Braided seat back
Cutting Dynamics (Avon, Ohio) won an Innovation Award at JEC for its development of this carbon fiber/PPS seat back. Carbon fiber unidirectional tape was slit and then braided by A&P Technology (Cincinnati, Ohio) to create the rim structure (photo at left) around the edges of the seat.
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SHOW COVERAGE
Although the aerospace industry has
been abuzz about the viability of and
potential savings from the use of out-of-
autoclave (OOA) resins for structural air-
craft applications, another buzz was raised
about the potential for reinforced thermo-
plastics in post-787 and post-A350 XWB
primary structure (see “From the Editor,”
p. 7). In 2010, thermoplastic composites
turned up on business jets, including the
Gulfstream G650, in its vertical tail rudder
(an award winner at JEC 2010). This year,
Fokker Aerostructures B.V. (Hoogeveen,
The Netherlands) displayed the bottom
skin of the G650’s horizontal tail section.
It’s currently molded of carbon fi ber/ep-
oxy, but the Fokker version is a demon-
strator fabricated from carbon fi ber/PEKK
(see “Thermoplastic composites: Primary
structure?” on p. 52). Arnt Offringa, direc-
tor R&D at Fokker, says his company will
mold the top half of the tail section, bond
the halves together, and conduct struc-
tural testing to determine the material’s
suitability for the application. If success-
ful, Offringa says the company hopes to
see the technology on a future business
jet. And if that’s successful, then perhaps
it will fl y on a commercial aircraft.
Offringa also reports that the same
Airbus effort is molding the lower half
of an A320 forward fuselage section, us-
ing a similar carbon fi ber/thermoplastic
combination, stiffened by a rib system
Fokker has developed. It will be years,
says Offringa, before the industry knows
where this research will lead, but agreed
that it is “very interesting.”
New product and business announce-
ments were everywhere, including Think
Composites’ (Palo Alto, Calif. and Antony,
France) press conference to announce
its partnership with Chomarat Group (Le
Cheylard, France). Think Composites’
principal Steven Tsai of Stanford Univer-
sity described the design concept of an
unbalanced laminate, using only two ply
angles, which can offer unexpected design
benefi ts in a composite laminate, such
as greater toughness and bend/twist cou-
pling to control defl ection. Porcher will
produce the unusual reinforcement in dry
form, or will work with prepregger partners
to produce prepreg forms of the material,
which Tsai believes can ultimately lead to
better composite performance and less
material waste in processing.
Assembly Guidance Systems Inc.
(Chelmsford, Mass.) demonstrated its new
ProjectorVision laser projection system
designed to prevent foreign object debris
from ruining a part. The machine vision
system automatically detects any debris
in the mold during the laser-guided layup
process that does not match the program,
and locks the system to prevent further
progress until the debris is removed.
AGY Holdings LLC (Aiken, S.C.) in-
troduced a completely new fi ber at the
show, designated S-3 HDI. Designed to
meet the demanding technical require-
ments of high-density interconnect (HDI)
issues, wherein increasing functionality
is tightly packed within the increasingly
cramped space of new high-performance
printed circuit boards (PCBs), the new
fi ber offers a very high tensile modulus
for better dimensional stability and less
warpage. It also has a lower coeffi cient
of thermal expansion (CTE) to withstand
the higher temperatures of lead-free sol-
dering during production.
Editor’s note: HPC will follow up these brief
highlights with a thoroughgoing review of what
was new and on review at JEC Paris in the
upcoming July issue.
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 4 9
SEICO 11 highlightsOver at the nearby 32nd SAMPE Europe
International Conference, held March 28-
29 at the Hotel Mercure, the newly refor-
matted program of plenary and parallel
technical sessions attracted more than
200 attendees, beginning with a welcome
networking session on the evening of
March 27. SAMPE Europe president
Bruno Beral of Airbus (Toulouse, France)
opened the proceedings. He expressed
the solidarity of all members with their
Japanese colleagues after the recent
earthquake and tsunami tragedy in Japan
and introduced the keynote speaker, Dr.
Takashi Ishikawa, executive director of
the Aerospace Research and Develop-
ment Directorate at the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA). After a mo-
ment of silence for the victims of the Jap-
anese disaster, Dr. Ishikawa gave an over-
view of composites R&D at JAXA. Included
in this was a summary of technology de-
veloped at JAXA which has been trans-
ferred to the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ).
Although the fi rst-generation 90-passen-
ger MRJ will have an aluminum wing, the
second-generation 90- to 100-passenger
version is set to take advantage of CFRP
technology developed at JAXA, using ep-
oxy VaRTM processing. The 6m/19.5-ft
prototype produced mechanical proper-
ties approaching those of standard aero-
space prepreg technology without using
an autoclave. Also included in the re-
search was an integrally fabricated fuse-
lage/stringer section, using a hybrid of
prepreg and VARTM technology. These
developments were presented in detail
during a session later in the program.
Carbon composite cell for commuter car
SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers (Wiesbaden, Germany) brought to the show the carbon fiber composite passenger cell for the all-electric, four-door BMW i3. Carbon fiber for the cell will be made in the U.S.
Read this show review online at
http://short.compositesworld.com/R3iP5uOl.
Read about the Mae West sculpture in ÒMae West: Pipe dream in Munich,Ó
in HPC March 2011 (p. 46) or visit
http://short.compositesworld.com/hLGNQrxr.
Read more about the McLaren MP4-12C in ÒF1-inspired MonoCell: Racing
safety for the road,Ó in HPC September 2010 (p. 60) or visit
http://short.compositesworld.com/nzg0Ckkb.
LEARN MORE @ www.compositesworld.com
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5 0 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
WORK IN PROGRESS: SHAPE-MEMORY POLYMER
Autoclave curing of compos-
ite structures has been such
a staple of high-performance
composites industry practice
that it’s diffi cult to imagine
aerospace-grade composites
manufacturing without it. But the desire
to move part cure out of the autoclave is
pronounced, thanks primarily to the au-
toclave’s strong appetite for energy and
time, neither of which is in abundance
in today’s manufacturing environment.
Out-of-autoclave thermosets, as well as
thermoplastics, increasingly offer viable
alternatives to autoclave-cured ther-
Why autoclave when you can microwave?
GKN Ae rospace has spent the last several months evaluating the cure performance of this Vötsch microwave oven, wi th encouraging results: an 80 percent reduction in energy use compared to autoclave cure, and a 40 percent shorter cycle-time.
MICROWAVE: AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE AUTOCLAVE?
Aerospace composites manufacturer GKN evaluates microwave oven
practicality and cost-effectiveness.
mosets. Oven curing is getting more at-
tention of late, but there is another way
out of the autoclave that also is getting
closer scrutiny: microwave curing.
This is what GKN Aerospace (Isle of
Wight, U.K.) had in mind in October
2009 when it acquired a Hephaistos mi-
crowave curing oven from heating sys-
tems specialist Vötsch Industrietechnik
GmbH (Reiskirchen-Lindenstruth, Ger-
many). Although it was developed at
the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
(Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany),
the microwave curing process was com-
mercialized subsequently by Vötsch.
John Cornforth, VP of technology at
GKN Aerospace, says the company’s goal
for the microwave effort was to test the
machine’s capability and give GKN a
better understanding of how microwave
heating differs from autoclave heating by
curing several parts in the oven.
In conventional or surface-heating sys-
tems, such as those found in autoclaves,
a composite part heats from the outside
in, as heat energy is transferred through
the part’s thickness. The process duration
is determined by the rate of heat fl ow
into the composite structure. The fl ow
rate depends on the material’s specifi c
heat, thermal conductiv-
ity, density and viscosity.
As a result, the edges and
corners of the part achieve
the set point temperature
before the center does.
The part also heats at an
uneven rate, which can
stress the fi nished prod-
uct. Therefore, the tem-
perature in an autoclave
and a conventional oven
must be ramped up and
down slowly to minimize
part stress, a factor that
makes overall temperature
control a challenge.
WORK IN PROGRESS: MICROWAVE CURINGS
ourc
e: G
KN
Aero
space
BY JEFF SLOAN
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 5 1
LEARN MORE @
www.compositesworld.com
Read this article online at http://short.
compositesworld.com/Flv8ya1G.
Microwave test articles
A gallery of GKN’s microwave-cured parts.
Conversely, microwave technology re-
lies on volumetric heating. Heat energy
is transferred electromagnetically and
relatively evenly and quickly throughout
the part, but not as a thermal heat fl ux.
This enables better process temperature
control and less overall energy use, and
results in shorter cure cycles. It also en-
ables the processor to direct heat spe-
cifi cally toward the part to be cured, thus
maximizing the curing process effi ciency.
Cornforth says the Hephaistos oven
is 1.8m/5.9 ft in diameter and 3m/10 ft
long and offers a maximum tempera-
ture of 400°C/204°F. It was delivered in
early 2010 and commissioned later that
year. Since then, GKN has worked with
the oven experimentally, evaluating pro-
cesses and quality control by curing sev-
eral 4- to 5-mm (0.16- to 0.20-inch) thick
stiffened skin structures for aircraft wing
fl aps. Three out-of-autoclave pregregs
were evaluated: MTM-44-1 from Ad-
vanced Composites Group (Heanor, Der-
byshire, U.K.), M56 from Hexcel (Stam-
ford, Conn.) and Cycom 5320 from Cytec
Engineered Materials (Tempe, Ariz.).
The primary question GKN is attempt-
ing to answer is this: Is it possible to rep-
licate autoclave cure quality in less time, using
less energy? So far, says Cornforth, the re-
sults are promising. GKN’s experience to
date shows that microwave technology
consumes about 80 percent less energy
than a comparable autoclave, with a 40
percent savings in cycle time. The total
cycle time was 4.5 hours at a part set
point temperature of 180°C/356°F and a
tooling temperature of about 80°C/176°F.
Vacuum-bag pressure, says Cornforth,
was about 100 psi/6.89 bar.
The shorter cycle is possible because
the microwave oven requires minimal
ramp-up to setpoint temperature and
the process has less tooling-driven ther-
mal lag. Further, when cure is complete
and the oven shuts off, there is no cool-
down of the oven itself. Like a micro-
wave oven for domestic use, it heats only
certain nonmetallic materials, thus the
oven is always cool to the touch.
The difference in part and tooling
temperature is an important distinc-
tion. An oven or autoclave, by its nature,
applies the same heat uniformly to all
structures — parts and tools. In a mi-
crowave system, material composition
has an impact on temperature. Metals
are refl ective to microwaves and thus
do not heat up. Certain nonmetallic ma-
terials, such as tooling epoxy, are reac-
tive and do heat up. Additionally, there
are some nonmetallic materials that do
not heat up because they are transpar-
ent. By use of specifi c material combina-
tions, it’s possible to make some parts of
the tool — areas not in contact with the
component — refl ective to microwaves;
conversely, it’s possible to make tooling
surfaces reactive to microwaves. This is
what allows the tool temperature to be
held lower than the part temperature.
The tooling GKN used in its analysis,
says Cornforth, consists of an Invar base
with a carbon fi ber laminate surface. “We
wanted a tool base that has no coupling
[with the microwaves], but with a coating
that does couple with the microwaves,”
he says. “We don’t want a cold tool and
a hot part, but we don’t want to heat the
whole tool.”
Reiner Wiesehöfer, a principal at
Vötsch, says adapting microwave curing
requires an understanding of how mi-
crowaves function to make the process
viable for curing. “You can’t take a mi-
crowave oven and simply apply the same
process and parameters as you used in
the autoclave. You must create a process
that is suitable to the microwave.”
A key to such adaptation, says
Wiesehöfer, is use of thermocouples on
the part and the tool to monitor process
temperature. This is necessary because
the air and oven walls are not heated, thus
temperature must be measured where
heating actually occurs. Further, because
the process measures the temperature of
the composite part, says Wiesehöfer, it’s
possible to manipulate temperature in
sections of the part. For instance, if the
user wants to reduce temperature in a
region, shielding can be applied to make
the area refl ect microwaves, thus shield-
ing the uncured laminate.
Of course, microwave heating is not
confi ned to the part and tool. Consum-
ables — breather cloths, bagging mats
and sealant material — react to micro-
waves and, Cornforth notes, one of the
challenges GKN has faced is that each
material absorbs microwave energy dif-
ferently. “How do consumables behave?”
Cornforth asks rhetorically. “If they don’t
behave the way you like,” he says, “you
have to fi nd materials that are better
adapted to the process.”
GKN has several fi nished parts now,
says Cornforth, and the company is in the
process of doing differential scanning
calorimetry (DSC) analysis, nondestruc-
tive testing and microscopic evaluation of
cut-ups to assess part quality. The parts
will be compared to identical parts pro-
duced via autoclave. He adds that GKN
Aerospace is working to Airbus specifi ca-
tions to benchmark the quality of the mi-
crowave-cured composite laminate. Ini-
tial results clearly demonstrate that
microwave-cured composites achieve the
required quality of an autoclave cure.
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FEATURE / UPDATE ON THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
5 2 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
Over the past 25 years, thermoplas-
tic composites (TPCs) have in-
creasingly earned their way onto
commercial and military aircraft.
They’ve done so through the ef-
forts of a few pioneering companies that
have developed materials and process-
es, enabling continuous fi ber reinforce-
ment of advanced matrices such as poly-
phenylene sulfi de (PPS), polyetherimide
(PEI), polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and
polyetherketoneketone (PEKK).
Given the excellent fi re, smoke and
toxicity (FST) performance and cycle
times of minutes vs. hours for thermo-
sets, the infl ux of TPCs into aircraft inte-
riors was no surprise. Ten Cate Advanced
Composites (Nijverdal, The Nether-
lands), for example, claimed in 2006 as
many as 1,500 separate part numbers on
Airbus aircraft, made from its Cetex PEI
and PPS sheet products. But TPCs didn’t
stall there. Adoptions have progressed
with each new aircraft (see “Learn More,”
p. 59). Leading TPC manufacturers con-
fi rm that they are working on develop-
ments for both The Boeing Co.’s (Seat-
tle, Wash.) 787 and the A350 XWB from
Airbus (Toulouse, France). Although few
details are available for TPC production
on these aircraft (see the “TPCs on B787
and A350” side story on p. 54), Airbus
and others have made no secret of the
fact that they have set their sights very
high. Airbus, through the Thermoplas-
tic Affordable Primary Aircraft Structure
Yes, advanced forms are in development, but has the technology
progressed enough to make the business case?
Thermoplastic Composites:
PRIMARY STRUCTURE?
BY GINGER GARDINERS
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M A R C H 2 0 1 1 | 5 3M A R C H 2 0 1 1 | 5 3
(TAPAS) consortium, intends to demon-
strate a TPC torsion box, such as that
used in horizontal tails, featuring induc-
tion welded butt-joint stiffening ribs.
Also in process is a TPC fuselage panel
with integrated stiffeners. Meanwhile,
the Consortium for Research and Inno-
vation in Aerospace in Québec (CRIAQ,
Montréal, Canada) continues its devel-
opment of a thin-walled, tapered-cylin-
der TPC helicopter tail boom with welded
internal stiffeners.
Fokker leads TAPAS torsion box
TAPAS includes Airbus and eight ther-
moplastic composites specialists based
in The Netherlands — Fokker Aerostruc-
tures (Hoogeveen), Ten Cate, Airborne
Composites (The Hague), KVE Compos-
ites Group (The Hague), Dutch Thermo-
plastic Composites (Almere), Technobis
Fibre Technologies (Uitgeest), Technical
University Delft, University of Twente, and
the Dutch National Aerospace Laborato-
ry (Amsterdam). The collaborators intend
to develop the technology necessary to
produce large thermoplastic composite
primary aircraft structures. The goal of
this four-year program, started in 2009, is
to expedite a technology readiness (TRL)
level of 6, culminating with two large-
scale demonstrator components. (TRL 6
stands for Technology Demonstration on
a scale from TRL 1 – Basic Technology Re-
search to TRL 9 – Systems Test, Launch
& Operations.) One will be a 12m/39-ft
span torsion box and the other, a 4m/13-
ft long, double-curvature fuselage panel.
The program is intended to position par-
ticipating partners for new programs like
the A30X (next-generation A320).
The TAPAS torsion box demonstra-
tor is basically a redesign of Gulfstream
Aerospace Corp.’s (Savannah, Ga.) Gulf-
stream G650 horizontal stabilizer, previ-
ously a carbon fi ber/epoxy hat-stiffened
skin construction. The torsion box is the
fi xed structure of the tail, and it is more
heavily loaded than the movable rudder
and elevators, which Fokker now produc-
es in carbon/PPS, achieving a 10 percent
weight reduction and a 20 percent cost
savings vs. previous carbon/epoxy. In
fact, Fokker along with Gulfstream, KVE,
TenCate and Ticona (Amesbury, Mass.)
won the 2010 JEC innovation award in
Aeronautics for developing these fi rst
TPC primary structures and the fi rst in-
dustrialized induction welding method
(contributed by KVE). “We wanted to
look at a torsion box, as a basis for con-
trol surfaces, wings and complete tails to
be made from thermoplastic composites
in the future,” says Arnt Offringa, R&D
director for Fokker Aerostructures. “With
the G650 products, we already had the
tooling, test rigs and material data re-
quired.” The selected 12m span repre-
sents a horizontal fl ap for an airliner or
half the span of a business jet horizontal
tail. Only the 6m/20-ft middle section of
the demonstrator is thermoplastic (Fok-
ker uses already built thermoset left and
right tips) but is more complex than the
G650 components, and an important
step forward. In fact, Fokker already has
developed a TRL 4 (Technology Develop-
ment level) subcomponent TPC demon-
strator that measures 0.5m by 1m (1.6 ft
by 3.3 ft), with three integrated stiffen-
ers. The part has undergone static and
fatigue testing in all conditions. Produc-
tion and testing of the larger demonstra-
tor will be completed by the end of 2011.
The torsion box features tailored skins
with varying thickness, from 2 mm/0.08
inch at its thinnest to 8 mm/0.4 inch at
the root, and will be made from unidirec-
tional carbon fi ber/PEKK. The integrated,
butt-jointed T-stiffeners are revolution-
ary in terms of manufacturing process,
cost and weight. “We were looking for a
low-cost way of adding vertical stiffeners
to I-shaped fl oor beams a few years ago,”
Offringa recalls. “Instead of using lami-
nates with fl anges, we tried a simple fl at
plate, butt jointed to the I-beam during
consolidation.” (See “Learn More,” p. 59).
The butt joint was an order of magnitude
stronger than previous welded joints,
which Fokker had developed for A340
and A380 J-nose leading edge structures.
“The peel strength of a welded joint is
roughly 10 N/mm (57 lb/inch) indepen-
dent of thickness, while the butt-jointed
stringer is ten times stronger,” Offringa
maintains, emphasizing that at failure,
“the plies of the underlying skin pull
apart vs. a bond rupture.” Fokker then
enhanced bond strength with a pair of
injection molded radius inserts that help
transition load from the perpendicular
stiffener to the skin. The short carbon
fi ber-reinforced PEKK inserts widen the
joint area to three times the stringer
thickness. They exhibit strength only
one-third less than that of the composite
laminate, “We tried continuous unidi-
rectional fi bers,” Offringa notes, “but the
short fi ber/PEKK combination worked
best to reduce stress in the joints.”
Simple fl at preforms are made using
automated tape placement (ATP) and
Robotic tape laying machinery
Fokker Aerostructures (Hoogeveen, The Netherlands) executives view the company’s recently developed automated placement system for C-PEKK tapes. Its Fanuc robotic arm is fitted with an ultrasonic welding head. It is a more flexible and less costly solution than gantry-style machines.
Orders-of-magnitude improvements
Fokker’s 12m/39-ft span carbon fiber-PEKK torsion box demonstrator for TAPAS features integrated T-stiffeners. The revolutionary butt-joints in the stiffeners show a 10x increase in peel strength and a 2.5x higher joint failure threshold.
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FEATURE / UPDATE ON THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
then waterjet cut to supply the two pieces
for each T-stiffener. Stiffener components
and radius inserts are placed into tool
cavities designed to receive them. Tooling
blocks are positioned, which locate the
components precisely and, during mold-
ing, apply pressure. The thermoplastic
composite skin is then tape layed on top
using an off-the-shelf robotic arm made
by Fanuc (Oshino-mura, Japan), and
specifi ed and programmed by Boikon
(Leek, The Netherlands), instead of a
gantry type ATL/AFP machine. After caul
plates and a vacuum bag are applied,
the assembly is consolidated during a
three-hour autoclave cycle. The goal is
to transition, eventually, to using only
vacuum and a heated tool.
The decision to use a robotic arm was
based on cost: roughly $100,000 for indus-
trial robots vs. $1 million for large ATL/
AFP machines. Offringa notes that Co-
riolis Composites SAS (Quéven, France),
Accudyne Systems Inc. (Newark, Del.) and
Automated Dynamics (Schenectady, N.Y.)
have all looked into using robots instead
of gantry-style equipment. (Coriolis Com-
posites’ effort in that direction is noted
in the news item on p. 19.) “For ther-
moplastic composites, you do not need
large forces to tack the material together,
Offringa contends. “Heat is enough.”
Although the large ATL/AFP machines
typically use gas or laser heating systems,
Fokker chose low-cost ultrasonic welding,
a process with which it has many years of
experience on the J-nose leading edges.
Fokker uses Vericut software by CGTech
(Irvine, Calif.) to translate CATIA (Das-
sault Systèmes, Paris, France) CAD data
into something the robot can build. This
system is expected to enable affordable
growth. “For small volumes of limited-
size products — for example, an 80-cm
by 300-cm (32-inch by 118-inch) busi-
ness-jet fl ap — a single robotic cell will
work, and increased volumes can be ac-
commodated by adding robots,” Offringa
explains. “Larger structures, like aircraft
tails or fuselage panels, can be achieved
with multiple synchronized robots, each
capable of several material widths.”
Using automated layup drove the
choice of PEKK as a matrix. In automated
layup, unidirectional tapes are easier to
use than fabrics. Moreover, carbon/PEKK
tapes are readily available from Cytec
Engineered Materials (Tempe, Ariz.). Ten
Cate is working on a new product as well.
Sine-wave beams and A30X leading edgesFokker’s butt-joint system has enabled
a faster, more cost-effective way of pro-
ducing sine-wave beams, which are not
easily formed in thermoset composites.
Fokker began with the beam’s web, a car-
bon/PEKK fl at plate, press-formed in the
shape of a sine wave. To expedite R&D,
two sine wave-shaped radius inserts were
roughed out by making a tool with a sine
wave groove and then press forming heat-
ed chopped carbon/PEKK material pel-
lets into it. Nevertheless, the rough part
showed no voids, indicating that injection
molding could be used without trouble
for insert production. The beam’s fl anges
were cut from preformed carbon/PEKK
Although The Boeing Co.’s (Seattle, Wash.)
787 Dreamliner and the Airbus (Toulouse,
France) A350 XWB have earned much press as
showcases for thermoset composites in aircraft
structure, both programs also have advanced
the use of thermoplastic composites.
For the A350, Ten Cate (Nijverdal, The Neth-
erlands) and Toho Tenax (Tokyo, Japan) each
have announced long-term supply contracts
for their carbon fi ber-reinforced thermoplastic
prepregs, but the names of specifi c manufac-
turers they will supply and the parts they will
manufacture were unavailable.
Some TPC applications, however, have
been identifi ed. Aerosud (Pretoria, South
Africa) has been named as the supplier of
continuous fi ber-reinforced thermoplastic
frame clips for the A350, which will be used
to attach carbon composite fuselage panels to
the fuselage skeleton.
Dutch Thermoplastic Composites (Almere,
The Netherlands) has begun production on
hundreds of different TPC clips and cleats for
both the A350 and Boeing 787.
The 787’s overhead baggage bins will
be attached using C-shaped and L-shaped
TPC ceiling rails made by Xperion-CDI (Avon,
Ohio), using its continuous compression mold-
ing (CCM) process.
Not least, Marquez (Montréal, Québec,
Canada) is supplying the 787’s personal air
delivery system (see the side story on p. 56).
TPCs on the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350
S I D E S T O R Y
Sine wave of the future
Fokker’s development of its butt-joint system has enabled new designs not easily formed in thermoset composites, such as the sine-wave beam pictured here.
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fl at laminate. Then the web, inserts and
fl anges were placed in a tool, bagged and
coconsolidated, producing a structure
with a much higher stiffness and buckling-
resistance than a simple I-beam.
The butt-joint method also enabled
production of a skin/stringer design that
features multiple fl at ribs, now employed
in the 3.5-year, $6 million Level 1 CO-
ALESCE (Cost Effi cient Advanced Lead-
ing Edge Structure) project within the Eu-
ropean Union 7th Framework program. By
mandate, the Airbus A30X must cost less
per kilogram than the latest wide-body
platforms. Accordingly, says Offringa, its
leading edge must cost less than Fokker’s
welded-rib leading edge on the A380 (see
“Learn More,” p. 59). Offringa recounts the
design’s origins: “We asked ‘How can we
get rid of welding? Maybe if we make the
ribs very small and fuse them to the skin
all in one shot?’” The ribs are waterjet cut
from large preformed fl at plate stock into
tailored shapes to minimize material. Ra-
dius inserts are injection molded and the
skin is robotically fi ber placed. Then, the
assembly is coconsolidated to produce a
structure that costs 30 percent less than
the A380 leading edge, based on cross-
section analysis (i.e., regardless of part
length).
Developing complex fuselage stringersDutch Thermoplastic Composites (DTC)
also is pursuing new TPC stringer designs
as it explores press-formed structures
with variable thickness and complex
geometry for the TAPAS fuselage dem-
onstrator. DTC has made lightly loaded,
constant-thickness TPC ribs in the past,
similar to those in Fokker’s A340 lead-
ing edge. But, says DTC’s CEO David
Manten, “When you go to more highly
loaded structures, like fuselage panels,
ribs are often made of aluminum be-
cause of the many formed details and
thickness variations used to achieve
higher strength and stiffness with less
material. In thermoset composites, ply
build-ups and drop-offs are used to
achieve the same result, but thermoplas-
tic composites enable much more com-
plex geometry in a very fast cycle time.”
DTC built a custom press capable of
forming 1-ft by 1-ft (0.3m by 0.3m) car-
bon/PPS or carbon/PEKK profi les up to
3m/10 ft in length. The profi les can be
formed within a 5- to 10- minute cycle
time, and they are compatible for co-
consolidation with the demonstrator
fuselage panel skin. Development began
with single-ply laminates and now has
progressed to a 2-mm/0.080-inch thick
quasi-isotropic layup. Manten describes
the process: “We build up the plates our-
selves and then pre-consolidate them
using vacuum to extract air before press
forming, routinely achieving porosity
levels way below 2 percent.” DTC can
press three stringers simultaneously,
each up to 8 inches (203 mm) in width,
and the press is capable of more than
400˚C/752˚F with automated material
transport. The thickness in the stringers
varies between 0.125 inch and 0.250 inch
(2.48 mm and 5.50 mm). DTC is devel-
oping a robotic system to automate fl at
blank production. Currently, it can lay up
a blank in three to four minutes. So the
process as a whole moves quickly: CNC
cutting of TPC materials, robotic layup,
vacuum preconsolidation and automat-
ed transfer to forming press, for a total
cycle time of 15 minutes. During the next
six months, DTC will transition to a
Setting up for rib/radius/skin coconsolidation
TPC ribs from flat plate stock and radius inserts for Fokker’s COALESCE leading edge are placed into cavities on this tool. A robotic arm then places TPC tape on top, forming two leading edges to be coconsolidated in a short autoclave cycle.
TPC T-stiffeners
Fokker’s butt-jointed T-stiffeners enable TPC primary structures that cost 15 to 30 percent less than carbon fiber/epoxy.
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FEATURE / UPDATE ON THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
commercial-scale machine, capable of
3.5-ft by 1.5-ft (1.1m by 0.5m) blanks up
to 3m/10 ft in length.
TPC helicopter tail boomCRIAQ is a government-funded aero-
space consortium of 62 Quebec-based
aerospace companies, universities and
government organizations, including the
major OEMs Bombardier (Montréal),
Bell Helicopter (Mirabel) and Pratt &
Whitney Canada (Longueuil). Its mis-
sion is to develop novel concepts and
processes that can be applied to future
aerospace products. Among its com-
posites projects are two devoted to TPC
structures: (1) develop and validate a
composite tube for a light helicopter skid
landing gear and (2) demonstrate a ther-
moplastic tail boom for helicopters. The
tail boom is typically a thin-walled, ta-
pered cylinder that connects the cabin to
the tail rotor and must endure signifi cant
bending moments as well as high-tem-
perature engine exhaust. The CRIAQ tail-
boom section is approximately 4 ft/1.2m
in length with diameters representative
of actual aircraft (diameters vary from 10
inches/0.3m at tail to 27 inches/0.7m at
cabin junction). Because rotorcraft struc-
tures are confi ned by low production vol-
umes and complex geometries, no heli-
copter manufacturer has yet been able to
make the business case for using TPCs in
production. CRIAQ’s purpose is to look
at the processing parameters and latest
materials and equipment in an attempt
to overcome these issues.
TPC primary structure issuesAccording to some industry experts,
thermoplastic composites still have
signifi cant barriers to overcome before
they are widely used in complex, con-
toured primary structures, particularly
for aircraft produced in smaller volumes.
These include cost, automated process-
ing speed and quality, and lack of devel-
oped repair technologies.
Because aerospace-grade thermoplas-
tic prepregs cost more than thermoset
prepregs, some observers say TPC parts
cannot compete cost-wise simply by us-
ing the same automated layup and au-
toclave consolidation process currently
used for thermoset composite primary
structures. According to Dr. Ali Youse-
fpour, composites group leader at the
Aerospace Manufacturing Technology
Center, Institute for Aerospace Research,
National Research Council of Canada
(NRC, Montreal, Quebec), “The best ap-
proach would be in-situ consolidation, so
that when you are done, you have the part
with no secondary processing required.
But that still needs more work to ensure
Repeatedly recognized for its innovative design
and manufacturing, Marquez (Montréal, Québec,
Canada) has produced advanced thermoplastic
composite structures since 1996. Currently, the
company supplies TPC ducting for The Boeing
Co.’s 787 Personal System Unit (PSU), and
the TPC structural window bezel used on all
Bombardier (Montréal, Canada) Global Express
business aircraft (photo at right)
The PSU delivers fresh air to each passenger
via ductwork, through overhead nozzles.
Marquez supplies 60 different parts for the
787 PSU ductwork, delivering a part every six
minutes. About 90 percent of the structure is
polyetherimide (PEI) reinforced with continuous
S-2 Glass fi ber (supplied by AGY Holdings Inc.,
Aiken, S.C.) and 10 percent unreinforced for
the connection areas at each part’s end. Most
of the parts are 48 inches (1.2m) long. Many
have complex geometries because the ductwork
twists and turns as it moves air through the
crowded overhead space.
Once a retrofi t, the TPC window bezel now
is standard on all Global Express aircraft. The
11.8-inch (298.5-mm) by 17.4-inch (441.3-mm)
by 1.2-inch (30.5-mm) thick frame is the struc-
tural bone of the seven-piece window assembly,
and was codeveloped with Fiberforge (Glenwood
Springs, Colo.), which produces the part for
Marquez. According to Martin Levesque, Mar-
quez director of R&D, “The bezel is unusual as a
structure in that it is empty in the middle, so Fi-
berforge was able to work with us to develop a
donut-shaped blank, as there would have been
too much waste to form it from a solid one.” He
adds that the Fiberforge process is well-suited
for applications that require a customized TPC
blank. The companies worked together for a
year to develop the specialized bidirectional
laminate sequence which uses 19 plies of unidi-
rectional S-2 Glass-reinforced polyphenylene-
sulfi de (PPS) to achieve tightly limited defl ection
in two directions. This enables the bezel to form
a hermetic (airtight) seal, which not only main-
tains cabin pressure but also prevents window
fogging. “Our design accommodates the fuse-
lage movement while maintaining the seal so
that the temperature and humidity between the
outer and inner windows in controlled and no
fogging occurs,” says Levesque, noting that the
PPS matrix works well because it can defl ect in
one direction but remain rigid in the other and
is ductile enough to prevent cracking. Originally,
Marquez vacuum-assisted resin transfer molded
a thermoset composite prototype. However,
during testing that simulated 1,500 take-off
and landing cycles with temperatures between
-55˚C to 85˚C (-67˚F to 185˚F), the part started
cracking. The test result prompted a trial with
S-2 Glass/PPS tape prepregged by Ten Cate Ad-
vanced Composites (Nijverdal, The Netherlands).
The tape, widely used for automated tape layed
aerospace structures, thus provided the least
costly material option.
Marquez innovates aircraft TPCs
S I D E S T O R Y
Bizjet window bezel
Marquez supplies the TPC window bezel for Bombardier’s Global
Express business jets. The bezel is made by Fiberforge (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) using a customized donut blank.
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100 percent consolidation and suffi cient
crystallization.” Yousefpour notes that
this is the only true out-of-autoclave pro-
cessing, a benefi t often touted for TPCs.
Most high-performance thermoplas-
tics require temperatures between 400˚F
and 800˚F (200˚C and 430˚C) to ensure
fi ber wet out, with a consolidation pres-
sure of up to 200 psi (1,380 kPa) being
typical. One manufacturer estimated
that the high-temperature, high-pres-
sure autoclaves and presses required
for most current TPC post-consolidation
cost about twice that used to process
thermoset composites and, therefore,
the resulting capital burden is diffi cult to
justify for low production volumes.
Fokker’s remarkable success convert-
ing fl oors, post-buckled leading edges,
control surfaces and tail components to
TPCs has been attributed by one critic to
the fact that each instance involved ruled
surfaces (2-D) or moderately curved ge-
ometry and offered the opportunity to
consolidate high part-count assemblies.
Replacement of aluminum, therefore,
was cost-justifi ed by eliminating the
time and expense of mechanical fasten-
ing. Thus, assembly has driven the cost
regardless of the material, enabling
welded TPCs to compete with aluminum
and thermosets, where for other primary
structure, it may be less attractive.
It is also argued that those who have
had success have understood the physi-
cal limitations of TPC materials and ad-
dressed these constraints in their manu-
facturing processes. For example, ribs and
spars have typically used fl anges that are
short or have a 2-D radius, so that the
complex intersections are preformed and
then welded. However, these limitations
affect TPCs’ competitiveness in automat-
ed processes. “The true in-situ process is
rather slow,” Yousefpour reports, noting
that thermoset automated placement
uses a soft compaction roller, which de-
forms to go around sharp corners and edg-
es, a factor that increases both precision
and speed. “TPC automated placement
typically uses a hard compaction roller to
sustain the higher temperatures required,”
explains Yousefpour. Some companies are
exploring modular or fl exible compaction
rollers, he points out, but slow processing
remains a challenge. Traditionally, ther-
moplastic prepregs also have been stiffer,
exacerbating the issues of steering at high
speed over complex contours, and they
require controlled cooling to manage
Stringer in 15 minutes
Dutch Thermoplastic Composites (Almere, The
Netherlands) has developed press-formed TPC stringers with variable thickness and complex
geometry for the TAPAS fuselage demonstrator, with a total cycle
time of 15 minutes, starting from CNC materials cutting.
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Stringer in 15 minute
Dutch ThermoplastComposites (Almere, Th
Netherlands) has developepress-formed TPC stringers witvariable thickness and comple
geometry for the TAPAS fuselagdemonstrator, with a total cyc
time of 15 minutes, starting froCNC materials cuttin
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FEATURE / UPDATE ON THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
Robotic placement
A Flash TP automated placement machine from Coriolus Composites (Quéven, France) forms a carbon/TPC Airbus A30X lower fuselage skin demonstrator.
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crystallization of the TPC matrix. Youse-
fpour adds, “The most forgiving material
right now is PEEK, but it is much more
expensive. Other high-end thermoplas-
tic polymers do not achieve the required
crystallization with AFP, so it still must
be heated under pressure.” Reportedly,
typical TPC laydown rates are much less
than 10 lb/hour. Carbon/epoxy materials
for large commercial structures can be
applied at 15 to 40 lb/hr. Lay-down rates
are usually noted as a function of machine
speed in m/sec, but this has limited value
in describing the part cost in kg/hr because
geometry, steering, in-situ placement, and
processing parameters can slow machine
speed and interrupt head travel. Accord-
ingly, the overall part cycle time and cost
are still an issue. Industry sources suggest
that laydown rates need to be three to fi ve
times faster for PEEK and 10 to 20 times
faster for PEKK to make the business case
for use in large primary structures for low-
er-volume aircraft.
Because thermoplastic prepregs are
not tacky, adhesion of the fi rst ply to the
tool during automated placement also
has been an issue, especially on con-
toured surfaces. Airbus was awarded a
patent on July 13, 2011, which proposes
one solution to the problem: apply-
ing negative pressure to the layup via a
porous mold. Another issue is that TPC
materials are diffi cult to bond with non-
thermoplastic materials, such as epoxy.
Unitized structure has been built with
various welding technologies, but to
date, this has been possible only when
all the welded parts are TPCs. Lack of
repair strategies is also an issue. “There
has been little talk about repair of TPC
structures,” claims Yousefpour, “Fusion
bonding may be used, but needs to be
developed.” Questions must be an-
swered: “For example, how will heat and
pressure be applied for bonding and how
will repairs be inspected for quality?”
Business case debate
Fokker produces aluminum and carbon
fi ber/epoxy horizontal stabilizers for
Dassault and other OEMs, and a variety
of fl aps for Airbus and Boeing. Therefore,
it has production and cost data for com-
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should be suffi cient for curing helicopter
parts. High-temperature capability does
add cost, but not nearly as much as that
required for large-diameter parts, such
as those used on the 787.
It is interesting to note that Sikorsky
Aircraft (Stratford, Conn.) has pursued a
large thermoplastic fl oor assembly for
years, fi rst with Automated Dynamics for
the UH-60M Black Hawk upgrade and
most recently for the CH-53K transport
helicopters used by the U.S. Marine
Corps, with DRS Technologies (Parsippa-
LEARN MORE @
www.compositesworld.com
Read this article online at http://short.
compositesworld.com/CkJo3L82.
The progression of TPC adoptions on recent
aircraft is illustrated in a timeline format at
http://short.compositesworld.com/EAJlA3dD.
Read about butt-jointed I-beam stiffeners in
HPC July 2008 (p. 94) or visit http://short.
compositesworld.com/RRQuasRl.
Read about the A380 leading edge in HPC
March 2006 (p. 50) or visit http://short.
compositesworld.com/A0RYPVJa.
ny, N.J.) and Fiberforge (Glenwood
Springs, Colo.). In the March 21 issue of
The Aspen Times, Fiberforge chief operating
offi cer David Cramer said that this project
is now moving into full-scale production.
“It’s the largest heavy-duty helicopter in
the fl eet,” Cramer said, noting that the
TPC fl oor meets the Marines’ durability
needs and cuts weight by 25 percent vs.
the previous aluminum design — impor-
tant to Sikorsky as it looked to reduce
weight after redesigning the helicopter’s
engine for greater thrust.
parison with TPC technology. For the Gulf-
stream G650’s rudder and elevators, the
company compared its own hat-stiffened
carbon/epoxy construction with new TPC
butt-jointed structures, produced using
ATP robots and three-hour autoclave co-
consolidation cycles (vs. seven to nine
hours for cocured epoxies). In this case,
the TPC approach reduced overall hours,
resulting in a 25 percent cost reduction.
Part of this reduction comes from us-
ing less material via the butt-jointed
design, an extension of post-buckled
skin/stringer design originally devel-
oped by composite structures pioneer
Dr. John Hart-Smith. Instead of prevent-
ing buckling — one of the main failure
modes — with a thick skin, Hart-Smith’s
design allows local buckling at the high-
est service loads, but constrains it with
bonded stiffeners, reducing overall skin
thickness and weight. It also makes every
ounce of material work to its fullest. Butt
joints take this one step farther by using
an optimized welded joint instead of ad-
hesive bonds to extend the failure load
by a factor of 2.5. Both TAPAS demon-
strators exploit this welded post-buckled
skin/stringer design.
Fokker’s Offringa points out that al-
though TAPAS is geared toward com-
mercial airlines, the butt-jointed parts
Fokker is developing also are aimed at
business jets, which, like rotorcraft, are
produced in smaller volumes. For the
G650 parts, he adds, a 12m/39 ft long,
3.5m/12-ft-diameter, gas-heated auto-
clave capable of 400˚C/752˚F is used,
which is more than enough for most
thermoplastic composite materials. “It
cost €2 million [$2.7 million USD], typi-
cal for this type of autoclave.” Offringa
contends that an autoclave of this size
INSIDE MANUFACTURING
6 0 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
INSIDE MANUFACTURING
anocomposites research and the massive benefi ts it promises
have attracted considerable press coverage over the past de-
cade. Actual commercial development of nano-based products
for composites, however, has been slow. But a new partnership
between Applied NanoStructured Solutions LLC (ANS, Balti-
more, Md.), a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, and Owens Corning (To-
ledo, Ohio) is about to accelerate growth. ANS has worked for more
than three years to develop a rapid, scalable manufacturing process
that can produce reinforcements infused with carbon nanostructures
(CNS) for composites fabrication. With Owens Corning now on board
as a joint development partner, ANS seeks to commercialize the pro-
cess for high-volume applications.
From the beginning, says Dr. Tushar Shah, ANS’ chief technology
offi cer, the focus of the research has been on development of a robust
manufacturing technology. “Our main purpose was to determine how
to produce high-value, low-cost materials, under reasonable condi-
tions,” he recalls, noting that the emphasis was on practicality. “That
was the breakthrough. We’ve developed a drop-in, multifunctional
technology for composites processors, with performance built into
the reinforcement.”
The technology, known as CER (carbon-enhanced reinforcements),
is now under consideration for a number of applications. Electronics
applications, such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding or
lightning strike protection, are the initial targets, but others are in the
sights. CNS-infused glass fi ber is the “most mature” at present, says
Shah. HPC got an exclusive fi rst look at the process and the product’s
potential applications during a recent tour of the pilot plant.
Nanotech backgroundNanotechnology involves the creation and manipulation of particles
at the nanoscale, that is, particles that range in size from 1 to 1,000
nanometers (nm), where 1 nm equals 1 billionth of a meter. Nanoma-
terials include single-wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which are long,
thin cylinders of carbon atoms arranged in a graphitic lattice struc-
ture, and multiwall carbon nanotubes, which are concentric cylinders
of carbon atoms in a similar graphite structure held together by weak
intermolecular forces. These carbon-based particles have aspect ra-
tios that range from 100:1 to 10,000:1.
Other examples of nanoscale materials include nanoclays, metal ox-
ide particles and graphene nanoplatelets, also characterized by very
large aspect ratios (surface area to thickness). The key to nanoparticle
benefi ts is this high ratio of surface area to total volume; as the
NANOTECHNOLOGY:
Fast, scalable process grows
nanostructures directly on composite
reinforcements for “drop-in” use in
volume production processes.
BY SARA BLACK
N
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 6 1
INTO THE REALM OF REAL
So
urc
e:
AN
S
Growing CNSs on glass fibers
A new partnership between Applied Nanostructured Solutions (ANS) and Owens Corning seeks to commercialize nano-enhanced reinforcements infused with carbon nanostructures (CNS). In this photo, fiberglass rovings covered with black CNS are pulled from the processing equipment for respooling.
INSIDE MANUFACTURING
6 2 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
INSIDE MANUFACTURING
6 2 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
Step 1
The enclosed production line, designed and built by ANS. Creeled fiberglass at the left side is pulled into the production line for infusion.
Step 2
A separate enclosed production line is used for infusing carbon fiber towpreg with CNS. Note the enclosed and refrigerated creel area (at right).
Step 3
This close-up photo shows the glass rovings as they enter the heated CNS growth chamber, after they have gone through the aqueous catalyst bath.
Step 4
Inside the growth chamber, the atmosphere, a mixture of acetylene, nitrogen and hydrogen, is conducive to CNS growth. Here, a scanning electronic micrograph (SEM) shows CNS forming to the left on the surface of a glass fiber.
Step 5
A second SEM shows fully grown CNS on a single fiber.
Step 6
This SEM shows multiple glass filaments with high CNS loadings, with a brush-like appearance.
Step 7
The treated, infused glass rovings, now black with the infused nanostructures, are taken up at the end of the process line.
Step 8
Infused glass fiber rovings, rerolled and ready for shipment to customers.
Sourc
e (all
step
photo
s): A
NS
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 6 3
Nano-infusing fabric reinforcementsThe process developed by Shah and his
team is based on continuous, rapid, high-
temperature, catalyzed chemical vapor
deposition (CVD). Deposition is con-
ducted in an enclosed production line so
that no particles are released during pro-
duction. “It’s a completely dust-free and
solvent-free environment,” says Dr. Amy
Jones, who leads product stewardship
for ANS. The company developed all of
the equipment and controls in-house,
including process control software and
a heated growth chamber. The pilot line
can handle reinforcement forms up to 12
inches/300 mm wide, but work is under-
way on a 36-inch/1m wide line. Eventu-
ally, ANS will have a 60-inch/1.5m wide
production line, a width more consistent
with typical broadgoods.
In the initial step, conventional glass
fi ber, which can be in the form of tow,
unidirectional tape or a woven broad-
good, is pulled from creels at the
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surface area or length increases, the
number of atoms at or near the particle’s
surface increases exponentially, creating
more bonding sites and, thus, enhanced
properties in the composite (for an ex-
panded discussion of nanotechnology
basics, see “Learn More,” p. 65).
The trend in composites has been
to use nanomaterials as a kind of “su-
per fi ller” in polymer resins — nano-
element-fi lled resins can achieve the
same performance properties achieved
with traditionally fi lled resins but with
a smaller fi ller volume fraction. In ad-
dition, nanofi lled resins often exhibit
other novel benefi cial characteristics,
such as improved thermal and electrical
conductivity or reduced fl ammability.
But adding nanoscale fi llers to resins is
often diffi cult, and thorough dispersion
throughout the resin is a greater chal-
lenge, requiring surface treatment of
the tiny particles. Resin loading is usu-
ally limited to no more than 3 percent,
because additional fi ller would make
the resin too viscous.
Given this, Shah says he wanted ANS
to focus on reinforcements instead
of resins. The more elegant solution,
he reasoned, was to incorporate the
nanoparticles directly into the fi bers
themselves and eliminate the handling
issues associated with CNS fi llers in
resins. Starting in 2007, the ANS team
began to develop a process for directly
“infusing” fabrics or tows with nano-
structures.
The result? “We have developed a way
to grow carbon nanostructures on fabrics,”
Shah says, adding that a wide range of
nanostructure volumes can be achieved
by varying the process speed. “We’re
not making CNTs and then transferring
them,” he clarifi es. “This is a continu-
ous, direct growth process, directly onto
the reinforcing fi bers.” The process has
been successful at the pilot scale. ANS
is ramping up low-volume production
to support commercial development, in
partnership with Owens Corning, at a
dedicated plant located in Middle River,
Md., near Baltimore. “Joining together
with Owens Corning is a natural next
step as we look to scale up our produc-
tion capabilities,” says Jeff Napoliello,
president of ANS. “We expect that this
agreement will permit us to shorten the
development time to produce customiz-
able material attributes for commercial
and defense applications.”
INSIDE MANUFACTURING
6 4 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
through a high-temperature chamber
to dry the liquid catalyst. The catalyzed
fi bers are drawn into an enclosed heat-
ed chamber. The chamber supports an
atmosphere — a mixture of acetylene,
hydrogen and nitrogen — in which, as
catalysis proceeds, the carbon nano-
structures grow on the individual fi la-
ments. ANS says the processing tem-
perature is not only proprietary but also
subject to change as process modifi ca-
tions are implemented during this pilot
stage. The fi ber form emerges from the
growth chamber with a black coating of
nanostructures and is re-spooled for
storage and shipment.
The production line typically moves
at a rate of 50 to 60 inches (1,270 to
1,524 mm) per minute, but the process-
ing speed can be slowed to less than
1 inch/25.4 mm per minute to produce
denser, thicker growth. The speed and,
therefore, the growth rate is customized
to a specifi c application, and the vol-
ume percentage of infused CNTs can be
varied from less than 1 percent to more
than 30 percent.
Scanning electron microscopic (SEM)
analysis reveals that the CNS grow ra-
dially outward from the glass fi laments
in a highly random and structurally en-
tangled manner and that the nanostruc-
tures have “shared walls,” notes Shah.
“It’s a combination of single-walled,
multiwalled and highly branched forms,
held together via physical bonds and
Van der Waals forces.”
Testing shows that the CNS typi-
cally exhibit 2 to 10 shared walls, are 5
to 20 nm in diameter and are 5 to 200
μm in length. “Our data show that the
CNS produced are chemically pure and
thermally stable,” Shah maintains. The
team also is working to encourage CNS
growth along the fi ber axis, aligned with
the fi ber, for undisclosed applications.
ANS’ process can grow CNS on car-
bon fi ber fi laments, but Shah reports
that it is tough to grow carbon on car-
bon, without a few tweaks. The carbon
process line, located in another section
of the facility, is similarly enclosed, but
its growth chamber must operate at a
higher temperature. Other materials,
such as ceramic fi bers and metal fi bers,
also have supported CNS growth on an
experimental basis.
Applications for infused fabricsBased on initial tests, the ANS/Owens
Corning team is excited about the po-
tential applications for the CER materi-
als. The fact that CNS are already bond-
ed to the fi ber surface ensures a better
fi ber/matrix bond than can be achieved
with CNT-fi lled resin systems during the
composite molding process, says Shah,
resulting in better composite part per-
formance. The CER reinforcements are
easily prepregged or resin-infused, and
they are compatible with a number of
different resin systems.
start of the production line. Depend-
ing on the fi ber type, sizing and other
unique attributes, the fi ber or fab-
ric might fi rst need to be treated in a
plasma etching process. This creates
a “nanomorphology” on the individual
fi laments that will facilitate surface
bonding of a catalyst and the CNS to
the fi ber fi laments, explains Shah. The
fi ber/fabric then goes through a dip
bath where it is coated with a propri-
etary aqueous catalyst. Next, it passes
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 6 5
Read this article online at http://short.
compositesworld.com/ax2LDLtM.
The basics of nanotechnology are discussed
in “From specialty fi llers to space elevators,”
HPC September 2005 (p. 30), or visit http://
short.compositesworld.com/DCrVWAul.
LEARN MORE @
www.compositesworld.com
Compared to untreated glass fi ber in a
standard epoxy resin, a CER glass/epoxy
composite delivers improved in-plane
shear strength and greater interlaminar
shear strength. When CER carbon/ep-
oxy and untreated carbon in epoxy are
compared, the former shows strength
increases similar to that achieved with
CER glass/epoxy and demonstrates
signifi cantly higher fracture toughness
than conventional carbon/epoxy. Be-
cause the nanostructures are so small,
says Shah, they add little weight to the
reinforcement, yet deliver tremendous
functionality.
One of the team’s initial focus areas
has been the use of CER material as a
replacement for the metal grids and
meshes now used in composite lami-
nates for lightning strike protection.
According to Shah and Owens Corn-
ing’s senior research associate for com-
posites, David Hartman, through-thick-
ness electrical conductivity testing has
demonstrated that a CER glass/epoxy
laminate offers 14 orders of magnitude
greater conductivity than an untreated
glass/epoxy — not as conductive as cop-
per but competitive with many metals.
Says Hartman, “This technology allows
us to make a composite laminate more
metal-like for applications where metal
is the typical solution.” Initial lightning
strike tests show that the material func-
tions well: It can dissipate a charge
without damage to the laminate.
Shah adds that the inherent conduc-
tivity of the CER materials makes it a
candidate for structural health monitor-
ing (SHM) applications as well. That is,
the material itself could act as an in situ
electrically conductive nanosensor in
“smart” body armor, for example. CER
also could function in a de-icing system,
acting in the capacity of a resistive heat-
ing element. Further, tests demonstrate
that CER composites provide better EMI
shielding than many metals and that
effectiveness increases as the volume
percentage of infused CNS in the fabric
increases.
ANS and Owens Corning expect that
the rapid, continuous CER production
process will scale up to meet the de-
mands of large-volume applications,
providing mechanical properties as well
as customizable electrical and thermal
conductivity. The two companies insist
that the process is not only possible, but
also practical. “In the end,” concludes
Byron Hulls, Owens Corning product
and programs director, “any technol-
ogy brought to market has to be cost-
competitive.” Although the team has
not publicly targeted a specifi c price,
Hulls maintains, “We’re in this project
because we believe the process is eco-
nomically viable.”
If they’re right, CER has the potential
to bring nanotechnology down to earth
and into the hands of composites
fabricators.
6 6 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
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June 9-10, 2011 Composites in Fire
Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. | www.compositesinfi re.com
June 14-15, 2011 Wind Power Italy
Rome, Italy | www.greenpowerconferences.com
June 19-24, 2011 12th Int’l Symposium on Nondestructive
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Blacksburg, Va. | www.cpe.vt.edu/NDCM-XII
June 20-26, 2011 International Paris Air Show
Le Bourget, France | www.paris-air-show.com
June 23-24, 2011 THEPLAC 2011
Lecce, Italy | www.cetma.it/theplac2011/
July 24-30, 2011 19th Int’l Conference on Composites and
Nano Engineering (ICCE-19)
Shanghai, China | www.icce-nano.org
Aug. 21-26, 2011 18th Int’l Conference on Composite
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APPLICATIONS
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 6 7
APPLICATIONS
Software eases design/build for exotic exercise bike
Known for its thermoset composites expertise in aerospace, medical and
other sectors, the Lamifl ex Group (Bergamo, Italy) was contacted in 2009 by
the Milan, Italy-based design house Luca Schieppati to help develop the Ci-
clotte, a striking luxury exercise bicycle made with carbon fi ber composites and
equipped with a touch-screen display and reduced pedal distance to ensure
better bio-mechanics. The
project was facilitated with
the VISI suite of design and
manufacturing tools from
Vero Software (Glouces-
tershire, U.K.). Ciclotte, fi rst
unveiled in late 2010, was a
recent nominee for the JEC
Innovation Award in the
Sports and Leisure category.
“The concept from Luca
Schieppati excited us, and
we wanted to help bring the
product to life, using our
composites experience,”
explains Federico Carrara
Castelli, research and devel-
opment director at Lamifl ex
and the Ciclotte project leader.
With a large central wheel
as its design cornerstone,
the Ciclotte was engineered
to accurately reproduce the
dynamics and performance
of on-road pedaling for high-
intensity “spinning,” with an
innovative epicycloid crank system — a set of eccentric gears that turn the wheel.
To guarantee the exact requirements and size of all the mechanical compo-
nents, including the large carbon fi ber wheel, handlebar and saddle, Lamifl ex
wanted to design all components in 3-D and virtually assemble them to high-
light potential issues prior to production of molds and parts.
“Previously, we had a parametric CAD system that we found diffi cult to use
and quite restrictive when working with complex organic surface forms,” notes
Lamifl ex CAD designer Marco Perani. “After extensive testing, we decided to im-
plement VISI. We believed it offered the best balance between performance and
price for an integrated CAD/CAM system. We are currently running VISI Model-
ling and VISI Analysis, and VISI Machining with Compass Technology for 2-D
through to 5-axis milling.”
The software also was used to design, in less than 100 hours, the carbon/epoxy
molds to produce the Ciclotte parts. When the molds were complete, woven car-
bon fabric wet out with epoxy resin was hand layed, vacuum bagged and cured in
the company’s autoclave. Then the parts were passed to the CAM department for
fi nish machining. With VISI Machining software, the machine operator can walk
through the complete program virtually, using its kinematic simulator, and prove
that the toolpath is collision-free for all drilling and trimming.
“VISI so ftware has streamlined our manufacturing processes, reduced the po-
tential for error and ultimately increased our productivity,” says Castelli.
Read this article online at http://short.compositesworld.com/uwURnL0B.
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 6 9
Drills for stacked materials
Sandvik Coromant (Fair Lawn, N.J.) introduced on
March 1 the CoroDrill 452 range of drills used to cre-
ate rivet and bolt holes in stacked carbon fi ber-rein-
forced plastics and metallic materials. Because each
carbon fi ber composite can have a unique construc-
tion and, therefore, make unique demands on
processors, there is the risk of delamina-
tion or splintering during drilling steps.
The CoroDrill geometries are designed
to reduce this risk and ensure that
stringent hole tolerances are met with
exceptional hole fi nish and qual-
ity, particularly with respect to the
prevention of exit-hole dam-
age. Benefi ts of use include
the elimination of secondary
processing steps, such as de-
burring. The tool range includes reamer geometries and a countersink tool
with microstop for chamfering. www.sandvik.coromant.com/us
Oxidation ovens for carbon fi ber production
Harper International (Lancaster, N.Y.) has launched its next generation of cus-
tom oxidation ovens for processing carbon fi ber. Available at 300-mm/11.8-
inch to greater than 4,000-mm/157.5-inch tow band widths, the ovens feature
the company’s proprietary atmospheric seals, which reduce fugitive emissions,
increase the active volume of the oven, and offer reduced energy consumption,
compared to previous and competing systems. According to the company, the
ovens’ modular-construction design reduced fi eld installation labor by 90 per-
cent, when an oven was recently incorporated into a full-line (300-mm/11.8-
inch) pilot system. Company-guaranteed benefi ts include faster oxidation,
improved velocity uniformity and velocity range capability, assurance of tem-
perature uniformity throughout a variety of fl ow rates, and optimal control of the
carbonization reaction to ensure fi ber quality. www.harperintl.com
Fiber preform for jointing system
Biteam AB (Bromma, Sweden), a developer of 3-D weaving technology, has
introduced a new 3-D woven T-Bar profi le. This preform comprises a fully inte-
grated single-piece T-beam with a solid square/rectangle bar at the tip of the T-
profi le’s web. Developed to enable a jointing system that functions as stiffener
and supporter in large structures, similar to that found in woodwork, the T-Bar
is designed to fi t with a crossmember that has a matching cutout, enabling a
mechanical lock between the two segments. According to the company, this
joint type enables construction of composite fl oors, covers, gates/doors, pla-
nar and curved walls/bodies in building/construction, aeronautical/aerospace
and other engineering applications. The crossmembers can be either slats or
profi led beams (T, I or U shapes), per application needs. The jointing system
reportedly improves structural rigidity, increases design fl exibility, reduces labor
and makes it possible to customize structural performance. Further, the T-Bar’s
fl at sides provide large bonding/fastening surfaces. www.biteam.com
Carbon fiber/polyamide for additive manufacturing
CRP Technology (Modena, Italy), a manufacturer of resin systems for rapid
prototyping and rapid manufacturing, has announced Windform XT 2.0, a
polyamide-based, carbon fi ber-fi lled material. It is designed for use with selec-
tive laser sintering (SLS). The material replaces Windform XT and reportedly
provides better mechanical properties compared to its predecessor. The new
compound retains the matte black color of the previous version and features
the following improvements in mechanical performance: an 8 percent increase
in tensile strength, a 22 percent increase in tensile modulus; and a 46 percent
increase in elongation-to-break. Potential end-markets and applications for the
material include motorsports (e.g., underhood parts, such as intake manifolds
and cooling ducts), components for unmanned aerial vehicles, and other aero-
space parts and structures. www.crptechnology.com
NEW PRODUCTS
7 0 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
Roll stand feeds conveyorized cutters
Cutting systems manufacturer Eastman Machine Co. (Buffalo, N.Y.) has intro-
duced the Power Roll Stand, engineered to feed rolled material goods, such as
fi ber reinforcement fabrics, onto a fully automated conveyor cutting system. The
system features an ultrasonic beam that constantly measures the roll diameter
to facilitate and control feeding speeds. This control, combined with a “dancer
bar,” helps reduce stretching and pulling that can lead to distortion of the mate-
rial or yarn misalignment. The system can handle rolls as heavy as 2,000 lb/907
kg and accommodates roll widths to 48 inches/122 cm. An optional confi gura-
tion can handle 60-inch/152-cm diameter rolls that weigh up to 500 lb/227 kg.
www.eastmancuts.com
Angle variants available in spread-tow fabrics
Oxeon AB (Borås, Sweden) has expanded its line of TeXtreme spread-tow fab-
rics with the launch of its +α/-β variants. The fi rst product launched in the
series of variants is a +45°/-45° version. The company’s technology enables
continuous-length production of novel fabrics by interlacing two sets of spread
tow tapes at different angles, including, eventually, +30°/-60°, +50°/-25°, and
others. These fabrics are designed to complement the existing 0°/90° version.
Reported benefi ts of spread-tow fabrics include improved mechanical perfor-
mance, weight-saving possibilities, and good handling, fl atness and surface
smoothness. They are said to eliminate problems associated with symmetric
plying of noncrimp and unidirectional fabrics. www.oxeon.se
LASER PROJECTION SYSTEMS FOR
OUTLINES, TEMPLATES, SHAPES
High precision laser template projection
and laser measurement on fl at and cur-
ved surfaces. Red, green or multicolor.
www.LAP-LASER.com
Ultrasonic C-Scan Inspection Systems
for your
High Performance Materials
• Automated Ultrasonic C-Scan
Systems for Simple and
Complex Geometries
• Multi-Axis Gantries and
Immersion Tanks
• System Upgrades
www.matec.comEmail: [email protected]
56 Hudson St., Northborough, MA 01532 508-351-3423
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 7 1
NEW PRODUCTS
Laminate design/optimization software
Software developer Anaglyph Ltd. (London, U.K.) has launched Laminate Tools
4.1. New features include the ability to import 3-D curves from CAD programs;
a new, embedded SolidWorks interface; enabled ply split (dart) defi nitions as
curves unrelated to the mesh; and a method for area picking bounded by an
imported boundary curve. The new version also enables boundary curve defi ni-
tions for easy and accurate fl at ply outline pattern generation (including cut-
outs). Further, ply drop-off fl at patterns are now possible via imported boundary
curves. Also new: an enhanced Nastran export “merge” feature, to scan the
mesh and property IDs for best merged results; added support for the new
Ansys element shell type 281; enabled basic output of generated failure results
to the Altair HyperWorks H3D format; COM Server Automation functionality, for
remote control via custom client applications; software updates in line with the
PlyMatch 2010 system upgrade; enhanced error reporting; and best recording
quality increased to 15 frames per second. www.anaglyph.co.uk
Laboratory platen press
Fontijne Grotnes BV (Vlaardingen, The Netherlands) has introduced a hydrau-
lic laboratory platen press for production of thermoplastic samples in support
of R&D and quality control. According to the company, larger presses in the
lab press line can be used for low-volume production. The presses can gener-
ate temperatures as high
as 450°C/842°F, suffi -
cient to prepare samples
of polyetheretherketone
(PEEK), polyphenylene
sulfi de (PPS), polyetherim-
ide (PEI) and polyetherke-
toneketone (PEKK). The
presses also enable prep-
aration of thermoplastics
in a vacuum. They can
be put under a vacuum
manually or integrated
with a PC control system.
A control is built into the
press to ventilate the vacuum chamber after pressing. Press forces range from
50 to 1,000 kN. Also new is the Lab Pro-View press control system, which
offers the ability to preview programmed values and view the predicted press
cycle. Other features include command recipe control, which reportedly offers
an easy, user-friendly way of programming for both simple and complex pro-
cesses. www.fontijnegrotnes.com
NEW PRODUCTS
7 2 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
Fiber/matrix coupling agent
Adherent Technologies Inc. (Albuquerque, N.M.) has developed a fi ber fi n-
ish system based on a patent-pending, heat-activated coupling agent that
covalently bonds to carbon fi ber and matrix resin to enhance the composite’s
toughness and stiffness. Reportedly, the company’s tests of fi nished composite
parts reveal such strong bonding into the basal plane of the carbon fi ber that
test to failure is not at the bond point. In test coupons, the fi nish system yielded
the following improvements: In carbon fi ber/vinyl ester, strength and stiffness
increased by 50 to 100 percent, and toughness increased by 300 percent. In
carbon fi ber/epoxy, hot/wet performance and durability increased. In carbon
fi ber/bismaleimide, handling, durability, hot/wet performance and thermo-
oxidative stability improved. In carbon fi ber/polyimide, strength and stiffness
went up by 50 to 100 percent and hot/wet performance improved. Adherent
is seeking manufacturers with whom to develop licensing partnerships for the
integration of the fi nish system. www.adherenttech.com
Autoclave-cure tooling prepreg
Advanced Composites Group Ltd. (ACG, Heanor, Derbyshire, U.K.) has
launched LTM202, an autoclave-cure tooling prepreg system that offers a
thermal cycling capability up to 200°C/392°F. It offers low-temperature initial
curing starting at 45°C/113°F and is said to be easy to handle and cleaner,
because it offers tack levels that reportedly are optimized to prevent transfer to
gloves or knife blades. LTM202 is designed to complement ACG’s DForm tool-
ing technology, launched two years ago. www.advanced-composites.co.uk
Lab-scale carbon fiber production system
The new Computreater CF from C. A. Litzler Co. Inc. (Cleveland, Ohio) is the
laboratory model of the company’s advanced high-production carbon fi ber sys-
tem. Designed to accommodate a single tow (1K to 50K in size), the lab system
can be used by universities,
research institutes, pro-
ducers of polyacrylonitrile
(PAN) precursor and carbon
fi ber manufacturers to de-
velop new carbon fi ber pre-
cursors and fi bers. More-
over, the system also can
be used by existing carbon
fi ber producers to test and evaluate the quality of incoming PAN precursor.
Functions and features of the system include a PAN creel with tension con-
trol, pretreatment capability, three 330°C/626°F oxidation ovens with conveyor
rollers, tension/draw controls in multiple zones, low-temperature/high-temper-
ature furnaces,
a sizing system,
surface treat-
ment, a winder
and integrated
controls for
operation and
analysis. www.
calitzler.com
The Explosion Proof Bonder--
Redefined
wwww.WichiTech.comCall us for a personal demo:(800) 776-4277 ❖ 410/244-1966Baltimore, Maryland 21201 USA
Works
on
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Meets Class 1, Division 1 MIL-STD-810F/NEC
http://cvddiamond.com
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 7 3
NEW PRODUCTS
Double oven for curing, preheating
Precision Quincy (Woodstock, Ill.) has announced the launch of Model 49C-
650D, a dual-chamber, electrically heated oven, available in NFPA 86 Class
A and Class B confi gurations. It features two independent oven chambers
(stacked one above the other), each with separate controls, but sharing a
single-damper exhaust system. The unit weighs 1,180 lb/535 kg. Each oven
measures 32 inches long by 18 inches deep by 18 inches high (813 mm
by 457 mm by 457 mm). The oven heating system can maintain a maximum
temperature of 650°F/343°C. An optional, matching, heavy-duty stand pro-
vides a base that adds an extra 24 inches/610 mm to the overall height of
the oven. www.precisionquincy.com
Gas-fired batch oven
Wisconsin Oven (East Troy, Wis.) has introduced a gas-fi red batch oven to
cure composite parts. It measures 8 ft wide by 10 ft long by 8 ft high (2.4m by
3m by 2.4m) and offers a maximum operating temperature of 500°F/260°C
and a normal operating temperature of 250°F/121°C. It features 4-inch/102-
mm-thick tongue-and-groove panel assemblies and 20-gauge aluminized
steel interiors and ductwork.
The heating system features
a LoNox 400,000-BTU/hr air
heat burner with a motorized
gas control valve, fl ame de-
tector and fl ame relay with
alarm horn. The recircula-
tion system has an 8,600-
cfm, 10-hp blower and uses
combination airfl ow to maxi-
mize heating rates and tem-
perature uniformity. In the
exhaust system, motorized
dampers on the fresh air
inlet and the exhaust outlet
enhance heating and cooling
capabilities. A 12-position type J thermocouple jack panel is provided inside
the oven, with interconnecting wiring between the jack panel and monitoring
system. The oven temperature is monitored by a Honeywell DCP200 program-
mable controller. www.wisconsinoven.com
Fiber cutting system
MAG Industrial Automation Systems (Hebron, Ky.) has introduced its Fiber
Cut Unit, a system designed to receive from creels and then chop glass,
carbon, polyester, aramid or natural fi bers. Fiber tows are supplied to the
cutting modules (pat. pend.) by two feeding units that can be operated at
different velocities. The cutting unit has a modular design and consists of two
or more spindle modules, allowing four cuts per rotation and module. After
they are cut, the fi bers drop onto a velocity-controlled conveyor belt, creating
a defi ned, homogenous spread pattern for a fi ber mat. The system can cut
and dose various fi ber types and two lengths simultaneously, depending on
the fi ber feed rate and the spindle speed, each of which can be adjusted
individually. www.mag-ias.com
802-223-4055
www.cadcut.com • [email protected]
ISO 9001 200 / AS9100 Certifi ed
KIT CUTTING Laser and Knife Cutting SystemsEnvironmentally Controlled ProcessingComposite Supply Services
TEXAS • VERMONT
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 7 7
AD INDEX
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
A&P Technology Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Abaris Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
American GFM Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
ASC Process Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Automated Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
BGF Industries Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Burnham Composite Structures Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
C.A. Litzler Co. Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CAD Cut Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CASS Polymers of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
CGTech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
CVD Diamond Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
De-Comp Composites Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Dexmet Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
DIAB International AB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Eastman Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Evonik Foams Inc. - Rohacell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Ferry Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Flow International Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
General Plastics Mfg. Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back Cover
Grieve Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Gunnar USA Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Henkel Corp. Aerospace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
HITCO Carbon Composites Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
ICE Independent Machine Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Imperium Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Ingersoll Machine Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Janicki Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
LAP Laser LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Laser Projection Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Lectra Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
LMT Onsrud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Lucas Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
M Torres Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
MAG IAG LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Magnolia Plastics Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover
Master Bond Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Matec Instrument Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Material Testing Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Matrix Composites Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Maverick Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
McClean Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
McLube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Mokon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
North Coast Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Olympus NDT Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Park Electrochemical Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Plascore Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Precision Fabrics Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Precision Quincy Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Quickstep Composites LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Renegade Materials Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Ross, Charles & Son Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Saertex USA LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover
Sandvik Coromant Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Seco Tools Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Single Temperature Controls Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Specialty Materials Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Stepan Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Superior Tool Service, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
TE Wire & Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Technical Fibre Products Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Technical Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
TenCate Advanced Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Tinius Olsen Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Torr Technologies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Verisurf Software Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Wabash MPI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Web Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Weber Manufacturing Technologies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
WichiTech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Wisconsin Oven Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Wyoming Test Fixtures Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Zyvax Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
FOCUS ON DESIGN
7 8 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
W
Legacy product positions builder for a shot at an F-35 contract.
DESIGN RESULTS
• An inner liner of S-2 Glass impregnated
with a proprietary epoxy formulated for
compatibility with the fi lament-winding
process is able to resist continuous
exposure to jet fuel.
• A honeycomb core made of urethane
foam-fi lled Kevlar adds structural
stiffness needed for aircraft carrier
survivability requirements.
• The tank’s carbon-fi ber/epoxy
fi lament-wound “box beam” provides
internal structural support and
attachment points to the jet via lug
wells in the outer shell.
hen the U.S. Navy and Air
Force commissioned the de-
velopment of the fi rst exter-
nal fuel tanks in the 1960s
to extend the mission range
of its fi ghter aircraft, steel, aluminum
and other metals were still the mate-
rials of choice. The fi rst external fuel
tanks used by McDonnell Douglas,
now part of The Boeing Co. (Chicago,
CARRIER-CAPABLE, ALL-COMPOSITE
Ill.), were all-metal. They included the
600-gal/2,271L tank used on the F-4
Phantom and the 300-gal/1,136L tank
used on the A-4 Skyhawk.
Unfortunately, it took a catastrophe
to alert designers to the potential ad-
vantages of composite materials. The
aircraft carrier USS Forrestal (CV 59) was
deployed off the coast of Vietnam in
July 1967 when a missile inadvertently
launched from another fi ghter jet hit
an A-4 jet parked on the fl ight deck.
The A-4’s external fuel tank ruptured,
spreading fuel and fi re across the deck.
The fi re quickly engulfed other aircraft,
and before the fi re was doused, more
than 100 seamen died in one of the
worst accidents in U.S. military history.
In the tragedy’s wake, the Navy
commissioned a team to investigate
Aft divot — third attachment point that
briefl y holds tank if it must be released
at lug wells during fl ight, allowing tank to
swing down for clear fall-away
Tank access door
Lug wells provide primary attachment points
to underwing pylons and act as conduits for
fuel, electrical and pressurized-air lines
Tank access door
Fueling
access
GENERAL DYNAMICS’
ALL-COMPOSITE
EXTERNAL FUEL TANK
External coating/paint
0.075-inch/1.9-mm carbon/epoxy outer shell
0.375-inch/9.525-mm foam-fi lled aramid
honeycomb core
0.075-inch/1.9-mm carbon/S-glass/epoxy
inner liner
TANK LAMINATE
CROSS SECTION
S-glass/epoxy
frameS-glass/epoxy
frame
Tail taper-to-
point (optional)
Carbon/epoxy
strongback
Lug
wells
M A Y 2 0 1 1 | 7 9
BY MICHAEL LEGAULT
ILLUSTRATION / KARL REQUE
All-composite external fuel tanks
General Dynamics’ 480-gal/1,817L tank design is qualified to U.S. Navy requirements for
aircraft carrier survivability.
EXTERNAL FUEL TANK
and recommend ways to improve surviv-
ability in the event of a carrier deck fi re.
The investigation exposed, among other
things, the fallibility of all-metal external
tanks, especially with respect to ballistic
piercing and rupture upon impact with
a hard surface. Subsequently, the Navy
mandated a more stringent set of surviv-
ability and performance requirements
for aircraft carrier environments. These
included a battery of tests to confi rm
that a tank has the ability to meet sur-
vivability and in-fl ight load standards.
Several of the tests were severe, includ-
ing ejection of a full tank onto a hard sur-
face, projectile impact, and bonfi re resis-
tance. All of these tests required that the
tanks maintain a specifi ed structural in-
tegrity that would minimize damage and
the possibility of a spreading fi re.
In the mid-’70s, General Dynamics Ar-
mament and Technical Products (GDATP,
Lincoln, Neb.) partnered with McDon-
nell Douglas to design an external fuel
tank to meet these standards.
Hybrid design enables early tank
By late in the decade, the two compa-
nies had built a hybrid composite/metal
tank for the F/A-18 Hornet fi ghter jet. The
decision to go with a hybrid construc-
tion, rather than an all-composite tank,
was based largely on the fact that, at the
time, a jet-fuel-resistant resin system
had yet to be tested and qualifi ed.
The tank comprised an internal liner of
aluminum, overwrapped with a sandwich
construction. The inner and outer skins
of the sandwich were laid via fi lament
winding, using S-glass/epoxy yarn. The
core was urethane-foam-fi lled honey-
comb made of Kevlar aramid, developed
by what is now DuPont Protection Tech-
nologies (Richmond Va.), and a fi lament-
wound outer shell of S-glass fi ber yarn.
McDonnell Douglas supplied the alumi-
num tank, and GDATP manufactured the
outer skin and core. The tanks came in
two sizes: a 330-gal/1,250L cylindrically
shaped unit and a 315-gal/1,192L, ellipti-
cally shaped component. Although GDA-
TP stopped producing these tanks in the
1980s, Cyclone Ltd. (Karmiel, Israel), a
subsidiary of Israel-based Elbit Systems,
still manufactures a version of this hy-
brid tank, based on the original design.
Following this successful demonstra-
tion of composites’ capability as an out-
er-skin material in a hybrid tank, McDon-
nell Douglas and GDATP investigated in
the mid-’80s the possibility that an all-
composite external tank for the F/A-18
could be built to reduce the mass of the
metal-lined hybrid tank.
Emulating an auto breakthrough
At that time, aerospace engineers were
drawing inspiration from the automotive
industry, where the fi rst all-plastic gas
tanks had been introduced in high-densi-
ty polyethylene (HDPE). However, HDPE
couldn’t be considered for jet tanks, says
Rick Rashilla, GDATP’s senior manager
of business development: “In addition to
compatibility with long-term exposure
to jet fuel, the resin had to be compat-
ible with the fabrication process.” HDPE
was not. It also did not meet the weight
goal. And it posed problems in terms
of a good bond to the honeycomb core.
GDATP faced more severe survivability
requirements (takeoff, infl ight and land-
ing loads) as well as greater impact risks
with the outboard tank than would be
expected with an inboard automotive
fuel tank. So engineers were presented
with the formidable challenge of fi nding
a resin that would be tough enough to
withstand continuous contact with jet
fuel and withstand severe operational
conditions yet meet weight and manu-
facturability requirements.
After about a year of testing, GDATP
developed an epoxy system that met all
requirements. “The trick we pulled off
was fi nding a multipart, high-elongation
epoxy resin system that would allow us
to manufacture a glass-fi ber, fi lament-
wound inner liner that acts as a fuel per-
meation barrier,” says Rashilla. S-glass
was selected for the liner because “it
provides adequate structural support at
a lower cost than carbon fi ber.”
Source: GDATP
FOCUS ON DESIGN
8 0 | H I G H - P E R F O R M A N C E C O M P O S I T E S
Read this article online at http://short.
compositesworld.com/G2WZ1eI3.
LEARN MORE @
www.compositesworld.com
The core of the fi rst all-composite tank
is similar in basic design to the core of the
hybrid tank that preceded it — a foam-
fi lled, honeycomb core made of aramid.
However, the outer shell comprises inter-
mixed layers of fi lament-wound HexTow
AS4 PAN-based carbon fi ber, supplied by
Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn.) and S-2
Glass, which was codeveloped by Ow-
ens Corning (Toledo, Ohio) and the U.S.
Air Force. In 1998, S-2 Glass became a
trademarked product of the Owens Corn-
ing and Groupe Porcher Industries (Le
Grand Lemps, France) independent joint
venture Advanced Glassfi ber Yarns, now
known as AGY LLC (Aiken, S.C.).
Because the epoxy for the liner was de-
veloped primarily to meet criteria for fuel
resistance, GDATP formulated a different
grade of epoxy that is more suitable for
the primarily structural function of the
outer shell. The tank also was designed
with access doors and additional layers
of fabric for reinforcement in the areas
around lug wells (cylindrical, sleeve-lined
joints), which offer attachment points for
pylons on the plane’s bomb rack.
By the late 1980s, all-composite
480-gal/1,817L external fuel tanks for
the F/A-18 were in production. The fi rst
customer, the Royal Canadian Air Force,
used the tanks on its fl eet of CF/A-18s.
GDATP later manufactured (but did not
design) a 230-gal/871L version of the
tank for the U.S. Army’s UH-60 Black
Hawk and AH-64 Apache helicopters. The
all-composite tank was approximately
30 percent lighter than the hybrid tank.
The inner liner is wet wound over a steel
mandrel. Epoxy-impregnated S-glass
is wound to a layer thickness of 0.075
inch/1.9 mm. Then a 0.375-inch/9.525-
mm layer of foam-fi lled aramid core is
attached to the inner liner, and the two
layers are cured together in an oven.
After cure, the inner shell/core is cut
in half circumferentially and removed
from the mandrel. A square-shaped box
beam formed from two glass-fi ber arms
or frames and a carbon fi ber/epoxy fi la-
ment-wound “strongback” are installed
inside the tank to provide internal struc-
tural support and external attachment
points (see illustration, p. 78). The top of
the strongback is designed with a radius
identical to that of the inner shell, and
it fi ts fl ush with the inside of the shell.
Circular lug wells shaped into the top
of the strongback act as receiving joints
for the aircraft pylons and as conduits
for fuel, air and electrical lines. The two
sections are rejoined with an adhesive
bond, then a 0.075-inch/1.9-mm-thick
layer of epoxy-coated S-glass and car-
bon fi ber is wound around the inner lin-
er and core to form the outer shell. The
entire assembly is placed in an oven to
facilitate curing of the outer shell.
The all-composite design piqued the
interest of the U.S. Navy, which still
used the hybrid tank. Its design met gen-
eral aircraft carrier survivability require-
ments, but GDATP was asked to qualify
it for the extreme load requirements of
carrier-based F/A-18s during catapult-
assisted takeoff and tailhook arrestment
during landing. To compensate for these
loads, GDATP added composite mate-
rial in certain areas, such as the lug-
well attachment points. This enabled
qualifi cation of an otherwise similar
480-gal/1,817L external fuel tank for the
carrier jets in the early 1990s.
GDATP currently provides service and
stocks parts for its tank, but no longer
manufactures it. However, General Elec-
tric manufactures a similar tank..
Project-ready design capabilitiesGDATP’s modeling and simulation soft-
ware is built on a commercial software
platform from ANSYS (Canonsburg, Pa.).
But it has been customized, Rashilla says,
making it capable of modeling the effects
of loads and stresses on iterations of in-
tank design parameters, including differ-
ent fi bers, thicknesses and orientations.
Modeling can be carried out quickly, he
adds, with the aid of special program-
ming features. “In metals or lay-up meth-
ods of manufacturing, the materials are
usually well known and an engineer can
look up the material properties of, say,
6061 P6 aluminum in a handbook.” But
because GDATP formulates its own ma-
terials from base fi bers and proprietary
resins, Rashilla explains, the company
must determine, via testing, the A- and
B-basis allowables of those materials. In
simple terms, A- and B-basis allowables
refer to the statistical certainty one can
assign to a given set of test data. Custom-
ers decide whether a material used in a
specifi c application must meet A-basis
requirements, which require more exten-
sive test data, or the less-stringent B-ba-
sis requirements.
Given this state of readiness, Rashilla
says GDATP’s next major design/manufac-
turing opportunity for an all-composite
external fuel tank is likely to be the F-35
Lightning II. He expects an external tank
will be built for the new jet at some point
but reports that funding has yet to be ap-
proved. “The survivability requirements
for the tank used in the carrier variant of
the F-35 will be essentially the same,”
Rashilla says. “We hope to be able to ap-
ply the lessons we learned on our F/A-18
tank design to that project.”
Catapult and tailhook tough
An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 22 just before touchdown
on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. Its external tanks are attached, via pylons, to the plane’s
bomb rack. The pylons attach at reinforced lug wells (see illustration, p. 78).
So
urc
e:
U.S
. N
avy
Photos courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense ©2010 Magnolia Plastics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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