Monthly Archives: January 2020

Composite Materials Prepare for Takeoff

Jan. 24th, 2020: The automotive and aerospace industries are ready ramp up their production of composite parts, and Solvay has the material and technology to help them achieve that – namely fast-cure prepregs and Double Diaphragm Forming (DDF). The Group’s Composite Materials team in the UK is showing them how it can be done, pioneering the way in the industrialisation of cost-effective composite parts.

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SGL wins contract for composite battery enclosures

Jan 13th, 2020: Following the production of first prototypes of battery enclosures for a Chinese automotive manufacturer in 2018, SGL Carbon has now received a substantial contract from a North American automaker for high-volume serial production of carbon and glass fibre-based composite top and bottom layers for battery enclosures.

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Composite Enhancing Nano-Barrier Could Change Spacecraft Construction

Jan 13th, 2020: Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite has been used for space missions for years and continues to be tested for further applications. Focusing on its limited use due to its water absorption rates, researchers at Airbus Defense and Space and the University of Surrey have created a layered ultralight, nanoscale barrier that could change how future spacecraft are built.

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Fortress producing bamboo-plastic composite decks

Jan 6th, 2020: Garland, Texas-based Fortress Building Products quietly entered the wood-plastic composites decking market in 2016 with a coextruded bamboo-capped board that it says is 40 percent lighter yet twice as strong as the competition. Three years later, the privately held company has ramped up U.S. and Canadian promotion of what it describes as a first-of-its-kind WPC decking...

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When good planes have to die: Scrapping an A380 and Lineage 1000E

Jan 6th, 2020: Why scrap a perfectly good airplane? Whether an extremely large or reasonably small aircraft, the reasoning often is the same. Over the past couple weeks images emerged of two different planes being sent to the scrapyard that elicited significant emotional response. In both cases, however, the end of the line for the types was a driving force. It also calls attention to the challenges of recycling aircraft components, especially with newer synthetic materials involved.

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A look at ExOne’s 3D printed washout tooling

Jan 6th, 2020 : The production of lightweight composite materials is high in demand for sectors like aerospace, automotive and defense where weight savings, strength and durability are crucial factors for winning a race or completing a mission. It is, however, a highly time-consuming and costly, multi-step process.

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