2011 May

MAY 2011 / Vol. 19 / No.
compositesworld.com

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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FEATURES
40 SAMPE 2011 Long Beach
SAMPE returns to Long Beach in partnership with aerospace industry materials society ASM International.
By Mike Musselman
45
45 JEC Paris Highlights

The 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 Real

Fast, scalable process grows nanostructures directly on composite reinforcements for drop-in use in volume production processes.
By Sara Black
52
MAY
volume: nineteen number: three
2011
60
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 planes bomb rack. The tanks are the subject of HPCs Focus on Design feature (p. 78).
Source: U.S. Navy
DEPARTMENTS
18 News
The X-37B orbital vehicle, a possible unmanned replacement for NASAs Space Shuttle, headlines a list that includes thermoplastic composites on the Airbus A30X, a military jet update and ORNLs new carbon ber line.
66 67 69 74 76
Calendar Applications New Products Product & Literature Showcase Marketplace/Ad Index
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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 thermoplastic composites might represent the next megatrend in commercial aircraft materials selection.
18
9 Market Trends
A mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialist in the advanced materials world, investment banker Michael Del Pero predicts the likely course of M&A activities in the near future as pent-up investment capital is released.
11 From the Podium

CompositesWorld Conferences director Scott Stephenson outlines four presentations at two recent CW conferences that brought into sharp focus the fact that nanoscale enhancement of composites is no longer pie-in-the-sky.
15 Testing Tech
Testing 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
50 Work in Progress
HPC editor-in-chief Jeff Sloan sidesteps the current debate between autoclave curing and emerging oven-cure strategies to highlight a prominent aerospace composites manufacturers investigation of microwave curing.
69
FOCUS ON DESIGN
78 Carrier-Capable, All-Composite External Fuel Tank

How a shipboard tragedy, an investigation and new rules for survivability and in-ight load-bearing capabilities introduced the U.S. Navy to the many advantages of composites over metals in the construction of external fuel tanks for aircraft carrier-based jet ghters.
By Michael R. LeGault
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Dale Brosius dale@compositesworld.com
Autoclaves & Control Systems

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EDITOR
FROM THE EDITOR
s an editor who retuning that is certain to come ports on and for the over the next several years. In composites industhe meantime, thermoplastics try, I usually go to a trade have earned their way into the show with two primary wing leading edges of the Airjeff @ compositesworld.com goals: First, to discover bus A330/340 and the Airbus as much information as A380, the vertical tail of the possible about new and emerging products and Gulfstream G650 business jet and other structures. technologies that might help our readers do their (For a update on ongoing efforts with aerospace jobs better; second, to look for macro trends and TPCs, see Ginger Gardiners timely report, Therthemes that are shaping the composites commumoplastic composites: Primary structure? in this nity. Occasionally, however, I nd myself at the issue, on p. 52.) super-macro level, struck by themes that reach beHere in the U.S., Boeing is busy deciding how it yond the horizon and portend profound change to should proceed with a replacement for its singlecome. aisle 737. Re-engining is apparently not a considAnd so it was that I found myself, on the last day eration, thus a new plane is in order. The question of the JEC Composites Show (March 29-31, Paris), is where and how a 737 replacement might employ after three very busy days, asking this question: composites. Boeing currently produces about one 737 a day, a pace that cannot be met by the ber placement technology How much of the next generation of comused on the 787. Out-of-autoclave mamercial aircraft primary structure will be terials and processes are promising in this regard because they offer quicker made with thermoplastic composites? cycle times. And quicker still are thermoplastics, but how ready are they for How much of the next generation of commercial aircraft priapplication in commercial aircraft structure? mary structure will be made from thermoplastic composites? Probably more ready than many of us realize. UnThis query did not come out of the blue. Thertil now, use of TPCs in commercial aircraft outside moplastic composites (TPCs) were emphasized the passenger cabin has been limited and tentaby many companies at this years JEC Paris show, tive, but successful all the same. Could we stand and there was some discussion of Airbus, which at the cusp of a new era of ambitious use of TPCs has been assessing TPC use in structures currently in aircraft primary structure? One that could, again, made with thermoset composites. Layered over as thermoset composites have, reshape the comthis was the Airbus A30X, the companys next-genmercial aircraft industry? eration single-aisle, destined to succeed the forthcoming, 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 beyond the horizon reference), has time to await the Jeff Sloan TPC research, developmental steps and the ne-
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MARKET TRENDS
MARKET TRENDS
M&A ACTIVITY IN THE COMPOSITES INDUSTRY
Michael Del Pero is the head of Composites and Advanced Materials coverage at boutique investment banking firm FocalPoint Partners LLC (Los Angeles, Calif.). For more than 10 years, he has provided strategic and financial advice to middle-market firms involved in M&A transactions, capital raising 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 CompositesWorld Investment Forum.
he end of 2010 witnessed merger and acquisition (M&A) activity reminiscent of the height of the market in 2007. Despite concerns that deal activity might 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 trillion (USD) in cash that accumulated as companies spent the majority of their efforts on cost-cutting and right-sizing their businesses. Similarly, private equity 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 industry today. Through the end of the rst quarter, ~25 acquisitions and nancing transactions were announced, involving composites and advanced-materials companies. These include several highprole deals, such as Warren Buffettbacked Berkshire Hathaways (Omaha, Neb.) $9 billion takeover of publicly held Lubrizol Corp. (Wickliffe, Ohio), and Cytecs (Tempe, Ariz.) long-anticipated divestiture 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 aerospace continues to be an area of strategic growth. M&A interest in aerospace composites is particularly high. Despite the high interest, we dont anticipate as many M&A transactions in the aerospace segment as one might expect. This isnt due to lack of either acquisitive interest or available funding. In fact, strategic and private equity-backed aerospace companies approach my rm almost daily, seeking aggressively to acquire assets with composites capabilities in both material technologies and component fabrication. The inhibiting factor is that few targets currently meet the size criteria of acquirers that need to deploy meaningful amounts of capital. This should be
It comes as no surprise that aerospace continues to be an area of strategic growth.

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 activity in composites, particularly in construction and building products. For the most part, acquirers have concluded that the bottom has been reached in these markets and that there is an opportunity to invest ahead of the full recovery. A good example of this trend is building products manufacturer and distributor Gibraltar Industries (Buffalo, N.Y.) pending acquisition of private equity-backed D.S. Brown (North Baltimore, Ohio) for ~$100 million. H.I.G. Capitals (New York, N.Y.) renancing of composite building products manufacturer Advanced Envi-
ronmental Recycling Technology (AERT, Springdale, Ark.) is another. Although acquirers are unwilling to completely ignore the nancial downturn that affected most composite building product companies in 2009-2010, they seem willing to structure transactions creatively, thus giving sellers some upside credit for anticipated growth in 2011. We also expect to see increased deal activity in the automotive 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 generally more strategically and opportunistically motivated than many privately held businesses; they are intent on timing the market and achieving maximum valuation. There appears to be a considerable disconnect between acquirers who are ush with cash and looking to deploy capital now and sellers who hope that market valuations will recover 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 nd the best opportunities available to support their growth today. Another factor seems to be unique to companies in this industry. Many do not regularly employ experts who bring professional 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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FROM THE PODIUM
FROM THE PODIUM

NANOTECHNOLOGY: ITS REAL
Scott Stephenson is CompositesWorlds conference director. He has been involved with carbon fiber 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 analyses of the advanced materials and technologies that drive innovative product development.
common theme at CompositesWorld conferences in the past year has been the speed with which nanotechnology is developing for composites applications. Its no longer magic foo-foo dust its real, and its moving into the commercial realm. In this column, Ill outline four recent presentations that highlighted nanoscale enhancements to bers and resins. At Carbon Fiber 2010 (La Jolla, Calif.), Dr. Tia Benson Tolle, nonmetallic materials division technology director at the Materials & Manufacturing Technology Directorate, housed at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL, Dayton, Ohio), gave an overview from her perspective of the nanomaterials research space, highlighting some promising approaches. A key point, she noted, is that control at the nanoscale enables fundamentally new material properties and functions that cant be predicted from bulk or atomic-level understanding. It allows us to circumvent the property tradeoffs that are so common with conventional materials. Starting with some of the earliest nanocomposites research conducted by Tokyo, Japan-based Toyota Research Group in the mid-1980s, she described how that group modied 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 conferences and hundreds of market applications. Technology challenges and hurdles remain, she admits, but nanoscale control is denitely a part of todays engineered materials. Benson Tolle briey discussed ongoing research by Dr. Cate Brinson of Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). Her work involves dispersing carbon nanobers (CNF) in the matrix phase of carbon-ber-reinforced composites to increase the strength and stiffness in matrix-dominated congurations, including tension of quasi-isotropic composites and short beam shear strength of both quasi-isotropic and unidirectional composites. Brinsons work has highlighted the role of nano- and microreinforcement in composites that contain 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. Selection 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 Reserve and Rice University, among others, has demonstrated that nano-enhancement of the matrix, the bers or the ber/ matrix interface can optimize many properties. For example, joint research by the AFRL and Texas A&M University showed that a mere 1 percent dispersion of carbon nanotubes (multiwalled and singlewalled) in the epoxy matrix of a four-ply balanced laminate almost doubled its electrical conductivity, Benson Tolle re-
ported, adding that the work has possible application for lightning strike protection. Elsewhere, Cambridge University is attempting to spin multiwalled carbon nanotubes from which high-strain-tofailure yarns could be made for multifunctional 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 today, materials must perform functions beyond the structural. Multifunctional materials are the new reality; they provide sensing capability, thermal or electrical 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 nanostructure shapes, their chemistries, their resulting properties, and the differing effects they have on processing. There are proven benets and new opportunities for the carbon ber community, said Benson Tolle, but take a smart buyer approach so that you exploit the benets for your specic application. William Stringfellow, a composites specialist at NanoRidge (Houston, Texas), discussed several innovative nanotechnologies, obtained through licenses with Texas universities, including Rice, Texas A&M and others. The companys core competency, says Stringfellow, is the functionalization of carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles to more efciently exploit their benets. 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 polymers that incorporate nanotubes for enhanced electrical conductivity, structural composites that include nanoparticles, nanotube-enhanced ceramics and
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FROM THE PODIUM
metals and a U.S. Air Force-sponsored research program to grow carbon nanotubes directly on carbon bers. The latter is now in Phase II, after Phase I work showed that carbon nanotubes could be grown directly on polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based carbon monolaments. Balanced ber-reinforced polymer nanocomposite (FRPNC) laminates were resin transfer molded, using a common aerospacegrade epoxy resin and 12 plies of nanoenhanced Hexcel (Stamford, Conn,) IM7 ber in a satin weave. In tests, the FRPNC showed signicantly improved tensile strength, stiffness and fatigue life, and, says Stringfellow, the PAN-based carbon bers with nanotubes apparently hinder 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 discussed growth of nanoparticles directly on reinforcing bers. His company is partnering with Applied NanoStructured
Solutions (ANS, Baltimore, Md.), a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, to produce carbon nanotube (CNT)-enhanced fabrics for electrical conductivity applications, such as lightning strike protection (see Inside Manufacturing, p. 60).
Its no longer magic foo-foo dust.

Dr. Thomas Tsotsis, a technical fellow at Boeing Research and Technology (Huntington Beach, Calif.), and co-authors Satish Kumar, Han Gi Chae, Young Ho Choi, Yaodong Liu and Prabhakar Gulgunje of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.) reported on their investigation into hollow carbon bers that incorporate CNTs and how to produce them affordably, in large volumes, with respectable properties. Maximum strength cannot be achieved with discontinuous nanobers, Tsotsis observed. Further, you would need many millions of nanolaments spun together to form a usable tow. He reports that hollow bers produced in a bicomponent gel-spinning process (pat.
pend.) incorporate the benet of nanobers at a standard lament size. The results include better properties and seamless integration with existing ber handling equipment. The spun bers, which are afterward carbonized, begin with a core of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) inside an outer shell of PAN combined with carbon nanotubes. By varying the gel-spinning and drawing process, the bers can be produced with islands of PMMA within the sea of enclosing PAN. The PMMA is then dissolved, leaving a hollow PAN shell. Tsotsis says the properties of traditional solid carbon bers are mostly determined by the highly aligned carbon in the outermost part of the ber, rather than by the amorphous carbon in the center. Thus, the PAN/CNT shell contributes high performance at reduced ber density. The CNTs in the shell contribute 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 bers. These promising efforts could soon spawn multifunctional composite parts with radical new functionality.
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TESTING TECH
TESTING TECH
TABBING COMPOSITE TEST SPECIMENS: THE HOW
Dr. Donald F. Adams is the president of Wyoming Test Fixtures Inc. (Salt Lake City, Utah). He holds a BS and an MS in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D in theoretical and applied mechanics. Following a total of 12 years with Northrop Aircraft Corp., the Aeronutronic Div. of Ford Motor Co. and the Rand Corp., he joined the University of Wyoming, directing its Composite Materials 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.
he when and why of tabbing composite test specimens were the subjects of my previous column (see Learn More, p. 17), which included a discussion of tabbing materials, tab thickness and taper angle, and adhesive selection. This article describes the how. I must emphasize 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 objective: to adhesively bond four strips of tabbing material to a panel of composite material from which individual test specimens can be cut (see Fig. 1). Perhaps the simplest approach is to apply adhesive to each of the four tabbing strips and then position them on a composite plate that has been marked to indicate the desired gage length. Masking tape can be used as a marker and will keep adhesive from getting onto the panels gage section. It also can be used to hold the tabbing strips in place during adhesive cure. Inexpensive and readily available, masking tape is often used, but it can be difcult 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 lm. When paste adhesive 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 lm adhesive minimizes the risk of excessive use and cleanup. But both adhesive types, in the uncured state, make it easy for the mating parts to slip out of alignment. Therefore, keeping the multiple 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 using 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 desired 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 slippage during adhesive cure. Postcure cleanup is easier because the tape does not contact the composite panel. The easiest approach is to use a selfcontained tab-bonding xture (two examples are shown in Fig. 2). The xtures base plate is 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 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 xture for a Modied D 695 Compression specimen. Because this specimen has a very short (4.78 mm/0.188 inch) gage length, the xture features two centered pins of this diameter (the smaller pins in the gure), and the tabbing strips for both ends of the specimen are indexed against them. No matter which xture is used, adhesive is applied to two of the tabbing strips, and then each is placed, adhesive side up, on the base plate and indexed to the appropriate 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 composite panel must be narrow enough to t between the left and right pins. Then adhesive is applied to the two remaining tabbing strips, and they are placed on the composite panel against the indexing pins. Finally, the xtures 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 efcient heat transfer during elevated-temperature 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
Individual test specimens to be cut from the tabbed panel
Fig. 1 Tabbed composite test panel.
Tabbing strips (four places) Composite test panel
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TESTING TECH
Fig. 2 Specimen tabbing fixtures.
ready a uniform thickness and typically has a woven glass carrier cloth embedded 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 appropriate 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
Reference 1 D.O. Adams and D.F. Adams, Tabbing Guide for Composite Test Specimens, Federal Aviation Administration Report No. DOT/FAA/AR02/106, October 2002, online at http://www. tc.faa.gov/its/worldpac/techrpt/ar02-106.pdf.
composite panel and the tabbing strips must be adequately prepared prior to applying 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 removing some of the plates 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 irregularities, will remove more material at the high points, potentially damaging the underlying bers. However, excessive grit blasting also can damage 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 simplest approach is to use a belt sander with the tabbing strip resting on a tapered block of the desired angle. A conventional 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 bondline thickness (typically 0.5 to 1.2 mm or 0.020 to 0.050 inch). Film adhesives are not problematic because the lm is al-
LEARN MORE
www.compositesworld.com
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.
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NEWS
NEWS
Unmanned X-37B orbital test vehicle begins second ight
Crewless spacecraft could replace Space Shuttle and reduce costs
he Boeing Co. (St. Louis, Mo.) on March 5 announced the successful launch of the second Boeingbuilt X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) for the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Ofce (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 rst occurred in April 2010, and the vehicle remained aloft in orbit for approximately eight months, then successfully reentered Earths atmosphere and landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in December 2010. History was made in December when the X-37B became the United States rst unmanned vehicle to return from space and land on its own, said Craig Cooning, VP and general manager of Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems. The success of that mission validated this reusable and effective way to test new technologies in space and return them for examination. According to the Air Force, the objectives of the X37B include space experimentation, risk reduction, and concept-of-operations development for affordable and reusable space-vehicle technologies. The Air Force also wants to trim turnaround time between space ights from months to days, prepping the X-37B for its next ight at a fraction of the cost required to do the same for NASAs Space Shuttles. The 11,000-lb/5,000-kg X-37B is onefourth the size of a Space Shuttle, relies on the same family of lifting body design and features a similar landing prole. It features many elements that mark rsts in space use, says Boeing. The vehicle was built using composite
structures, rather than traditional aluminum, and features a new generation of high-temperature wing leading-edge tiles made of toughened brous refractory oxidation-resistant ceramic, replacing the carbon/carbon wing leading edge segments on the Space Shuttle. The X37B also features toughened uni-piece brous insulation (TUFI) impregnated silica tiles that are signicantly more durable than the rst-generation tiles used on the Space Shuttles. Advanced conformal reusable insulation (CRI) blankets also are part of the vehicle. And the X37B 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 program began more than a decade ago with the Boeing X-40A, the rst-phase ight test vehicle for the U.S. Air Forces Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV) program of the late 1990s. The SMV program aimed to develop small, reusable, 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 Boeings Phantom Works facility at Seal Beach, Calif., as a 90 percent-scale version of what would later be designated the X-37 space plane. HPC reported in the July/August 2000 issue that the X-40As airframe was constructed of carbon/ bismaleimide prepreg. Boeing has yet to release specics about the X-37Bs composite construction. The X-37 program eventually was taken over by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which conducted a series of tests in September 2006 that included captive carry and free 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 X37B Orbital Test Vehicle program. Boeings commitment to this spacebased unmanned vehicle spans a decade and includes support for the original Air Force Research Lab, NASAs X-37 program, and DARPAs X-37 approach. Boeing program management, engineering, test and mission support functions for the OTV program are conducted at Boeing sites in Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, and El Segundo, Calif.
Source: Boeing
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Thermoplastic composites on tap for the A30X, new process in testing
new technology called Flash TP made its debut Feb. 4 at Technocampus IMC2 (Nantes, France). The 1.5 million ($2.13 million USD) automated ber placement machine for thermoplastic composites is located at Technocampus EMC2, a research and technology center focused on new composite materials implementation. The Flash TP program was funded by EADS (Leiden, The Netherlands) and two of EADs divisions, Airbus (Toulouse, France) and Astrium (Paris, France), as well as corporate research and technology unit Innovation Works (IW, Paris, France and Munich, Germany). Also among the project partners is the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, which will numerically model the thermal/mechanical characteristics of the materials and parts. According to Technocampus, the machine will enable R&D teams from each of the three divisions of EADS to identify the advantages and disadvantages of thermoplastic technologies and thus validate the choice of technology best suited to the design of future aerostructures, including those used in space launch vehicles. Toward this end, each of the nancing partners will use the machine in the coming months to produce a demonstrator part. The rst will be an A30X (next-generation A320) doublecurvature 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 highstrength 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 modied to make the thermoplastic tapes exible for precision application via a silicone roller. The head is mounted on a KUKA Robotics (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) robotic arm, which moves longitudinally on 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 thermoset prepregs, which increases productivity. Because thermoplastic prepreg is not tacky, it leaves no residue to clog tools or machinery. That fact, Technocampus ofcials report, has made it unnecessary to stop the machine for maintenance during the rst six months of trial service.
BIZ BRIEF
Advanced Composites Group Inc., (Tulsa, Okla.) recently received the 2010 Boeing Performance Excellence Award. The Boeing Co. (Chicago, Ill.) issues the award annually to recognize suppliers who have achieved superior performance. ACG Inc. maintained a silver composite performance rating for each month of the 12-month performance period from Oct. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2010.
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NEWS
Military aerospace programs update
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he last few months have seen several developments in military programs served by the composites community, a mix of endings, promising starts and meaningful progress. Matrix Composites (Rockledge, Fla.) has nished its last critical structure on the U.S. F-22 Raptor ghter jet program. Matrix was one of four companies qualied worldwide to produce specic components related to the aircrafts low-observable fuselage and critical airframe structures. The composites-intensive F-22 was discontinued by the Obama Administration in 2010 in a cost-cutting effort. Matrix Composites has been manufacturing components on the Raptor since 2005. More than 20 trained aerospace technicians were employed at Matrix using advanced manufacturing methods and proprietary processes to build these components. Although the company has felt the impact from F-22 program termination, it anticipates signicant growth in the coming three years as other key programs get underway. Lockheed Martin (Ft. Worth, Texas) announced on Feb. 25 that the rst production model of the F-35 Lightning II (photo) made its inaugural 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 developmental testing shortly after the Air Force takes delivery. During the ight, the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F35A variant, known as AF-6, underwent basic 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, Norway and Israel will employ the F-35A. Australian advanced materials company Quickstep Holdings Ltd. (North Coogee, Western Australia) has secured another opportunity for aerospace/defense manufacturing work in Australia, announcing in early March that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky (Stratford, Conn.), a rst step toward membership in Sikorskys global supply chain. The MOU is contingent
20
on Sikorskys ability to secure a contract for the purchase of its MH-60R helicopters under the Australian Department of Defences Air 9000 Phase 8 program. Sikorsky is one of two helicopter suppliers that have tendered for the program, which is the Australian Department of Defences acquisition program for a new naval tactical helicopter 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 Quicksteps patented Quickstep Process for use in the Sikorsky supply 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 Ofce following its announcement that the Bell Boeing-built, composites-intensive V-22 Osprey eet has surpassed 100,000 ight hours. The milestone occurred 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 identied 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 aircrafts reduced susceptibility, lower vulnerability and advanced crashworthiness have made it the most survivable military rotorcraft ever introduced.
Source: Lockheed Martin
If you want your product to stand out in a crowd, you need a material that was engineered to get attention Barracuda , a new aluminized glass fabric with the unique appearance and functionality of moldable steel and the strong, durable lightweight characteristics of traditional high-performance fabrics. Together, these attributes deliver a distinctive combination of beauty and strength that will transform any composite product into one that Dares to be Different.
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NEWS
North Coast Tool & Mold Corp.

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New version of Sailrocket aims to break sailing speed world record
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he 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 HPCs press time, the Sailrocket 2 was being 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, Sailrockets project leader and pilot, pointing out, Of course, there are risks involved. Thats the challenge. The revised craft the original was described in HPCs January 2009 issue (http://short.compositesworld.com/zRWoPW48) 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 construction, comprising carbon ber/epoxy prepreg skins over an aramid honeycomb core. Prepregs included Gurits Ampreg 22, SE84LV and SE70 and some dry reinforcements. Its wing-like sail is built around a CompoTech (Suice, Czech Republic) carbon tube that acts as a spar. The wingskins are a polyester
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Source: Lloyd images for Sailrocket
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ORNL to install full-scale carbon ber pilot line from Harper Intl
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hermal processing equipment manufacturer Harper International (Buffalo, N.Y.) nalized in late March a contract with the U.S. Department of Energys (DoE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tenn.) under which Harper will provide a full pilot-scale carbon ber process line. Valued at more than $12 million (USD), the customdesigned conversion process will support ORNLs ongoing Low Cost Carbon Fiber research and technology-transfer program. The line will be built around Harpers proprietary multiow oxidation oven technology; advanced LT and HT slot furnaces, rated for 1000C/1832F and 2000C/3632F, respectively; pre- and posttreatment 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 lowcost production of carbon bers. A renewable resource, lignin is separated from paper-mill and/or bio-renery cellulose and is far less costly than traditional precursors. The primary objective is to develop more energy-efcient, cost-effective materials and processes for production of affordable carbon composites. A key target market is automotive manufacturing, where carbon composites would substantially reduce vehicle weight, decrease fuel consumption, and result in lower greenhouse gas emissions.
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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 originator 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 Management 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 management 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.
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Commercial-grade carbon ber supplier restructures for growth
oltek Corp. (St. Louis, Mo.) has formally restructured its growing commercial-grade carbon 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 established in April 2010 as a major applications-development center. According to the company, the restructuring effort more accurately reects the way that Zoltek resources align with specic market opportunities and the anticipated future 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 Zolteks products and has the greatest potential for growth in the future. The Composite Intermediate Business Unit will focus primarily on the commercialization of value-added carbon 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 Zolteks R&D group under the leadership 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 ame- and heat-resistant applications 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. (Rockwood, Tenn.) has been named VP, technical bers. He and his team have been tasked with strengthening Zolteks position in these markets and developing new applications for heat- and friction-resistant technical bers.
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European Precursor GmbH (EPG), a joint venture between SGL Group The Carbon Company (Wiesbaden, Germany) and Lenzing Group (Kelheim, Germany), reported 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 EPGs development of a novel highperformance carbon ber precursor, the nature and composition of which was not revealed by SGL. Founded at the end of 2006 and based in Kelheim, EPGs objective is to develop and supply carbon ber precursor exclusively for SGL Group and European production. Since the establishment of the joint venture, both parties have invested approximately 25 million in a production facility that serves industrial applications, particularly in the automotive engineering and wind energy sectors. This joint venture secures SGL Groups long-term supply of raw materials for carbon ber targeted to these applications.
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BIZ BRIEFS
North Coast Composites (Cleveland, Ohio) reported on Feb. 24 that it has been chosen by Israel Aerospace Industries (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 ber/epoxy G250 rudder integrates lightning strike protection, net-molded ribs and spars, and rudder skins into a comolded, singlepiece, solid laminate. North Coast reports that this complex part is the rst of its kind and was made possible by specially designed RTM tooling and a streamlined, highly efcient manufacturing process. GRPMS, a member of Umeco Composites Structural Materials (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 distribute the Sigmatex product range in the U.K., Ireland, France, Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic states. Sigmatex products include woven, unidirectional, multiaxial and three-dimensional carbon ber reinforcements. GRPMS provides service in the composites market, working through its network of distribution centers.
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NEWS
PEOPLE BRIEFS
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 certication, new product development, production support engineering, and program management. Most recently, he served as VP of engineering at Piper Aircraft, with responsibility for new product development, aircraft certication, 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 manufacturer Lectra (Paris, France) has appointed Adriana Vono Papavero to the position of managing director of Lectra South America. Based in So Paulo, Brazil, Papavero 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 Universitys 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 labs reach to OEMs and suppliers.
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X PRIZE Foundation announces private moon race contestants

n Feb. 18, the X PRIZE Foundation (Playa Vista, Calif.) announced the ofcial roster of 29 registered teams that will vie for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE. Contestants will try to be the rst privately funded group to deliver to Earths 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 competing teams range from nonprots 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 agencys interest demonstrates how public and private space exploration efforts can be interwoven, and how such cooperation could play an important role in making missions to the Moon nancially sustainable.
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NEWS
COMPOSITE TEST FIXTURES
Virgin Oceanic to launch deepsea business and submersible vessel
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ir Richard Branson announced in April the launch of the new Virgin Oceanic business unit, and with it a composites-intensive submarine that represents a transformational 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 Earths oceans, using composites technology and a unique wing to y up to 10 km/6.2 miles over the ocean oor while collecting video and data. Many times less expensive to manufacture and operate than less-capable counterparts, Virgin Oceanic reports, the submarine was originally commissioned by Bransons friend, the late adventurer Steve Fossett, who was to use it to complete the rst solo dive to the deepest place on the planet, the Mariana Trench, 11 km/7 miles below the surface of the Pacic Ocean. Branson intends to nish what Fossett started (see http://short.compositesworld.com/6TjCL4Lz). The vehicle is made from carbon 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 Earths ve oceans. The rst dive will be to the Mariana Trench.
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Sixty-second cycle time for carbon composites?
eijin Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced on March 9 that it has established a mass-production technology for carbon ber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), achieving a cycle time of less than one minute. Teijins new technologies include 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 developed 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 applications for CFRP in automobiles and many other items that require certain levels of structural strength, such as machine tools and industrial robots. Teijin says it has developed three intermediate materials, each of carbon ber impregnated with thermoplastic resin, for the production of CFRP suited for use in mass-production vehicles. The materials
can be used selectively, depending on the required strength and cost of the part, and they can be made with various thermoplastic resins, including polypropylene and polyamide. The intermediate materials include: Unidirectional intermediate: ultrahigh strength in a certain direction. Isotropic intermediate: a balance between shape exibility and multidirectional strength. Long-ber thermoplastic pellet: a highstrength pellet made from carbon ber, used for injection molding of complex parts. To demonstrate its new technologies, Teijin has developed an electricvehicle (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-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. (Another four-seat EV concept with a CFRP
Source: Teifjin Ltd.
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 introduce 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 ber composites business by supplying CFRP parts to the market.
5-Axis Machining Centers For Composites

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NEWS
Cirrus Aircraft: Will U.S. investors fend off buyout by Chinese rm?
eneral aircraft manufacturer Cirrus 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 Industry 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 rm Brian Foley Associates (BRiFO, Sparta, N.J.), claimed that he and his rm will attempt to quash the Cirrus/AVIC transaction, solicit capital support from U.S. investors and reach out to Cirrus primary owners to see if theyd 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
Source: Cirrus
on American soil, period. Cirrus executives have, so far, downplayed risk associated with the impending deal, noting that relocation to China is unlikely and that Cirrus is not presently Americanowned: Arcapita, a Bahrain-based investment 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. Governments Committee on Foreign Investment 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
36
assets of Bend, Ore.-based Epic Aircraft (reported by HPC in May 2010) and aviation engine-builder Continental Motors (Mobile, Ala.) in December 2010. Cirrus Aircraft has led sales of fourplace light aircraft for nine consecutive years, delivering nearly 5,000 new pistonengine composite airplanes during the last decade, and is second only to Cessna (Wichita, Kan.) in the sales of single-engine general aviation aircraft. According to Brent Wouters, Cirruss president and CEO, This transaction will have a positive impact on our business and our customers 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 products and related services and is headquartered in Zhuhai in the Guangdong Province of China. CAIGAs 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 CAIGAs business focuses. We are very optimistic to begin our partnership with Cirrus and add Cirruss strong brand as the cornerstone in our aviation product 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 Chinese 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 ight hours in China jumped from 40,000 to 130,000. In contrast, between 1999 and 2005, estimated GA ight hours in the U.S. fell from 27 million to 22 million, according to FAA statistics. While minimal compared to U.S. GA activity, Sclair says Whether you are pro-China or not, Chinas aviation market is opening up and growing.
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NEWS
BIZ BRIEF
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. (Stratford, Conn.) ofcially opened a new facility at its Florida Assembly and Flight Operations (FAFO) campus on March 22, establishing experimental assembly-line operations
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for the new CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter. 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 nal assembly and rotor head/ quality control assembly operations. Five System Development and Demonstration (SDD) prototype aircraft will be built at the FAFO facility. Two additional airframe test articles will be produced at Sikorskys main manufacturing plant in Stratford. Once assembled, the aircraft will be delivered to the Sikorsky Development Flight Center (DFC) in West Palm Beach, Fla., for ight testing. The new aircraft program, currently in the SDD phase, could produce as many as 200 aircraft, The CH-53K helicopters major subcontracts have been awarded and are valued at more $1.1 billion (USD).
38
Bombardier gears up for CSeries assembly
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ombardier (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) reported on April 7 that it has started work at its aircraft production facility in Mirabel, Qubec, to accommodate nal assembly of the rst ight test CSeries aircraft, the CSeries aircraft, which has composites-intensive wings and fuselage. This is another step in a ve-phase development plan for the Mirabel plant, which will ultimately double in size to ~860,000 ft2 (~79,897m2). Production, quality and ergonomic requirements are driving Bombardiers technical approach to CSeries nal assembly. Although the CSeries jet will be shorter than the companys 128-ft/39mlong 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. Finalassembly techniques, therefore, will differ. For example, two pairs of robots will be used to drill holes, apply sealant and install fasteners to join the major sections of the CSeries fuselage. The fuselage of the CSeries aircraft is 12 ft [3.7m] in diameter, which presents an assembly challenge using our conventional methods, says Francois Minville, VP, CSeries Manufacturing, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. The benet 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 Bombardiers St-Laurent Manufacturing Centre, where major components of the CSeries aircraft, such as the cockpit and aft fuselage, are produced, and a moving nal-assembly line is planned for Mirabel. These innovations are expected to create a dynamic environment that improves production efciency. Bombardier claims that CSeries aircraft, optimized for the single-aisle, 100- to 149-seat commercial passenger segment, will deliver the lowest operating costs in that class. Bombardiers goal is to capture as much as half of its forecasted market demand for 6,700 aircraft in the 100- to 149-seat segment. This segment is valued at $393 billion (USD) over the next 20 years.
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SHOW PREVIEW
SAMPE 2011 LONG BEACH

SAMPE returns to Long Beach in partnership with aerospace industry materials society ASM International.
fter successful events in the Pacic 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 rst time, SAMPE and ASM International, the society for aerospace materials engineers and designers, are colocating SAMPE 2011 and ASMs AeroMat 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 presentations (see SAMPE 2011 at a Glance, p. 42). Among the highlights is a panel discussion that wraps up the day on Monday, titled The Other 95%: Opportunities Outside Aerospace. Moderators William Kreysler, president, Kreysler & Associates (American Canyon, Calif.), and Craig Riley, vicepresident, Composites West LLC (Incline Village, Nev.), say the composites know-how amassed in the aerospace industry has been tapped, thus far, by less than 10 percent of the fabricators who power the annual $2 billion (USD) composites industry. Panelists will discuss how aerospace manufacturers and their materials suppliers can turn this lack of widespread expertise to their advantage 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-
panys recent integration of automated composites manufacturing technologies. Following a full day of technical paper sessions, conference attendees can network at SAMPEs 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), keynoter Andreas Wllner, managing director, SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers GmbH (Wiesbaden, Germany), will take a look at the 2009 SGL/BMW joint venture 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 ber-reinforced polymer, including its life module or passenger cell. The joint venture provides a dedicated supply of carbon ber reinforcement for the project (manufactured at a new factory in Moses Lake, Wash.). Wllner will review the challenges involved in opening a new carbon ber manufacturing facility and discuss SGLs vision of the large-scale use of carbon 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-autoclave technologies at Airbus (Toulouse, France) U.K. facility, will discuss his companys work to develop Out-of-Autoclave 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 Competence Network, Klaus Drechsler, head of the Institute for Carbon Composites at TU Mnchen (Munich, Germany), will introduce listeners to Carbon Com-
posites e.V. (CCeV), an association of German-speaking ber-reinforced plastic processors and research institutions that fosters research in the aerospace, automotive, transportation, energy and mechanical-engineering arenas. The third presentation is titled Assessing and Managing Technical Risk in Transition of Technology into Systems. Lecturer James J. Thompson, director, major program support in the Ofce of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Systems Engineering) for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), will outline evolutionary changes to the DoDs governance of technology transfer in large defense programs, made in an effort to improve what resulted previously in mixed or unintended results. Bridge and wing building contests For 13 years, SAMPE has hosted a competition for student members to design, 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 participated in this competition. The students engineer and fabricate test articles from either self-supplied materials or kits that SAMPE donors provide. 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 annual contest will take place Wednesday, May 25, on the show oor. AeroMat agenda One day shorter than the SAMPE trade show, the AeroMat conference will run from May 23-25. Organizers expect technical experts from more than 200 companies in the aerospace materials supply
40
1639
SAMPE 2011
WHAT:
Exhibition Hall Plan

SAMPE 2011 Conference & Exhibition WHEN: May 23-26 WHERE: Long Beach Convention Center
chain to attend, including material suppliers to processors, airframe and engine designers, equipment manufacturers, university researchers and government end-users. Conference-goerswill 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 Manufacturing of Advanced Materials for the Future. Of potential interest to HPC readers, papers presented as part of AeroMats
Emerging Materials and Processes track, Session 4 (Wednesday, May 25, 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.), will explore Polymers, Composites and Nanomaterials. Additionally, Session 1 of the Model Development and Implementation/Validation track will cover Modeling and Simulation of High-Temperature Materials (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 Technologies, 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 programs at no additional charge. The HPC staff, of course, will be on hand in Long Beach, in booth 1639. Look for our annual SAMPE show wrap-up in the July issue. For more information about SAMPE 2011, contact Priscilla Heredia,Tel.: (626) 331-0616 x610; e-mail: priscilla@sampe.org. For more information about AeroMat 2011, visit http://www.asminternational.org/content/ Events/aeromat/.
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CompositesWorld
SHOW PREVIEW
SAMPE 2011 at a Glance

Monday, May 23
Registration 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. 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, May 24 (continued)

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 (continued)

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.
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
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 Brieng 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
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
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SHOW PREVIEW
SAMPE 2011 LONG BEACH EXHIBITOR LIST

Bold = HPC advertisers in this issue. Exhibitor Booth# Exhibitor Booth# Exhibitor Booth# Exhibitor Booth#
2Phase Technologies 3M Aerospace A&P Technology A.B. Carter Inc. AAR Precision Systems ABARIS Training Accudyne Engineering & Equipment Co. ACE-Anaglyph Adhesive Packaging Specialties Inc. Advanced Ceramics Manufacturing Advanced Composite Products and Technology Inc Advanced Composites Group Inc. (ACG) Advanced Composites Inc. Advanced Integration AFRL/RX AGY Airstar Inc. Airtech International Inc. Akron Polymer Systems Inc. AKSA Carbon Fibers Alpha STAR Corporation Alpha Technologies Services LLC Altair Engineering American GFM Corporation Anton Paar USA Apex Machine Tool Company Applied Aerospace Structures Corporation Aramicore Composite Co. Ltd. Archer Daniels Midland Arkema Inc. ASC Process Systems Assembly Guidance Systems Inc. Automated Dynamics Axiom Materials Inc. BAE Systems Bedford Reinforced Plastics BigC: Dino-Lite Scopes Bondline Products Bondtech Corporation Brenner Aerostructures Breton SpA
652 1111 1321 739 548 922 941 931 834 626 1610
911
742 1334 829 643 1254 1305 620 1141 534 535 1545 961 1608 1530 1543
637 632 736 721 651 1048 1054 1357 827 1061 916 1417 1232 1240
BriskHeat Corporation Bron Aerotech Inc. Burnham Composite Structures Inc. C.A. Litzler Co. Inc. C.R. Onsrud Inc. Carl Zeiss MicroImaging LLC CASS Polymers of Michigan Inc. CGTech Cincinnati Testing Laboratories Click Bond Inc. CMS North America Inc. Cobham Collier Research Corporation Composite Fabrics of America Composite Technical Services LLC Composites Atlantic Limited Composites Horizons Inc./Texstars Composites One Composites Training Center - Cerritos College CompositesWorld CompuDAS Conductive Composites Co. Continental Diamond Tool Coriolis Composites SAS Cornerstone Research Group Inc. Correlated Solutions Inc. CPS Technologies Corp. Creaform CTS Composites Inc. Cuming Microwave Cytec Engineered Materials Inc. Dantec Dynamics Inc. Dassault Systemes Americas Corp. David H. Sutherland & Co. DCM Clean-Air Products Inc. De-Comp Composites Inc. DEKUMED Delsen Testing Laboratories Inc. DelStar Technologies Inc. Despatch Industries Dexmet Corporation DIAB Sales Inc.
1538 942 1215 1021 1343 1521 252 437 817 1028 1131 1249 1434 1052 634 852 1030 826 1631
1639 1649 1252 244 749 1327 1451 1153 954 951 1256 1156 1551 543 1121 432 1140 937 1217 1413 1259 845 1059
Directed MFG Diversied Machine Systems Inc. DSM Dyneema Dunstone Company Inc. Dynamic Fabrication Inc. E.T. Horn Company E.V. Roberts Eastman Machine Co. Eeonyx Corporation EHA Spezialmaschinenbau GmbH Elantas PDG Inc. Electro-Tech Machining Endurance Technologies Inc. Euro-Composites Corp. Evonik EXAKT Technologies Inc. Exova OCM e-Xstream engineering LLC Fabric Development Fatigue Technology Ferry Industries Fiberforge Corporation Fiber-Line Inc Finish Kare Products Inc. Firehole Technologies Inc. FlackTek Inc. Flight Safety International FLIR Systems Freeman Manufacturing & Supply Co. Geiss LLC General Plastics Manufacturing Co. Genesis Systems Group Gerber Technology GKN Aerospace Global Silicones Inc. Graco Supply & Intergrated Services Gunnar USA Inc. Hawkeye International Ltd. HEATCON Composite Systems Helman Tensioners Inc. Henkel Corp. Hexcel Corporation Hi-Performance Products Inc. HITCO Carbon Composites Inc. Hollingsworth & Vose Co.
731 1641 848 1316 1460 1621 1034 921 340 338 1548 1448 1328 821 1049 1534 1023 1040 920 1560 552 528 1526 1243 1627 838 1314 1606 440 624 1116 349 1221 926 1508 744 443 1300 1405 1340 1011 1421 449 743 1356
HOS-Technik GmbH Huntsman Advanced Materials Idex Solutions IEST Co. Ltd. IKONICS Imperium Inc. Industrial Summit Technology Corp. Ingersoll Machine Tools Inc. Innovative Composite Engineering (ICE) Integrated Technologies Inc. - INTEC Intertek iPhoton Solutions ITT Izumi International Inc. J.D. Lincoln Janicki Industries Inc. JEC JPS Composite Materials KAMAN Composites Kaneka Texas Corp. KEYENCE Corporation KNF FLEXPAK Corporation Knowlton Technologies LLC LAP Laser LLC Laser Technology Inc. Lectra Lewco Inc. Lewcott Corp. Lingol Corp. Lintech International LLC LMT Onsrud LP Lucas Industries Luna Innovations M.C. Gill Corporation Magestic Systems Inc. Magnolia Plastics Inc. Magnum Venus Plastech Manufacturers Supplies Co. Marathon Heater Inc. Matec Instrument Companies Inc. Matrix Composites Inc. Maverick Corporation McGill AirPressure LLC McLube Div. of McGee Industries MECNOV
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SHOW PREVIEW
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Quartus Engineering Inc. Quatro Composites RAMPF Group Renegade Materials Corp. Reno Machine Co. Inc. Revchem Composites Inc. Richmond Aircraft Products Inc. RT Instruments Inc. Rubbercraft Saertex USA LLC Saint Gobain Technical Fabrics SAMPE Sandvik Process Systems Schlumpf USA Inc. SCRA SDI/Talon Test Laboratories Inc. Sealant Equipment & Engineering Inc. Seifert and Skinner & Associates Inc. Sensitech Inc. Sigmatex SL Laser Systems LP Smart Tooling Solid Concepts Inc. Solvay Advanced Polymers
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Venango Machine Company Verisurf Software Vermont Composites Inc. Victrex USA Inc. VISTAGY Inc. VMS Aircraft Co. Inc. Wabash MPI Wacker Chemical Corp. Walton Process Technologies Inc. Waukesha Foundry Inc. Wausau Paper Web Industries Weber Manufacturing Technologies Inc. West Virginia Development Ofce Westminster Solutions WichiTech Industries Inc. Windsys Solutions LLC Wisconsin Oven Corporation Wolff Industries Inc. XG Sciences Inc. Zotefoams Inc. Zyvax Inc.
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SHOW COVERAGE
JEC PARIS HIGHLIGHTS

The news from this annual Parisian in-gathering of composites professionals is heavily weighted toward automotive lightweighting.
kies outside were gray but the atmosphere 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 events upbeat buzz reected the current upward trend in the composites industry. You wouldnt be blamed if, while wandering the aisles of the show this year, you thought yourself not at a composites event, but a car show, and a high-end one at that. Among the many autos on display was a carbon-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 ber that many exhibitors believe the future of the composites community is riding on four wheels.
Carbon car cornucopia

Carbon 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 carbon 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. Ofcials at this years show conrmed that the new facility in Washington State is on schedule for completion this summer, to be followed in the third quarter by
where it will be woven into noncrimp fabrics, which then will travel to Landshut, Germany, for stacking, preforming, stamping, resin transfer molding (RTM) and machining for the passenger cell. Andreas Wllner, managing director of SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers, says SGL already is testing the weaving technology that will produce the noncrimp fabrics in Wackersdorf and is condent that the car, due on market in 2013, will remain on schedule. Indeed, SGL displayed in its booth a completed passenger cell (see photo, p. 49) for the four-door BMW i3. It featured blue and white tape over the cells joints to hide some of the technology behind the cell. Look for similar technology in the just-announced hybrid-electric BMW i8, also due out in 2013. In fact, Wllner says BMW is so committed to the use of carbon 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 ber fenders that are resin transfer molded by Sora Composites (Change, France), a rst for Audi, says Sora. Fabrication details werent High-end auto heaven available, but Sora says the thin, Lamborghinis Aventador display was among the most complex parts require care in the popular at JEC 2011. The supercar features a carbonpreforming process to achieve fiber passenger cell developed by Lamborghinis Advanced Composite Research Center in Bolognese, Italy. Audis exacting standards.
Source: HPC; Photo: Jeff Sloan
commissioning of the lines and delivery of the rst of the carbon ber. The plants capacity will be 3,000 metric tonnes (6.613 million lb) per year of 50K standard-modulus carbon 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,
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SHOW COVERAGE
Pipe dream
Carbon Grossbauteile GmbH (CGB, Wallerstein, Germany) couldnt get its massive filament-wound carbon fiberreinforced 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, Germanys Effnerplatz (see Learn More, p. 49).
Aerospace out of the autoclave

Also in abundance were materials, equipment, tooling and process concepts, many of which included automation, for producing composites faster and more efciently and out of the autoclave. One of the winners of the JEC Innovation 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 Dynamics Inc. (CDI, Avon, Ohio). More than 18 months in development, it features a compression-molded pan that uses AS4
carbon ber unidirectional tape from Hexcel (Dublin, Calif.). The tape is prepregged by TenCate, using Ticonas Fortron 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 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 Latcore (Toulouse, France) together with its European partners. The large and complex part with integral stiffening frames was made with a 3-D preform stitched together with a new 1K (two-ply) carbon ber sewing thread developed by Schappe Techniques (Blyes, France). The part maLightweight 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 cars carbon fiber tub that forms the passenger compartment. Its 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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terials, which included dry carbon and transfer molding. Equally buzz-worthy berglass and metallic mesh for light- was the winner of the Equipment Catening strike, were layed up in a complex gory Innovation Award, a metal-surfaced multipart mold and then resin-infused, composite tool produced by partners with assembly time reduced by 10 to 15 Advanced Composites Group Ltd. (ACG, percent thanks to the preform and fewer Heanor, Derbyshire, U.K.) and Integran steps required. The nished part is re(Toronto, Ontario, Canada). The tool has portedly 10 to 15 percent lighter coma nanocrystalline, ferromagnetic cladding pared to current door designs. or tool face over a carbon ber composite Innovation award nalist Techni-modtool base, to take advantage of the best ul Engineering (Coudes, France) showed aspects of metallic tooling with the rea new concept for tools capable of out-ofduced weight and lower thermal mass of autoclave, high-rate production of com- composite tooling. posites. The patented concept involves a thin skin, which can be either metallic or composite, integrally heated via uid channels. The uid can be oil-, wateror metal-based. The company claims a very fast rate of tool heating and a high ultimate temperature (around 400C/752F). Because the tool is much less Braided seat back massive than a conventional counterpart, it can be handled Cutting Dynamics (Avon, Ohio) won an Innovation Award at JEC for its development of this carbon fiber/ and moved more easily and less PPS seat back. Carbon fiber unidirectional tape was power is consumed during part slit and then braided by A&P Technology (Cincinnati, cure. The target market is out-of- Ohio) to create the rim structure (photo at left) around autoclave processing and resin 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-ofautoclave (OOA) resins for structural aircraft applications, another buzz was raised about the potential for reinforced thermoplastics 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 G650s horizontal tail section. Its currently molded of carbon ber/epoxy, but the Fokker version is a demonstrator fabricated from carbon ber/PEKK (see Thermoplastic composites: Primary structure? on p. 52). Arnt Offringa, director R&D at Fokker, says his company will mold the top half of the tail section, bond the halves together, and conduct structural testing to determine the materials suitability for the application. If successful, Offringa says the company hopes to
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see the technology on a future business jet. And if thats successful, then perhaps it will y on a commercial aircraft. Offringa also reports that the same Airbus effort is molding the lower half of an A320 forward fuselage section, using a similar carbon 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 announcements 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 University described the design concept of an unbalanced laminate, using only two ply angles, which can offer unexpected design benets in a composite laminate, such as greater toughness and bend/twist coupling to control deection. 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.) introduced a completely new ber at the show, designated S-3 HDI. Designed to meet the demanding technical requirements 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 ber offers a very high tensile modulus for better dimensional stability and less warpage. It also has a lower coefcient of thermal expansion (CTE) to withstand the higher temperatures of lead-free soldering during production. Editors 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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L E A R N M O R E @ www.compositesworld.com
Read this show review online at http://short.compositesworld.com/R3iP5uOl.
Read about the Mae West sculpture in Mae West: Pipe dream in Munich, in HPC March 2011 (p. 46) or visit http://short.compositesworld.com/hLGNQrxr. Read more about the McLaren MP4-12C in F1-inspired MonoCell: Racing safety for the road, in HPC September 2010 (p. 60) or visit http://short.compositesworld.com/nzg0Ckkb.
Carbon composite cell for commuter car

SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers (Wiesbaden, Germany) brought to the show the carbon fiber composite passenger cell for the allelectric, four-door BMW i3. Carbon fiber for the cell will be made in the U.S.
SEICO 11 highlights
Over at the nearby 32nd SAMPE Europe International Conference, held March 2829 at the Hotel Mercure, the newly reformatted 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 Development Directorate at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). After a moment of silence for the victims of the Japanese disaster, Dr. Ishikawa gave an overview of composites R&D at JAXA. Included in this was a summary of technology developed at JAXA which has been transferred to the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ). Although the rst-generation 90-passenger 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 epoxy VaRTM processing. The 6m/19.5-ft prototype produced mechanical properties approaching those of standard aerospace prepreg technology without using an autoclave. Also included in the research was an integrally fabricated fuselage/stringer section, using a hybrid of prepreg and VARTM technology. These developments were presented in detail during a session later in the program.
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WORK IN PROGRESS: MICROWAVE SHAPE-MEMORY CURING POLYMER
MICROWAVE:
AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE AUTOCLAVE?
Aerospace composites manufacturer GKN evaluates microwave oven BY JEFF SLOAN practicality and cost-effectiveness.
utoclave curing of composite structures has been such a staple of high-performance composites industry practice that its difcult 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 autoclaves strong appetite for energy and time, neither of which is in abundance in todays manufacturing environment. Out-of-autoclave thermosets, as well as thermoplastics, increasingly offer viable alternatives to autoclave-cured ther-
mosets. Oven curing is getting more attention 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 microwave curing oven from heating systems specialist Vtsch Industrietechnik GmbH (Reiskirchen-Lindenstruth, Germany). Although it was developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany), the microwave curing process was commercialized subsequently by Vtsch.
John Cornforth, VP of technology at GKN Aerospace, says the companys goal for the microwave effort was to test the machines 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 systems, such as those found in autoclaves, a composite part heats from the outside in, as heat energy is transferred through the parts thickness. The process duration is determined by the rate of heat ow into the composite structure. The ow rate depends on the materials specic heat, thermal conductivity, 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 nished product. Therefore, the temperature 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.
Why autoclave when you can microwave?

GKN Aerospace has spent the last several months evaluating the cure performance of this Vtsch microwave oven, with encouraging results: an 80 percent reduction in energy use compared to autoclave cure, and a 40 percent shorter cycle-time.
Source: GKN Aerospace
50
Conversely, microwave technology relies on volumetric heating. Heat energy is transferred electromagnetically and relatively evenly and quickly throughout the part, but not as a thermal heat ux. This enables better process temperature control and less overall energy use, and results in shorter cure cycles. It also enables the processor to direct heat specically toward the part to be cured, thus maximizing the curing process efciency. Cornforth says the Hephaistos oven is 1.8m/5.9 ft in diameter and 3m/10 ft long and offers a maximum temperature of 400C/204F. It was delivered in early 2010 and commissioned later that year. Since then, GKN has worked with the oven experimentally, evaluating processes and quality control by curing several 4- to 5-mm (0.16- to 0.20-inch) thick stiffened skin structures for aircraft wing aps. Three out-of-autoclave pregregs were evaluated: MTM-44-1 from Advanced Composites Group (Heanor, Derbyshire, U.K.), M56 from Hexcel (Stamford, Conn.) and Cycom 5320 from Cytec Engineered Materials (Tempe, Ariz.). The primary question GKN is attempting to answer is this: Is it possible to replicate autoclave cure quality in less time, using less energy? So far, says Cornforth, the results are promising. GKNs 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 180C/356F and a tooling temperature of about 80C/176F. 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 thermal lag. Further, when cure is complete and the oven shuts off, there is no cooldown of the oven itself. Like a microwave 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 distinction. An oven or autoclave, by its nature, applies the same heat uniformly to all structures parts and tools. In a microwave system, material composition has an impact on temperature. Metals are reective to microwaves and thus do not heat up. Certain nonmetallic ma-
Microwave test articles

A gallery of GKNs microwave-cured parts.
terials, such as tooling epoxy, are reactive and do heat up. Additionally, there are some nonmetallic materials that do not heat up because they are transparent. By use of specic material combinations, its possible to make some parts of the tool areas not in contact with the component reective to microwaves; conversely, its 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 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 dont want a cold tool and
a hot part, but we dont want to heat the whole tool. Reiner Wiesehfer, a principal at Vtsch, says adapting microwave curing requires an understanding of how microwaves function to make the process viable for curing. You cant take a microwave 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 Wiesehfer, 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 Wiesehfer, its 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 reect microwaves, thus shielding the uncured laminate. Of course, microwave heating is not conned to the part and tool. Consumables breather cloths, bagging mats and sealant material react to microwaves and, Cornforth notes, one of the challenges GKN has faced is that each material absorbs microwave energy differently. How do consumables behave? Cornforth asks rhetorically. If they dont behave the way you like, he says, you have to nd materials that are better adapted to the process. GKN has several nished parts now, says Cornforth, and the company is in the process of doing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis, nondestructive testing and microscopic evaluation of cut-ups to assess part quality. The parts will be compared to identical parts produced via autoclave. He adds that GKN Aerospace is working to Airbus specications to benchmark the quality of the microwave-cured composite laminate. Initial results clearly demonstrate that microwave-cured composites achieve the required quality of an autoclave cure.
Source: GKN Aerospace
LEARN MORE
Read this article online at http://short. compositesworld.com/Flv8ya1G.
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FEATURE / UPDATE ON THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES
Thermoplastic Composites:
PRIMARY STRUCTURE?
Yes, advanced forms are in development, but has the technology progressed enough to make the business case? BY GINGER GARDINER
O
52
ver the past 25 years, thermoplastic composites (TPCs) have increasingly earned their way onto commercial and military aircraft. Theyve done so through the efforts of a few pioneering companies that have developed materials and processes, enabling continuous ber reinforcement of advanced matrices such as polyphenylene sulde (PPS), polyetherimide (PEI), polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and polyetherketoneketone (PEKK).
Given the excellent re, smoke and toxicity (FST) performance and cycle times of minutes vs. hours for thermosets, the inux of TPCs into aircraft interiors was no surprise. Ten Cate Advanced Composites (Nijverdal, The Netherlands), 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 didnt stall there. Adoptions have progressed with each new aircraft (see Learn More,
p. 59). Leading TPC manufacturers conrm that they are working on developments for both The Boeing Co.s (Seattle, 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 Thermoplastic Affordable Primary Aircraft Structure
Source: Fokker Aerostructures
Robotic tape laying machinery

Fokker Aerostructures (Hoogeveen, The Netherlands) executives view the companys 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.
(TAPAS) consortium, intends to demonstrate a TPC torsion box, such as that used in horizontal tails, featuring induction welded butt-joint stiffening ribs. Also in process is a TPC fuselage panel with integrated stiffeners. Meanwhile, the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Qubec (CRIAQ, Montral, Canada) continues its development of a thin-walled, tapered-cylinder TPC helicopter tail boom with welded internal stiffeners.
Fokker leads TAPAS torsion box

TAPAS includes Airbus and eight thermoplastic composites specialists based in The Netherlands Fokker Aerostructures (Hoogeveen), Ten Cate, Airborne Composites (The Hague), KVE Composites Group (The Hague), Dutch Thermoplastic Composites (Almere), Technobis Fibre Technologies (Uitgeest), Technical University Delft, University of Twente, and the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (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 largescale demonstrator components. (TRL 6 stands for Technology Demonstration on a scale from TRL 1 Basic Technology Research to TRL 9 Systems Test, Launch & Operations.) One will be a 12m/39-ft span torsion box and the other, a 4m/13ft long, double-curvature fuselage panel. The program is intended to position participating partners for new programs like the A30X (next-generation A320). The TAPAS torsion box demonstrator is basically a redesign of Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.s (Savannah, Ga.) Gulfstream G650 horizontal stabilizer, previously a carbon ber/epoxy hat-stiffened skin construction. The torsion box is the xed structure of the tail, and it is more heavily loaded than the movable rudder and elevators, which Fokker now produces 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 rst TPC primary structures and the rst industrialized induction welding method (contributed by KVE). We wanted to look at a torsion box, as a basis for control 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 required. The selected 12m span represents a horizontal 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 (Fokker 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 Development level) subcomponent TPC demonstrator that measures 0.5m by 1m (1.6 ft by 3.3 ft), with three integrated stiffeners. The part has undergone static and fatigue testing in all conditions. Production and testing of the larger demonstrator 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 unidirectional carbon ber/PEKK. The integrated, butt-jointed T-stiffeners are revolutionary in terms of manufacturing process, cost and weight. We were looking for a low-cost way of adding vertical stiffeners to I-shaped oor beams a few years ago, Offringa recalls. Instead of using laminates with anges, we tried a simple 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) independent 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 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 unidirectional bers, Offringa notes, but the short ber/PEKK combination worked best to reduce stress in the joints. Simple at preforms are made using automated tape placement (ATP) and
Orders-of-magnitude improvements
Fokkers 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.
MARCH 2011
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Sine wave of the future

Fokkers development of its butt-joint system has enabled new designs not easily formed in thermoset composites, such as the sine-wave beam pictured here.
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 molding, apply pressure. The thermoplastic composite skin is then tape layed on top using an off-the-shelf robotic arm made
SIDE STORY
by Fanuc (Oshino-mura, Japan), and specied 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.
TPCs on the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350

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 Netherlands) and Toho Tenax (Tokyo, Japan) each have announced long-term supply contracts for their carbon ber-reinforced thermoplastic prepregs, but the names of specic manufacturers they will supply and the parts they will manufacture were unavailable. Some TPC applications, however, have been identied. Aerosud (Pretoria, South Africa) has been named as the supplier of continuous 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 787s 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 molding (CCM) process. Not least, Marquez (Montral, Qubec, Canada) is supplying the 787s personal air delivery system (see the side story on p. 56).
The decision to use a robotic arm was based on cost: roughly $100,000 for industrial robots vs. $1 million for large ATL/ AFP machines. Offringa notes that Coriolis Composites SAS (Quven, France), Accudyne Systems Inc. (Newark, Del.) and Automated Dynamics (Schenectady, N.Y.) have all looked into using robots instead of gantry-style equipment. (Coriolis Composites effort in that direction is noted in the news item on p. 19.) For thermoplastic 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 (Dassault Systmes, Paris, France) CAD data into something the robot can build. This system is expected to enable affordable growth. For small volumes of limitedsize products for example, an 80-cm by 300-cm (32-inch by 118-inch) business-jet ap a single robotic cell will work, and increased volumes can be accommodated 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 edges

Fokkers butt-joint system has enabled a faster, more cost-effective way of producing sine-wave beams, which are not easily formed in thermoset composites. Fokker began with the beams web, a carbon/PEKK 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 heated chopped carbon/PEKK material pellets into it. Nevertheless, the rough part showed no voids, indicating that injection molding could be used without trouble for insert production. The beams anges were cut from preformed carbon/PEKK
54
at laminate. Then the web, inserts and anges were placed in a tool, bagged and coconsolidated, producing a structure with a much higher stiffness and bucklingresistance than a simple I-beam. The butt-joint method also enabled production of a skin/stringer design that features multiple at ribs, now employed in the 3.5-year, $6 million Level 1 COALESCE (Cost Efcient Advanced Leading Edge Structure) project within the European 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 Fokkers welded-rib leading edge on the A380 (see Learn More, p. 59). Offringa recounts the designs 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 at plate stock into tailored shapes to minimize material. Radius inserts are injection molded and the skin is robotically ber placed. Then, the assembly is coconsolidated to produce a structure that costs 30 percent less than the A380 leading edge, based on crosssection analysis (i.e., regardless of part length).
Setting up for rib/radius/skin coconsolidation

TPC ribs from flat plate stock and radius inserts for Fokkers 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.
Developing complex fuselage stringers

Dutch 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 demonstrator. DTC has made lightly loaded, constant-thickness TPC ribs in the past, similar to those in Fokkers A340 leading edge. But, says DTCs CEO David Manten, When you go to more highly loaded structures, like fuselage panels, ribs are often made of aluminum because 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 thermoplastic composites enable much more complex 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) carbon/PPS or carbon/PEKK proles up to 3m/10 ft in length. The proles 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 ourselves 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
400C/752F 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 developing a robotic system to automate 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 automated transfer to forming press, for a total cycle time of 15 minutes. During the next six months, DTC will transition to a
TPC T-stiffeners
Fokkers butt-jointed T-stiffeners enable TPC primary structures that cost 15 to 30 percent less than carbon fiber/epoxy.
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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 boom

CRIAQ is a government-funded aerospace consortium of 62 Quebec-based aerospace companies, universities and government organizations, including the major OEMs Bombardier (Montral), Bell Helicopter (Mirabel) and Pratt & Whitney Canada (Longueuil). Its mission is to develop novel concepts and processes that can be applied to future aerospace products. Among its composites 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 thermoplastic tail boom for helicopters. The tail boom is typically a thin-walled, tapered cylinder that connects the cabin to
the tail rotor and must endure signicant bending moments as well as high-temperature engine exhaust. The CRIAQ tailboom 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 structures are conned by low production volumes and complex geometries, no helicopter manufacturer has yet been able to make the business case for using TPCs in production. CRIAQs purpose is to look at the processing parameters and latest materials and equipment in an attempt to overcome these issues.
TPC primary structure issues

According to some industry experts, thermoplastic composites still have signicant 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 processing speed and quality, and lack of developed repair technologies. Because aerospace-grade thermoplastic prepregs cost more than thermoset prepregs, some observers say TPC parts cannot compete cost-wise simply by using the same automated layup and autoclave consolidation process currently used for thermoset composite primary structures. According to Dr. Ali Yousefpour, composites group leader at the Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Center, Institute for Aerospace Research, National Research Council of Canada (NRC, Montreal, Quebec), The best approach 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
SIDE STORY
Marquez innovates aircraft TPCs

Repeatedly recognized for its innovative design and manufacturing, Marquez (Montral, Qubec, 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 (Montral, 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 ber (supplied by AGY Holdings Inc., Aiken, S.C.) and 10 percent unreinforced for the connection areas at each parts 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 retrot, 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 structural bone of the seven-piece window assembly, and was codeveloped with Fiberforge (Glenwood
Bizjet window bezel

Marquez supplies the TPC window bezel for Bombardiers Global Express business jets. The bezel is made by Fiberforge (Glenwood Springs, Colo.) using a customized donut blank.
Springs, Colo.), which produces the part for Marquez. According to Martin Levesque, Marquez director of R&D, The bezel is unusual as a structure in that it is empty in the middle, so Fiberforge 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 unidirectional S-2 Glass-reinforced polyphenylenesulde (PPS) to achieve tightly limited deection in two directions. This enables the bezel to form a hermetic (airtight) seal, which not only maintains 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 deect 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 -55C to 85C (-67F to 185F), the part started cracking. The test result prompted a trial with S-2 Glass/PPS tape prepregged by Ten Cate Advanced Composites (Nijverdal, The Netherlands). The tape, widely used for automated tape layed aerospace structures, thus provided the least costly material option.
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Source: Marquez
100 percent consolidation and sufcient crystallization. Yousefpour notes that this is the only true out-of-autoclave processing, a benet often touted for TPCs. Most high-performance thermoplastics require temperatures between 400F and 800F (200C and 430C) to ensure ber wet out, with a consolidation pressure of up to 200 psi (1,380 kPa) being typical. One manufacturer estimated that the high-temperature, high-pressure 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 difcult to justify for low production volumes. Fokkers remarkable success converting 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 geometry and offered the opportunity to consolidate high part-count assemblies. Replacement of aluminum, therefore, was cost-justied by eliminating the time and expense of mechanical fastening. 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 physical limitations of TPC materials and addressed these constraints in their manufacturing processes. For example, ribs and spars have typically used 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 automated processes. The true in-situ process is rather slow, Yousefpour reports, noting that thermoset automated placement uses a soft compaction roller, which deforms to go around sharp corners and edges, 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 exible compaction rollers, he points out, but slow processing remains a challenge. Traditionally, thermoplastic 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 minute minutes

Dutch Thermoplastic Thermoplast Composites (Almere, Th The Netherlands) has developed develope press-formed TPC stringers wit with variable thickness and comple complex geometry for the TAPAS fuselag fuselage demonstrator, with a total cyc cycle fro time of 15 minutes, starting from cuttin CNC materials cutting.
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Robotic placement
A Flash TP automated placement machine from Coriolus Composites (Quven, France) forms a carbon/TPC Airbus A30X lower fuselage skin demonstrator.
Source: Airbus; Photographer: S. Bonniol
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crystallization of the TPC matrix. Yousefpour adds, The most forgiving material right now is PEEK, but it is much more expensive. Other high-end thermoplastic 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. Accordingly, the overall part cycle time and cost are still an issue. Industry sources suggest that laydown rates need to be three to 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 lower-volume aircraft. Because thermoplastic prepregs are not tacky, adhesion of the rst ply to the tool during automated placement also has been an issue, especially on contoured surfaces. Airbus was awarded a patent on July 13, 2011, which proposes one solution to the problem: applying negative pressure to the layup via a porous mold. Another issue is that TPC materials are difcult to bond with nonthermoplastic 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 answered: For example, how will heat and pressure be applied for bonding and how will repairs be inspected for quality?
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Business case debate

Fokker produces aluminum and carbon ber/epoxy horizontal stabilizers for Dassault and other OEMs, and a variety of aps for Airbus and Boeing. Therefore, it has production and cost data for com-
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parison with TPC technology. For the Gulfstream G650s 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 coconsolidation 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 using less material via the butt-jointed design, an extension of post-buckled skin/stringer design originally developed by composite structures pioneer Dr. John Hart-Smith. Instead of preventing buckling one of the main failure modes with a thick skin, Hart-Smiths design allows local buckling at the highest 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 adhesive bonds to extend the failure load by a factor of 2.5. Both TAPAS demonstrators exploit this welded post-buckled skin/stringer design. Fokkers Offringa points out that although TAPAS is geared toward commercial 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 autoclave capable of 400C/752F is used, which is more than enough for most thermoplastic composite materials. It cost 2 million [$2.7 million USD], typical for this type of autoclave. Offringa contends that an autoclave of this size
should be sufcient 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 oor assembly for years, 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-
ny, N.J.) and Fiberforge (Glenwood Springs, Colo.). In the March 21 issue of The Aspen Times, Fiberforge chief operating ofcer David Cramer said that this project is now moving into full-scale production. Its the largest heavy-duty helicopter in the eet, Cramer said, noting that the TPC oor meets the Marines durability needs and cuts weight by 25 percent vs. the previous aluminum design important to Sikorsky as it looked to reduce weight after redesigning the helicopters engine for greater thrust.
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LEARN MORE
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. iU,Vv`]1- >vJ}iVUnxn
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INSIDE MANUFACTURING
NANOTECHNOLOGY:
Fast, scalable process grows nanostructures directly on composite reinforcements for drop-in use in volume production processes.
BY SARA BLACK
anocomposites research and the massive benets it promises have attracted considerable press coverage over the past decade. Actual commercial development of nano-based products for composites, however, has been slow. But a new partnership between Applied NanoStructured Solutions LLC (ANS, Baltimore, Md.), a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, and Owens Corning (Toledo, 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 process for high-volume applications. From the beginning, says Dr. Tushar Shah, ANS chief technology ofcer, 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 conditions, he recalls, noting that the emphasis was on practicality. That was the breakthrough. Weve 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 ber is the most mature at present, says Shah. HPC got an exclusive rst look at the process and the products potential applications during a recent tour of the pilot plant.
Nanotech background
Nanotechnology 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. Nanomaterials include single-wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which are long, thin cylinders of carbon atoms arranged in a graphitic lattice structure, 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 ratios that range from 100:1 to 10,000:1. Other examples of nanoscale materials include nanoclays, metal oxide particles and graphene nanoplatelets, also characterized by very large aspect ratios (surface area to thickness). The key to nanoparticle benets is this high ratio of surface area to total volume; as the
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I NTO THE REALM OF REAL

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.
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Source: ANS
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.
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Source (all step photos): ANS
surface area or length increases, the number of atoms at or near the particles surface increases exponentially, creating more bonding sites and, thus, enhanced properties in the composite (for an expanded discussion of nanotechnology basics, see Learn More, p. 65). The trend in composites has been to use nanomaterials as a kind of super ller in polymer resins nanoelement-lled resins can achieve the same performance properties achieved with traditionally lled resins but with a smaller ller volume fraction. In addition, nanolled resins often exhibit other novel benecial characteristics, such as improved thermal and electrical conductivity or reduced ammability. But adding nanoscale llers to resins is often difcult, and thorough dispersion throughout the resin is a greater challenge, requiring surface treatment of the tiny particles. Resin loading is usually limited to no more than 3 percent, because additional 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 bers themselves and eliminate the handling issues associated with CNS llers in resins. Starting in 2007, the ANS team began to develop a process for directly infusing fabrics or tows with nanostructures. 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. Were not making CNTs and then transferring them, he claries. This is a continuous, direct growth process, directly onto the reinforcing 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 production capabilities, says Jeff Napoliello, president of ANS. We expect that this agreement will permit us to shorten the development time to produce customizable material attributes for commercial and defense applications.
Nano-infusing fabric reinforcements

The process developed by Shah and his team is based on continuous, rapid, hightemperature, catalyzed chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Deposition is conducted in an enclosed production line so that no particles are released during production. Its 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 underway on a 36-inch/1m wide line. Eventually, ANS will have a 60-inch/1.5m wide production line, a width more consistent with typical broadgoods. In the initial step, conventional glass ber, which can be in the form of tow, unidirectional tape or a woven broadgood, is pulled from creels at the
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start of the production line. Depending on the ber type, sizing and other unique attributes, the ber or fabric might rst need to be treated in a plasma etching process. This creates a nanomorphology on the individual laments that will facilitate surface bonding of a catalyst and the CNS to the ber laments, explains Shah. The ber/fabric then goes through a dip bath where it is coated with a proprietary aqueous catalyst. Next, it passes
through a high-temperature chamber to dry the liquid catalyst. The catalyzed bers are drawn into an enclosed heated chamber. The chamber supports an atmosphere a mixture of acetylene, hydrogen and nitrogen in which, as catalysis proceeds, the carbon nanostructures grow on the individual laments. ANS says the processing temperature is not only proprietary but also subject to change as process modications are implemented during this pilot
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To manufacture components for todays high-tech industries like aerospace, automotive and medical, requires the best in cutting tool technology. The right strategy, machine tool and cutting parameters are a must, yet the final piece of the puzzle lies at the cutting edge. To address the two prominent challenges when machining composites extreme abrasive wear on the tool and delamination/ splintering of the workpiece Seco provides two key innovative families: Jabro solid carbide endmills and Feedmax drills. Both feature speciallyprepared geometries and highlyengineered coatings, including diamond, to combat these issues and provide consistently high productivity.
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stage. The 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 processing 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 specic application, and the volume 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 radially outward from the glass laments in a highly random and structurally entangled manner and that the nanostructures have shared walls, notes Shah. Its 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 typically exhibit 2 to 10 shared walls, are 5 to 20 nm in diameter and are 5 to 200 m 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 ber axis, aligned with the ber, for undisclosed applications. ANS process can grow CNS on carbon ber laments, but Shah reports that it is tough to grow carbon on carbon, 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 bers and metal bers, also have supported CNS growth on an experimental basis.
Applications for infused fabrics

Based on initial tests, the ANS/Owens Corning team is excited about the potential applications for the CER materials. The fact that CNS are already bonded to the ber surface ensures a better ber/matrix bond than can be achieved with CNT-lled resin systems during the composite molding process, says Shah, resulting in better composite part performance. The CER reinforcements are easily prepregged or resin-infused, and they are compatible with a number of different resin systems.
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Compared to untreated glass 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/epoxy and untreated carbon in epoxy are compared, the former shows strength increases similar to that achieved with CER glass/epoxy and demonstrates signicantly higher fracture toughness than conventional carbon/epoxy. Because the nanostructures are so small, says Shah, they add little weight to the reinforcement, yet deliver tremendous functionality. One of the teams initial focus areas has been the use of CER material as a replacement for the metal grids and meshes now used in composite laminates for lightning strike protection. According to Shah and Owens Cornings senior research associate for composites, David Hartman, through-thickness 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 copper 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 functions well: It can dissipate a charge without damage to the laminate. Shah adds that the inherent conductivity of the CER materials makes it a candidate for structural health monitoring (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 heating 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 demands 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 technology brought to market has to be costcompetitive. Although the team has not publicly targeted a specic price, Hulls maintains, Were in this project because we believe the process is economically viable. If theyre right, CER has the potential to bring nanotechnology down to earth and into the hands of composites fabricators.
LEARN MORE
Read this article online at http://short. compositesworld.com/ax2LDLtM. The basics of nanotechnology are discussed in From specialty llers to space elevators, HPC September 2005 (p. 30), or visit http:// short.compositesworld.com/DCrVWAul.
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May 9-11, 2011 Construction, Corrosion and Infrastructure Conference Las Vegas, Nev. | www.goeshow.com/acma/CCI/ ereg497293.cfm?clear Windpower 2011 Anaheim, Calif. | www.windpowerexpo.org SAMPE 2011 Long Beach, Calif. | www.sampe.org Composites in Fire Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. | www.compositesinre.com Wind Power Italy Rome, Italy | www.greenpowerconferences.com 12th Intl Symposium on Nondestructive Characterization of Materials (NCCM-XII) Blacksburg, Va. | www.cpe.vt.edu/NDCM-XII International Paris Air Show Le Bourget, France | www.paris-air-show.com THEPLAC 2011 Lecce, Italy | www.cetma.it/theplac2011/ 19th Intl Conference on Composites and Nano Engineering (ICCE-19) Shanghai, China | www.icce-nano.org Dec. 5-7, 2011 Oct. 18-20, 2011 Oct. 26-28, 2011 Nov. 9-10, 2011 Sept. 27-29, 2011 Aug. 21-26, 2011 18th Intl Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM18) Jeju, Korea | www.iccm18.org High-Performance Resins 2011 Covington, Ky. | www.compositesworld.com/ conferences Composites Europe Stuttgart, Germany | www.compositeseurope.com CompositesWorlds 2011 Investment Forum Ft. Worth, Texas | www.compositesworld.com/ conferences JEC Composites Show Asia Singapore | www.jeccomposites.com/jec-show SAMPE China Conference and Exhibition Tianjin, China | www.sampe.org.cn High-Performance Fibers 2011 Charleston, S.C. | www.compositesworld.com/ conferences Carbon Fiber 2011 Washington, D.C. | www.compositesworld.com/ conferences Sept. 27-28, 2011 May 22-25, 2011 May 23-26, 2011 June 9-10, 2011 June 14-15, 2011 June 19-24, 2011
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Software eases design/build for exotic exercise bike
Known for its thermoset composites expertise in aerospace, medical and other sectors, the Lamiex Group (Bergamo, Italy) was contacted in 2009 by the Milan, Italy-based design house Luca Schieppati to help develop the Ciclotte, a striking luxury exercise bicycle made with carbon 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 (Gloucestershire, U.K.). Ciclotte, 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 development director at Lamiex 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 highintensity 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 components, including the large carbon ber wheel, handlebar and saddle, Lamiex wanted to design all components in 3-D and virtually assemble them to highlight potential issues prior to production of molds and parts. Previously, we had a parametric CAD system that we found difcult to use and quite restrictive when working with complex organic surface forms, notes Lamiex CAD designer Marco Perani. After extensive testing, we decided to implement VISI. We believed it offered the best balance between performance and price for an integrated CAD/CAM system. We are currently running VISI Modelling 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 carbon fabric wet out with epoxy resin was hand layed, vacuum bagged and cured in the companys autoclave. Then the parts were passed to the CAM department for 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 software has streamlined our manufacturing processes, reduced the potential for error and ultimately increased our productivity, says Castelli. Read this article online at http://short.compositesworld.com/uwURnL0B.
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Join us for the CompositesWorld Conferences 2011 Series
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NEW PRODUCTS
NEW PRODUCTS
Oxidation ovens for carbon ber production Drills for stacked materials
Sandvik Coromant (Fair Lawn, N.J.) introduced on March 1 the CoroDrill 452 range of drills used to create rivet and bolt holes in stacked carbon ber-reinforced plastics and metallic materials. Because each carbon ber composite can have a unique construction and, therefore, make unique demands on processors, there is the risk of delamination 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 nish and quality, particularly with respect to the prevention of exit-hole damage. Benets of use include the elimination of secondary processing steps, such as deburring. The tool range includes reamer geometries and a countersink tool with microstop for chamfering. www.sandvik.coromant.com/us Harper International (Lancaster, N.Y.) has launched its next generation of custom oxidation ovens for processing carbon ber. Available at 300-mm/11.8inch to greater than 4,000-mm/157.5-inch tow band widths, the ovens feature the companys 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 eld installation labor by 90 percent, when an oven was recently incorporated into a full-line (300-mm/11.8inch) pilot system. Company-guaranteed benets include faster oxidation, improved velocity uniformity and velocity range capability, assurance of temperature uniformity throughout a variety of ow rates, and optimal control of the carbonization reaction to ensure 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 prole. This preform comprises a fully integrated single-piece T-beam with a solid square/rectangle bar at the tip of the Tproles 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 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 oors, covers, gates/doors, planar and curved walls/bodies in building/construction, aeronautical/aerospace and other engineering applications. The crossmembers can be either slats or proled beams (T, I or U shapes), per application needs. The jointing system reportedly improves structural rigidity, increases design exibility, reduces labor and makes it possible to customize structural performance. Further, the T-Bars 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 ber-lled material. It is designed for use with selective 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 aerospace parts and structures. www.crptechnology.com
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NEW PRODUCTS
Roll stand feeds conveyorized cutters
Angle variants available in spread-tow fabrics

Oxeon AB (Bors, Sweden) has expanded its line of TeXtreme spread-tow fabrics with the launch of its +/- variants. The rst product launched in the series of variants is a +45/-45 version. The companys 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 benets of spread-tow fabrics include improved mechanical performance, weight-saving possibilities, and good handling, atness and surface smoothness. They are said to eliminate problems associated with symmetric plying of noncrimp and unidirectional fabrics. www.oxeon.se
Cutting systems manufacturer Eastman Machine Co. (Buffalo, N.Y.) has introduced the Power Roll Stand, engineered to feed rolled material goods, such as 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 material 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 conguration can handle 60-inch/152-cm diameter rolls that weigh up to 500 lb/227 kg. www.eastmancuts.com
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NEW PRODUCTS
Laminate design/optimization software

Software developer Anaglyph Ltd. (London, U.K.) has launched Laminate Tools 4.1. New features include the ability toimport 3-D curves from CAD programs; a new, embedded SolidWorks interface; enabled ply split (dart) denitions as curves unrelated to the mesh; and a method for area picking bounded by an
Laboratory platen press

Fontijne Grotnes BV (Vlaardingen, The Netherlands) has introduced a hydraulic 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 generate temperatures as high as 450C/842F, sufcient to prepare samples of polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyphenylene sulde (PPS), polyetherimide (PEI) and polyetherketoneketone (PEKK). The presses also enable preparation 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 processes. www.fontijnegrotnes.com
imported boundary curve. The new version also enables boundary curve denitions for easy and accurate at ply outline pattern generation (including cutouts). Further, ply drop-off 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
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NEW PRODUCTS
Lab-scale carbon fiber production system

The new Computreater CF from C. A. Litzler Co. Inc. (Cleveland, Ohio) is the laboratory model of the companys advanced high-production carbon ber system. Designed to accommodate a single tow (1K to 50K in size), the lab system can be used by universities, research institutes, producers of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor and carbon ber manufacturers to develop new carbon ber precursors and bers. Moreover, the system also can be used by existing carbon ber producers to test and evaluate the quality of incoming PAN precursor. Functions and features of the system include a PAN creel with tension control, pretreatment capability, three 330C/626F oxidation ovens with conveyor rollers, tension/draw controls in multiple zones, low-temperature/high-temperature furnaces, a sizing system, surface treatment, a winder and integrated controls for operation and analysis. www. calitzler.com
Fiber/matrix coupling agent

Adherent Technologies Inc. (Albuquerque, N.M.) has developed a ber nish system based on a patent-pending, heat-activated coupling agent that covalently bonds to carbon ber and matrix resin to enhance the composites toughness and stiffness. Reportedly, the companys tests of nished composite parts reveal such strong bonding into the basal plane of the carbon ber that test to failure is not at the bond point. In test coupons, the nish system yielded the following improvements: In carbon ber/vinyl ester, strength and stiffness increased by 50 to 100 percent, and toughness increased by 300 percent. In carbon ber/epoxy, hot/wet performance and durability increased. In carbon ber/bismaleimide, handling, durability, hot/wet performance and thermooxidative stability improved. In carbon 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 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 200C/392F. It offers low-temperature initial curing starting at 45C/113F 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 ACGs DForm tooling technology, launched two years ago. www.advanced-composites.co.uk
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NEW PRODUCTS
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 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 bers drop onto a velocity-controlled conveyor belt, creating a dened, homogenous spread pattern for a ber mat. The system can cut and dose various ber types and two lengths simultaneously, depending on the ber feed rate and the spindle speed, each of which can be adjusted individually. www.mag-ias.com
Gas-fired batch oven

Wisconsin Oven (East Troy, Wis.) has introduced a gas-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 500F/260C and a normal operating temperature of 250F/121C. It features 4-inch/102mm-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, ame detector and ame relay with alarm horn. The recirculation system has an 8,600cfm, 10-hp blower and uses combination airow to maximize heating rates and temperature 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 programmable controller. www.wisconsinoven.com
Double oven for curing, preheating

Precision Quincy (Woodstock, Ill.) has announced the launch of Model 49C650D, a dual-chamber, electrically heated oven, available in NFPA 86 Class A and Class B congurations. 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 650F/343C. An optional, matching, heavy-duty stand provides a base that adds an extra 24 inches/610 mm to the overall height of the oven. www.precisionquincy.com
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76
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
M AY 2 0 1 1
77
FOCUS ON DESIGN
CARRIER-CAPABLE, ALL-COMPOSITE
Legacy product positions builder for a shot at an F-35 contract.
hen the U.S. Navy and Air Force commissioned the development of the rst external fuel tanks in the 1960s to extend the mission range of its ghter aircraft, steel, aluminum and other metals were still the materials of choice. The rst external fuel tanks used by McDonnell Douglas, now part of The Boeing Co. (Chicago,
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 advantages 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 ghter jet hit an A-4 jet parked on the ight deck. The A-4s external fuel tank ruptured, spreading fuel and re across the deck. The re quickly engulfed other aircraft, and before the re was doused, more than 100 seamen died in one of the worst accidents in U.S. military history. In the tragedys wake, the Navy commissioned a team to investigate
Aft divot third attachment point that briey holds tank if it must be released at lug wells during ight, allowing tank to swing down for clear fall-away Tank access door
GENERAL DYNAMICS ALL-COMPOSITE EXTERNAL FUEL TANK
Lug wells provide primary attachment points to underwing pylons and act as conduits for fuel, electrical and pressurized-air lines Tank access door
Lug wells
Carbon/epoxy strongback Fueling access
S-glass/epoxy frame
S-glass/epoxy frame
Tail taper-topoint (optional) TANK LAMINATE CROSS SECTION External coating/paint 0.075-inch/1.9-mm carbon/epoxy outer shell 0.375-inch/9.525-mm foam-lled aramid honeycomb core 0.075-inch/1.9-mm carbon/S-glass/epoxy inner liner
DESIGN RESULTS
An inner liner of S-2 Glass impregnated with a proprietary epoxy formulated for compatibility with the lament-winding process is able to resist continuous exposure to jet fuel. A honeycomb core made of urethane foam-lled Kevlar adds structural stiffness needed for aircraft carrier survivability requirements. The tanks carbon-ber/epoxy lament-wound box beam provides internal structural support and attachment points to the jet via lug wells in the outer shell.
78
EXTERNAL FUEL TANK

BY MICHAEL LEGAULT ILLUSTRATION
KARL REQUE
and recommend ways to improve survivability in the event of a carrier deck 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 survivability and performance requirements for aircraft carrier environments. These included a battery of tests to conrm that a tank has the ability to meet survivability and in-ight load standards. Several of the tests were severe, including ejection of a full tank onto a hard surface, projectile impact, and bonre resistance. All of these tests required that the tanks maintain a specied structural integrity that would minimize damage and the possibility of a spreading re. In the mid-70s, General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products (GDATP, Lincoln, Neb.) partnered with McDonnell Douglas to design an external fuel tank to meet these standards.
Source: GDATP
All-composite external fuel tanks

General Dynamics 480-gal/1,817L tank design is qualified to U.S. Navy requirements for aircraft carrier survivability.
Hybrid design enables early tank

By late in the decade, the two companies had built a hybrid composite/metal tank for the F/A-18 Hornet ghter jet. The decision to go with a hybrid construction, 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 qualied. The tank comprised an internal liner of aluminum, overwrapped with a sandwich construction. The inner and outer skins of the sandwich were laid via lament winding, using S-glass/epoxy yarn. The core was urethane-foam-lled honeycomb made of Kevlar aramid, developed by what is now DuPont Protection Technologies (Richmond Va.), and a lamentwound outer shell of S-glass ber yarn. McDonnell Douglas supplied the aluminum 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, elliptically 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 hybrid tank, based on the original design. Following this successful demonstration of composites capability as an outer-skin material in a hybrid tank, McDonnell Douglas and GDATP investigated in the mid-80s the possibility that an allcomposite 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 rst all-plastic gas tanks had been introduced in high-density polyethylene (HDPE). However, HDPE couldnt be considered for jet tanks, says Rick Rashilla, GDATPs senior manager of business development: In addition to compatibility with long-term exposure to jet fuel, the resin had to be compatible 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, inight and landing 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 nding a resin that would be tough enough to withstand continuous contact with jet fuel and withstand severe operational conditions yet meet weight and manufacturability requirements. After about a year of testing, GDATP developed an epoxy system that met all requirements. The trick we pulled off was nding a multipart, high-elongation epoxy resin system that would allow us to manufacture a glass-ber, lamentwound inner liner that acts as a fuel permeation barrier, says Rashilla. S-glass was selected for the liner because it provides adequate structural support at a lower cost than carbon ber.
M AY 2 0 1 1
79
FOCUS ON DESIGN
The core of the rst all-composite tank is similar in basic design to the core of the hybrid tank that preceded it a foamlled, honeycomb core made of aramid. However, the outer shell comprises intermixed layers of lament-wound HexTow AS4 PAN-based carbon ber, supplied by Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn.) and S-2 Glass, which was codeveloped by Owens Corning (Toledo, Ohio) and the U.S. Air Force. In 1998, S-2 Glass became a trademarked product of the Owens Corning and Groupe Porcher Industries (Le Grand Lemps, France) independent joint venture Advanced Glassber Yarns, now known as AGY LLC (Aiken, S.C.). Because the epoxy for the liner was developed 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 planes bomb rack. By the late 1980s, all-composite 480-gal/1,817L external fuel tanks for the F/A-18 were in production. The rst customer, the Royal Canadian Air Force, used the tanks on its eet of CF/A-18s. GDATP later manufactured (but did not design) a 230-gal/871L version of the tank for the U.S. Armys 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/9.525mm layer of foam-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-ber arms or frames and a carbon ber/epoxy lament-wound strongback are installed inside the tank to provide internal struc-
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 planes bomb rack. The pylons attach at reinforced lug wells (see illustration, p. 78).
LEARN MORE
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 ts 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 carbon ber is wound around the inner liner 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 general aircraft carrier survivability requirements, but GDATP was asked to qualify it for the extreme load requirements of carrier-based F/A-18s during catapultassisted takeoff and tailhook arrestment during landing. To compensate for these loads, GDATP added composite material in certain areas, such as the lugwell attachment points. This enabled qualication 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 Electric manufactures a similar tank..
Read this article online at http://short. compositesworld.com/G2WZ1eI3.
Project-ready design capabilities

GDATPs modeling and simulation software 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 intank design parameters, including different bers, thicknesses and orientations. Modeling can be carried out quickly, he adds, with the aid of special programming features. In metals or lay-up methods 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 materials from base 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. Customers decide whether a material used in a specic application must meet A-basis requirements, which require more extensive test data, or the less-stringent B-basis requirements. Given this state of readiness, Rashilla says GDATPs next major design/manufacturing 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 approved. 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 apply the lessons we learned on our F/A-18 tank design to that project.
80
Source: U.S. Navy
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MAY 2011 / Vol. 19 / No.

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45 JEC Paris Highlights

52 Thermoplastic Composites: Primary Structure?

60 Inside Manufacturing: Nanotechnology Into the Realm of Real

11 From the Podium

78 Carrier-Capable, All-Composite External Fuel Tank

With resin and carbon fiber, we can build a New Economy.

Ken Langhorn Technical Director Employee Owner

Looking for a way to improve your Heating Processes?

Conduct Deadly Lightning in Aircraft Composites with

s Lightweight & fantastically exible s Easily repairable on aircraft

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Autoclaves & Control Systems

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We Repair/Retrot ALL Makes of Autoclaves Worldwide

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