Teijin establishes Europe Sustainable Technology Innovation Center

The R&D center will facilitate open communication with external innovation communities and research institutes and develop sustainable technologies with low environmental impact.

Teijin Ltd. (Tokoyo, Japan) announced on Jan. 21 that it has established the European Sustainable Technology Innovation Center (ESTIC) in Arnhem, Netherlands, as a research and development (R&D) facility tasked with developing technologies for a more sustainable world (see “Teijin contributes to sustainability with infrastructure innovations”).
As an R&D hub, ESTIC will facilitate collaboration among researchers across borders to strengthen development initiatives in Teijin’s various business units. ESTIC will also undertake the challenge of developing all-new businesses that leverage the lifecycle capabilities of Teijin’s core materials and the development of green materials to support the global circular economy and lower environmental impact. This includes efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and to stimulate the hydrogen economy.

ESTIC will also reportedly establish a satellite office at Brightlands Chemelot Campus, an international open-innovation community active in performance materials, sustainable processes and biomedical solutions in Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands, to further activate communication with external innovation communities and research institutes. The Brightlands Materials Center itself has ongoing programs investigating polymer materials and composites in additive manufacturing, lightweight automotive, sustainable buildings and more, including the prototype of its Limburg Bike — ESTIC’s potential use of composites, therefore, seems likely.

#Teijin #RandDCenter

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Dear friends,

We would like to inform you that starting from January 22nd, 2021 in Moscow the exhibition activities are resumed meaning that all trade shows, exhibitiions and conferences are allowed for exhibitors and visitors. The proper executive order of Moscow Major (№3-УМ of January 21st, 2021) is placed on the website of Moscow City Administration.

JOIN THE COMPOSITE-EXPO SHOW & BUSINESS PROGRAM!

Reducing production cost and lowering component weight

Reducing production cost while lowering component weight in complex composite parts is no longer mutually exclusive, thanks to RAMPF Composite Solutions.

The company is renowned for first-class composite design and manufacturing solutions to various industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, medical, and green technology. With its new eight-head Tailored Fiber Placement (TFP) machine, RAMPF Composite Solutions’ team of experienced aerospace and composites engineers now offers even better and faster solutions to the toughest technical challenges.

This is achieved through TFP’s unparalleled freedom to selectively place and orient the carbon fibre and fiberglass filaments where strength or weight optimisation is required. The structural performance of the composite is maximised while also providing for greatest possible weight savings, reduced carbon fibre usage, and lower cost.

In a recent TFP success story, RAMPF Composite Solutions transformed a stainless steel part used in commercial aircraft to a part made almost entirely of carbon fibre, resulting in the part weighing four and a half times less without an increase in costs. In fact, the customer was able to realise additional operational cost savings because of the significant weight reduction.

Furthermore, only five lay-up preforms were produced compared to the 75 that would have been required using traditional carbon composite design approaches.
Larry Fitzgerald, CEO of RAMPF Composite Solutions, commented: “Reducing production cost while lowering component weight in complex composite parts has often proved to be a mutually exclusive challenge. Now, thanks to this exciting technology and the outstanding composites design skills of our team, the advantages of Tailored Fiber Placement can be used to design complex parts to be lightweight and cost competitive at the same time.”

#RAMPFCompositeSolutions #RAMPF

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Johns Manville launches thermal recycling unit for glass fiber waste

The unit provides a projected recycling capacity of more than three tons per hour and will keep more than ten thousand tons of waste out of landfills annually.

It was announced on Jan. 26 that Johns Manville (JM, Denver, Colo., U.S.), manufacturer of continuous filament glass fiber and a Berkshire Hathaway company successfully launched a thermal recycling unit for waste glass fibers in its Engineered Products business plant in Trnava, Slovakia.
“The primary goal of this investment is to achieve a tangible, positive environmental impact by drastically reducing glass fiber waste in landfills,” says Elena Hrivikova, manager for Environment, Health and Safety – Europe/Asia. “This project is part of our response to the European Commission’s zero waste program and our overall target for sustainable management of the planet’s natural resources.”

The new Trnava unit has a projected recycling capacity of more than three tons per hour and consists of a warehousing area, feeding and transportation equipment, shredder, burning chamber and milling. After processing, the recycled glass powder is free of organic particles and refed as raw material into the glass production process on site, achieving a closed production loop. Johns Manville says the project will keep more than ten thousand tons of waste out of the landfill each year, which equals out to about one large truck every day.

#GlassFiberWaste

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A preliminary list of participants is posted on the official website of the Composite-Expo exhibition, which will be held from March 30 to April 1 at the Expocentre Fairgrounds, Pavilion 1.

#compositeexpo2021 #expocentrefairgrounds #compositeexhibition

Solvay to develop composite structure for Vertical Aerospace eVTOL aircraft

Composite and adhesive technologies will be supplied to Vertical Aerospace for a zero-emissions, all-electric prototype scheduled for a September 2021 test flight.

Solvay (Alpharetta, Ga., U.S.) is partnering with Vertical Aerospace (Bristol, U.K.) to develop the composite structure of Vertical Aerospace’s passenger air-taxi program VA-1X (shown above). This piloted, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) flagship aircraft will be able to carry four passengers and one pilot for 100 miles (160 kilometers) at cruise speeds of 150 miles per hour/240 kilometers per hour.
As part of the agreement signed by both companies, Solvay will provide access to its extensive composite and adhesive qualified product portfolio and specialized technical and application support both at Solvay’s European Application Centers and at Vertical Aerospace’s office in Bristol, UK. Together, the companies aim to successfully develop the first flying prototype scheduled for a test flight in September 2021.

“Solvay is proud to partner with Vertical Aerospace, a pioneer in sustainable aviation technologies, whose VA-1X aircraft is set to revolutionize the way we travel,” says Carmelo Lo Faro, president of Solvay Composite Materials Global Business Unit. “By providing the performance required to operate safely and maximize range, while facilitating the processes needed for mass production, our advanced materials will be key enablers to the mass-adoption of eVTOLs.”

#Composites #Solvay

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Development of dry fiber preforms and other technologies for Smart Rotors

Airborne, KVE Composites, RHIA, Royal NLR and TU Delft partner in EU project for ultra-efficient propeller/rotor blades in hybrid and electric aircraft, UAM and drones.

An important step towards more sustainable aviation, as well as parcel and passenger transport via drones, was taken with the €1.44 million grant awarded to the Smart Rotors project by the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRO). With the cooperation of InnovationQuarter, the grant enables the Dutch partners Airborne, KVE Composites, RHIA (Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport), Royal NLR and TU Delft to advance development of ultra-efficient propeller and rotor blades, specifically for hybrid and electric aircraft, urban air mobility (UAM) and drones.

Smart Rotors: Why?

The development of ‘smart rotors’ is an important step towards more sustainable aviation, less emissions and less noise pollution, as well as parcel delivery via drones and will also support the further development of UAM.

Rotors can be either the blades of a propeller intended for the propulsion of aircraft or the blades of a rotor intended for the propulsion of helicopters and drones. The project aims to design the rotors for hybrid and electric aircraft and for drones so that they operate more efficiently, perform better and produce less noise.

“In addition, smarter production methods are being looked into, so that future aircraft and drones can be equipped with suitable propeller and rotor blades faster and on a larger scale,” says Ruben Nahuis, technical project leader at Royal NLR. The project is part of the Next Aviation Fieldlab, which focuses on developing, testing and implementing sustainable aviation technology in a real airport environment at Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTHA).

#UrbanAirMobility #UAM #FiberPreforms

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Vestas unveils 15-MW offshore wind turbine with 115.5-meter-long blades

Industry’s largest rotor ups output by 65% versus 9.5 MW turbines, serial production for 2024.

Vestas (Aarhus, Denmark) continues on its path toward offshore wind innovation with the introduction of the V236-15.0-megawatt (MW) turbine. With the industry’s largest swept area exceeding 43,000 square meters and a capacity factor of over 60%, the new technology will reportedly establish a strong foundation for Vestas’ offshore leadership journey by elevating the industry benchmark for performance and continued cost reduction.

The new turbine’s 15-MW reach also matches the potential capacity of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA (SGRE, Zamudio, Spain) wind turbines, and surpasses General Electric Co’s (Boston, Mass., U.S.) Haliade-X machine, which retains a capacity of 14 MW. Each blade on the V236-15.0 MW measures 115.5 meters (379 feet) long, giving it a total height of 261 meters, a blade reportedly longer than the 108-meter-long blades on Siemens Gamesa’s SG 14-222 DD direct drive turbine, which previously held the record. Vestas says each turbine could generate enough power for 20,000 households a year, improve wind energy production to around 80 gigwatt-hours per year and save more than 38,000 tonnes of CO2.

#vestas #windblades

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Nanoscale materials for cutting emissions in aviation

Composite researchers at the AMRC are at the heart of a European-wide project to develop self-responsive aerospace composites that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and production costs in the aviation sector as it works toward the goal of net zero by 2050.

The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) is partnering with 16 industrial partners on the MASTRO project, which is tasked with developing intelligent bulk materials for a smart transport sector as part of Horizon 2020, the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over seven years (2014 to 2020).

“There are three sections within MASTRO: automotive, infrastructure and aerospace; and the AMRC is leading the aerospace section of the project alongside Embraer. We’re developing three main technologies: self-cure, self-anti-icing and self-sensing,” said Matthew Collinson, research engineer in the AMRC Composite Centre.

The AMRC team is developing materials through the integration of carbon nanotubes – measured in billionths of a metre – which can be turned into smart products, and are now in a position to demonstrate the advances they have made.

“For the first year-and-a-half we’ve been working on developing the materials and so the next stage is developing the smart demonstrators. Now we’ve reached a point where we can build a section of a composite leading-edge wing – to show off the self-cure, self-anti-icing and self-sensing we have developed,” added Collinson.

#resin #MASTRO #AMRC #aerospace

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New direct mould tooling technology for aerospace

Decision SA, part of the leading European composites consortium, Carboman Group, and a specialist in the development, prototyping and production of large composite structures, is has announced a new direct mould tooling technology for aerospace.

Decision’s latest tooling solution provides OEMs and manufacturers with short lead times for highly stable direct moulds for series production both in and outside of the autoclave at temperatures of up to 180˚C.

Decision and Carboman recently delivered the first customer moulds using the new technology, providing a tooling glass prepreg, stainless-steel backed direct female mould tool created for the series production of a Class 3 fairing to a leading European aerospace OEM. Decision has immediate availability and capacity for similar tooling projects with lead times currently as short as six to eight weeks.

With no traditional plug or mould pattern required, Decision’s direct mould process starts with the group’s engineers selecting a material combination for the tool surface and support structure that will provide the optimum match between the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the mould and the composite part to be processed.

The CNC machined composite face sheet is supported by a stress-relieved metallic or composite backing structure before final post curing and machining is completed.
The principal benefit of this novel approach, aside from removing the need for costly and time-consuming plug production, is the production accuracy delivered by the closely matched CTE of the mould tool and the finished composite part.

The autoclaved composite tool surface is not only extremely dimensionally stable up to processing temperatures of 180˚C, but it can also be configured with additional metallic inserts or fixtures if required.

#composites #aerospace

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**Bioinspired material puts the squeeze on plastics

A bioinspired composite material made from all-natural raw ingredients could offer a possible alternative to petroleum-based structural plastics, according to researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei [Guan et al., Nature Communications (2020) 11:5401, 10.1038/s41467-020-19174-1].

Plastics have found their way into every aspect of modern life but pose a significant environmental threat both in terms of their manufacture and end-of-life disposal. More sustainable alternatives made from bio-resources tend to have limited mechanical properties or require complex manufacturing processes.
“Petroleum-based plastics pose a great threat to the environment and human health,” points out Shu-Hong Yu, who led the work. “Developing sustainable structural materials as substitutes is one of the options for solving the pollution of petroleum-based plastics but remains challenging.”

Yu and his colleagues have devised a composite material based on cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and mica platelets that they claim possesses better mechanical and thermal properties than conventional plastics. Inspired by nacre, the bricks-and-mortar-like material that makes up shells and other natural structures, the researchers devised a simple directional deforming assembly process that produces a material with promising strength, toughness, stiffness, and thermal stability.

To make the material, CNFs and TiO2-coated mica platelets, pretreated with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), are simply mixed together to form a hydrogel. The cross-linked hydrogel is then deformed – or squeezed – to align the platelets in the fibrous matrix, forming a nacre-like bricks-and-mortar structure.
The pretreatment with APTES is a crucial step because it improves the interfacial interaction between CNFs and TiO2-mica, which are otherwise poor, explains Yu. As a result, hydroxyl groups form on the nanosized TiO2 grains, which react with silane groups to form a silanized surface. In turn, the silanized surface helps the attachment of TiO2-mica to CNFs. Simultaneously, carboxyl groups in the CNFs are crosslinked by calcium ions in the mica to create a strong ionic bond network. The resulting composite has a strength of 281 MPa and a modulus of 20 GPa, higher than the constituent materials or typical natural nacres.

It is the bricks-and-mortar like structure of the composite that accounts for the mechanical properties. Under deformation, cracks have to propagate along tortuous paths around the TiO2-mica ‘bricks’, serving to relieve local stresses. Nanograins of TiO2 on the surface, meanwhile, slide past each other when strained to dissipate energy.

#composites

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