Advanced Engineering: High-tension filament winding to be showcased

Fibre processing and converting machinery manufacturer Cygnet Texkimp will use this year’s Advanced Engineering show to highlight its high-tension filament winding and composites recycling solutions.

The company specialises in the design and manufacture of downstream processing equipment including filament winding, prepreg, coating and slitting machines. Its high-tension winding solution is the latest development in its filament winding product range which also includes high-speed, multi-axis and 3D winding machines.

Visitors will be able to find out more about the company’s approach to winding fibre at extremely high tension to create composite parts that perform well under intense forces, such as pressure, speed and rotation.

“We developed our high-tension winding technology in response to a number of enquiries from manufacturers looking for ways to increase the strength and resistance of their composite parts without adding weight or compromising fibre integrity,” explained Cygnet Texkimp CEO Luke Vardy. “We’ve designed a system that is particularly relevant in the manufacture of high-performance parts such as pressure vessels and motors that are subject to intense energetic forces such as pressure, speed and rotation.”

The company will also showcase the fibre reclaiming and recycling solution, DEECOM, which it is developing specifically for the composites market. DEECOM is an innovative technology that uses superheated steam to reclaim composite fibres and resins from wound parts and offers the potential for them to be reused in the manufacture of new parts.

“The quality, length and consistency of fibres we’re able to reclaim make DEECOM a truly game-changing solution for composites manufacturers and end users working to address the major challenges of sustainability, supply and waste reduction,” said Vardy. “Through the processes of reclaiming and reusing, DEECOM provides the possibility of using every carbon fibre multiple times. Giving composite fibres multiple lifecycles means massively reducing their lifetime cost and environmental footprint and create a more abundant and consistent supply of carbon fibre.”

#composites #prepreg #FilamentWinding

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PCS Coated Carbon and Aramid Fibers. SEM micrographs of raw carbon fibers (A), PCS coated carbon fibers (B), raw aramid fibers (C), and PCS coated aramid fibers (D).

Mussel Polymers announces new multi-functional carbon and aramid fiber coating for stronger lighter reinforced composites

Carbon fiber reinforced materials are widely used in products from golf clubs to the world’s most advanced aircraft due to their high strength, stability, and light weight. Mussel Polymers, Inc., a specialty materials and coatings company, announced that it has successfully coated carbon and aramid fibers with its Poly(catechol-styrene) (PCS), which is a step forward in producing lighter, stronger fiber reinforced composites.

PCS coatings improve bonding for a wide range of adhesive and composite chemistries while functionalizing material surfaces. This application of PCS is likely to significantly increase the strength and impact energy of fiber reinforced materials and improve the use of coatings and adhesives with carbon fiber parts and materials.

While carbon and aramid fibers possess many positive attributes, they are notoriously difficult to bond with because they are smooth and chemically inert. Previous work coating carbon and aramid fibers with Polydopamine (PDA), a catechol containing research agent like PCS, showed that the shear strength of a single coated fiber pulled from its matrix increased over 200% compared to that of a raw fiber. Further, the flexural strength and impact energy of reinforced composites made with the catechol coated fibers increased over 200%.

PCS is the first commercially available catechol compound used to coat carbon fibers, among its many other uses.

Jason Stieg – Chief Commercial Officer of Mussel Polymers – “The MPI team successfully coated carbon and aramid fibers with PCS using a simple one-step, room temperature process. These coated fibers were examined under the scanning electron microscope at Lehigh University. The resulting images were striking and showed complete coverage of the fibers. The ability of our polymer to bond to these surfaces has applicability in both advanced composite materials and the assembly and coating of carbon fiber parts.”

George Boyajian – CEO of Mussel Polymers – “We are excited to have expanded the uses of our Poly(catechol-styrene). With this development allowing for stronger, lightweight materials, we will expand our partnerships with new materials and products companies. The simplicity of this coating process may accelerate its adoption and allow for safer and more environmentally sound materials.”

Mussel Polymers is currently in discussions to jointly develop new composite materials with its PCS.

Mussel Polymers, Inc. (MPI) is a specialty materials company commercializing a range of products based on its biomimetic Poly(catechol-styrene). PCS is the first commercially available catechol containing polymer. PCS effectively bonds with many materials, providing enhanced adhesion and other surface functionalizing benefits. MPI is developing products for applications in the dental, biomedical, defense, specialty coatings, industrial and marine industries. Founded in 2020, MPI is based at the Ben Franklin Technology Facility in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.

#composites #AramidFiberCoating #ReinforcedComposites

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Printing is the fastest way to go from CAD file to near-net shape for moulds and support structures

Added dimensions for composite parts

In this Q&A session Gregory Haye, director of additive manufacturing at Airtech, discusses the company’s development of 3D printing processes and materials for moulds used in composite part production.

Airtech, has been at the forefront of composites technology for nearly 50 years, playing a key role in pioneering industry innovations. Today, it has over 800 employees worldwide and is the largest privately-owned manufacturer of vacuum bagging and composite tooling materials in the world.

The company supplies composite manufacturers worldwide in many sectors. Its comprehensive range of goods and services includes vacuum bagging films, release films, pressure-sensitive tapes, mould releases (non-liquid), peel plies, breathers and bleeders, sealant tapes, connectors and hoses, rubber, PTFE release fabrics, tooling prepregs and resins, carbon and glass reinforcements, 3D Print resins, and 3D Printed tooling.

At its Centres of Innovation in Springfield, Tennessee and Differdange, Luxembourg, the company uses additive manufacturing to develop its Print-Tech large-scale 3D printed composited tool service and Dahltram additive manufacturing resins.

Q) When did Airtech first start exploring the use of 3D printing as an additional manufacturing solution to the composite mould-making and tooling production?

Airtech officially launched its activities in additive manufacturing in the autumn of 2019. The concept was to use our company-wide knowledge and expertise in composites processing, auxiliary materials, tooling, and thermoplastic extrusion to bring a new technology to the commercial market in a way no one else could.

With our industry experience, plus the addition of key subject matter experts from the additive manufacturing world, we were able to quickly establish an internal ecosystem that supported our ability to offer printing services that were attractive to composite tooling customers as well as develop relevant resins for printing in a rapid way. We are unique in that we are the only resin manufacturer that can also develop materials and trial them internally to ensure their performance in printing and in the end use application. In this way, every resin or auxiliary product we offer the market has been evaluated internally to conform or exceed industry expectations before it is ever printed by a customer or machine manufacturer.

Our goal is to use our capabilities to support customer adoption of additive manufacturing using our qualified resin and other products either with us, with others or on their own printing equipment.

Q) What are the major benefits? More rapid production and turnaround? Design flexibility? Cost/material savings?

3D printed tooling can most commonly benefit the customer by offering a faster lead-time than conventional technologies. There’s no faster way to go from a CAD file to a near-net shape than printing the near-net form and its support structure in one step. In many applications where metallics would be used, the weight of the tool can be significantly less making transport or handling easier and safer for the workforce. Support structures, lifting and rigging points, air passages and mounting flanges for hardware can be designed and printed reducing part count and touch labour saving the customer time and money.

Q) What sectors are seeing the most demand for these services and products? Is there a growing awareness about the capabilities and applications of additive manufacturing?

Aerospace is Airtech’s largest global market segment. It is no surprise that aerospace tends to be the leader in technology development and adoption. We see this same trend in the additive tooling and resins we offer. Automotive interest is rapidly growing pushing development in multi-piece tooling and cost reduction. The other markets are still testing the waters, but typically are using low-tech old tooling products and processes that minimally meet their requirements.

#composites #CompositeParts #Airtech

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World-first drone to save lives in dangerous water rescues

A new world-first drone will help save lives and reduce human risk in dangerous water rescues.

Designed and created by Brisbane aerospace company Aeromech, the “drone” – known as SARGOTM (Search and Rescue Go) – is an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) that is set to revolutionise the way search and rescue operations are performed in life-threatening conditions.

Aeromech Director and the Australian inventor of SARGOTM, Joe Bryant, says there’s nothing else like it on the world stage.

“The difference with SARGOTM is that it is a USV designed specifically to be dropped from search and rescue aircraft to land safely on top of the ocean’s surface using a parachute. It can then be operated remotely to transport a payload of life-saving cargo to a stricken vessel or to people stranded in the water,” said Joe, an aerospace engineer.

“The overall design and capabilities of SARGOTM are different to anything else on the market currently deployed by Marine SAR and Coast Guard aircraft. Existing products delivered by a fixed winged aircraft must be dropped directly to a target and cannot be navigated remotely, which makes their delivery method limited and inaccurate.

“That’s why SARGOTM is a very exciting development for the rescue services.”
In 2021, Aeromech responded to an Expression of Interest from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) looking for a remotely operated vehicle that could be dropped from an aircraft and land on water – and so the idea for SARGOTM was born.
Noakes Group CEO Sean Langman said the vessel maintenance company, located in Sydney, was impressed by SARGOTM, in particular its design, capability and potential.
“We believe SARGOTM has the potential to change the way we address search and rescue operations, both domestically and internationally,” he said.

“SARGOTM is a product that can fill the gap that currently exists within the search and rescue market. We will continue to support Joe wherever possible, supporting young Australian companies that show initiative and innovation to ensure the lives of those at sea have access to technology such as SARGOTM,” he said. Aeromech was one of the successful recipients of the Queensland State Government Ignite 8 commercialisation fund announced in April 2022 to support the commercialisation and export of SARGOTM. Aeromech designs and builds SARGOTM in Brisbane, and is looking to continue to test and develop it further to market and export the product overseas in 2023.

“The beauty of SARGOTM is that it will not only save lives and keep rescuers safe, but also puts Australian manufacturing on the world stage, while also creating new jobs,” said Joe. “We want to be part of the revival of Australian manufacturing of high-quality products that are used all over the world to better it – and SARGOTM is our first step in doing that.

The patented SARGOTM design makes way for Aeromech’s second Australianmanufactured product, SEEKER, a USV designed to provide above and underwater surveillance, which is due to be released in early 2023.

Joe’s engineering background, including 13 years in the aerospace industry and a decade with French manufacturing giant Airbus, has allowed him specialise in advanced composites manufacturing.

It’s with this experience that Aeromech will set up an aerospace capability and manufacturing facility in southeast Queensland in 2023 to support the evolving aerospace and space sectors.

#composites #drone #SARGOTM

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Japanese researchers tested the heat resistance of carbon fiber-reinforced UHTC matrix composites

Carbon fiber-reinforced ultra-high-temperature ceramic (UHTC) matrix composites are extensively used in space shuttles and high-speed vehicles. However, these composites suffer from a lack of oxidation resistance. Recently, researchers from Japan tested the heat resistance of these composites at very high temperatures, providing insight into the modifications needed to prevent UHTC degradation. Their findings could have huge implications for the manufacture of space shuttle orbiters.

Carbon fiber-reinforced carbon (C/C) is a composite material made of carbon fiber reinforced in a matrix of glassy carbon or graphite. It is best known as the material used in hypersonic vehicles and space shuttle orbiters, which cruise at speeds greater than Mach 5. Since the 1970s, it has also been used in the brake system in Formula One racing cars. Even though C/C has excellent mechanical properties at high temperatures and inert atmospheres, it lacks oxidation resistance in these conditions, making its widespread use limited.

Researchers have found that ultra-high-temperature ceramics (UHTCs), which include transition metal carbides and diborides, show good oxidation resistance. In previous studies, zirconium-titanium (Zr-Ti) alloy infiltration has shown promising results for improving the heat resistance of carbon fiber-reinforced UHTC matrix composites (C/UHTCMCs). However, their use at high temperatures (>2000 ℃) is not known.

Set against this backdrop, a group of researchers from Japan have evaluated the potential utility of Zr-Ti alloy-infiltrated C/UHTCMCs at temperatures above 2000 ℃. Their study, led by Junior Associate Professor Ryo Inoue from Tokyo University of Science (TUS), was published in the Journal of Materials Science and made available online on October 27, 2022. The research team consisted of Mr. Noriatsu Koide and Assistant Professor Yutaro Arai from TUS, Professor Makoto Hasegawa from Yokohama National University, and Dr. Toshiyuki Nishimura from the National Institute for Materials Science.

Speaking of the motivation behind their study, “The research is an extension of the research and development of ceramics and ceramics-based composite materials. In recent years, we have received inquiries from several manufacturers of heavy industries regarding materials that can be used at temperatures above 2000 °C. We have also started to work with these manufacturers to develop new materials,” says Prof. Inoue.

The C/UHTCMC was manufactured using melt infiltration, which is the most cost-effective way to fabricate these materials. To study the applicability of this material, three types of C/UHTCMCs were fabricated with three different alloy compositions. The three alloy compositions used had varying atomic ratios of Zr:Ti. To characterize the heat resistance, the team used a method called arc-wind tunnel testing. This method involves exposing the material to extremely high enthalpy airflow inside a tunnel, similar to conditions that spacecrafts experience while re-entering the atmosphere.

The team found that the amount of Zr in the alloy had a strong effect on the degradation of the composite for all temperatures. This is owing to the thermodynamic preference for the oxidation of Zr-rich carbides compared to Ti-rich carbides. Further, the Zr and Ti oxides formed on the composite surface prevented further oxidation, and the oxide composition depended on the composition of the infiltrated alloys. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that the oxides formed on the composite surface were composed of ZrO2, ZrTiO4, and TiO2 solid solutions.

At temperatures above 2000 ℃, the thickness and weight of the samples increased with the Zr content of the composites after the arc-wind tunnel tests. The team also observed that the melting point of the surface oxides increased as the Zr content increased. For temperatures above 2600 ℃, the only oxides formed were liquid-phase, requiring a thermodynamic design of the matrix composition to prevent the recession of UHTC composites.

“We have successfully studied the degradation of C/UHTCMC at temperatures above 2000 ℃ using thermodynamic analysis. We have also shown that the matrix design needs modification to prevent the degradation of the composites. Our research has the potential to contribute to the realization of ultra-high-speed passenger aircraft, re-entry vehicle, and other hypersonic vehicles,” concludes Prof. Inoue.

These results could have important consequences in the production of advanced space shuttle orbiters and high-speed vehicles.

#composites #UHTC #CarbonFiberReinforcedCarbon #UHTCMC

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Norwich Company aims to reduce emissions with plant-based composites

With a growing focus on sustainability across all industries, Cellexcel, a company based at the University of East Anglia (UEA) at Norwich Research Park, has launched a new technology to enhance the performance and increase the usage of plant-based materials in manufacturing. Its technology is forecast to extend and accelerate the adoption of biomaterials, leading to a significant reduction in greenhouse gases.

Cellexcel is a spin-out company from UEA and was formed to take advantage of the rapid growth forecast for the use of composite materials in industry. The market was worth $23bn in 2021 and is expected to grow to $80bn by 2029. The ability to replace materials, which generate CO2 emissions, with biomaterials has become a matter of urgency across multiple industries, including automotive and aerospace.

Cellexcel’s technology was created through the work of Prof Richard Stephenson, CSO of Cellexcel and Emeritus Professor School of Chemistry at UEA, which is a partner organisation of Norwich Research Park, one of the world’s most acclaimed centres for bio-based science research.

Tim Pryce, executive chair of Cellexcel, said: “There are major benefits to Cellexcel of working with great associates at both UEA and Norwich Research Park. Firstly, they provide a great technical resource, right on our doorstep, but critically, the team at Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP – the science park management company at Norwich Research Park that manages campus-wide initiatives – facilitated pre-seed funding that enabled us to prepare our business plans, retain talented staff and introduce key people drivers, within multi-national global businesses.

“It’s provided a great launch pad for Cellexcel and will be able to do the same for other spin-out companies.”

Composites, as the name suggests, are materials that are made up of a number of different elements – a reinforcement material embedded in a resin. Some of the most common in use are fibre glass reinforced resins and carbon fibre reinforcing materials, and along with thermoplastics they are used to make components such as panels for cars, aircraft and high-performance bicycles. Traditional composites like these, as with polycarbonate plastics, consume a massive amount of energy in their manufacture and thus create high CO2 emissions.

A change to bio-based composites made from materials like flax or hemp would make a measurable difference. Not only do they not need as much energy in the manufacturing process, growing a field of hemp or flax in the first place will absorb a significant amount of CO2 out of the atmosphere.

As an example, if fibreglass material was replaced with a bio-composite, then approximately three tonnes of CO2 per tonne of fibreglass would be saved. With such rampant growth in demand forecast for composites, replacing fibre glass and carbon fibre with bio-composites could become a positive contributor to the environment.

Currently, bio-composites account for just 6pc of the market. The big challenge is how to replace thermoplastics and fibreglass with bio-materials. If the market moves from a 6pc to 12pc bio-composite usage, that is a $10bn opportunity.

Cellexcel’s primary technology is focused on enhancing the water resistance properties of flax and hemp materials, enabling them to then be employed in a much wider range of applications, from lawnmowers, to drones and external automotive panels.

In dry environments, like the inside of a car, bio-composites work well, but for exteriors there is a need to improve their performance. Cellexcel is applying an innovative approach to this and is chemically modifying the plant material to enhance their properties, such as water resistance.

Cellexcel is looking to expand its product portfolio and technology offering and believes that it can make in-roads into both the aviation and automotive sectors as well as other high-performance applications.

Tim said: “The demand for bio-composites is being driven by industries seeking more sustainable solutions. The technology advances in this area are proving to be attractive to investors who view sustainability as a key shareholder goal. The desire to reduce emissions will lead to the ultimate success of bio-composites being adopted on a large scale.”

Nick Goodwin, COO of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, said: “Cellexcel is a great example of the commercialisation of research taking place at Norwich Research Park. These are people with ingenious ideas, working hard to develop and test them in laboratories and workshops and then, with data to prove their theories, they leap into business to maximise the societal impact by setting up a company, developing a plan and raising money to fund their new idea.

“We have been working with Tim, and his team, to fund early-stage business formation activity and helped to put in place some options for seed funding, to enable future growth. Without doubt, the reduction of carbon emissions in manufacturing is a global challenge and it’s one that people here at Norwich Research Park are making significant progress in addressing – something that we can all be really proud of.”

#composites #NorwichCompany #PlantBasedComposites

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China develops a prototype of its first flying car

A manned two-seat split-type flying vehicle engineering prototype developed by the team of Xiang Changle, a scientist of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was jointly revealed by Beijing Institute of Technology, Chongqing Innovation Center of Beijing Institute of Technology, Cool High Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Chongqing Municipality.

The flying car adopts a split configuration of three independent modules: an autonomous vertical take-off and landing aircraft, a cockpit and a chassis. It is a three-dimensional transport system for people and objects.

The two-seat cockpit adopts ultra-lightweight design, with a deadweight of 80 kg; the maximum load of the autonomous chassis is greater than 500 kg, and the maximum design speed is 80 km/h.

According to Beijing Institute of Technology, the flying car has the respective advantages of a near-earth aircraft and a ground driving chassis. It can realize personnel and cargo air-to-ground transfer, with flexibility. Through ground-air collaborative precise perception and positioning, intelligent decision-making and planning, and automatic guidance and docking technologies, the modules combination and reconstruction can be realized, and different driving modes of land and air can be switched.

“Flying cars are a new type of urban transportation and are an effective way to solve traffic congestion and environmental pollution faced by urban development. The United States, the European Union, Japan and other developed countries or regions attach great importance to support the research and development of flying cars or urban aircraft. China also focuses on the deployment of flying car research and development in the medium and long term. To meet the demand for the construction of a national transportation power, flying car technology and industrial development will usher in a period of rapid development”, the Beijing Institute of Technology announces.

#composites #FlyingCar

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Owens Corning completes sale of Russian operations

The decision, made earlier this year, includes a composites and insulation manufacturing plant based in Russia.

Following its decision earlier this year to exit the Russian market, Owens Corning (Toledo, Ohio, U.S.) has announced that it has completed the sale of its operations in the country to Umatex, a Russian-based producer of carbon fiber and fiber-based items.
The transaction includes two manufacturing operations: a composites manufacturing plant in Gous-Khroustalny and an insulation manufacturing plant in Tver/Izoplit. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2022, net sales in Russia were approximately $85 million.

“This announcement represents the final step in our process to fully exit our operations in Russia,” Brian Chambers, chair and CEO, Owens Corning, explains. “I would like to thank our colleagues in Russia for their contributions to our company and customers over the years.”

Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. In conjunction with the announcement, the company reaffirmed its guidance of modest growth in net sales and earnings for the enterprise in the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2021.

#composites #Umatex #OwensCorning #CarbonFiber

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MIT researchers have developed a scalable fabrication technique for producing ultrathin, lightweight solar cells that can be stuck onto any surface.
Photo: Melanie Gonick, MIT.

Ultralight fabric solar cells can take charge of any surface

Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed ultralight fabric solar cells that can quickly and easily turn any surface into a power source.

These durable, flexible solar cells, which are much thinner than a human hair, are glued to a strong, lightweight fabric, making them easy to install on a fixed surface. They can provide energy on the go as a wearable power fabric, or be transported and rapidly deployed in remote locations for assistance in emergencies. They are one-hundredth the weight of conventional solar panels, generate 18 times more power-per-kilogram, and are made from semiconducting inks using printing processes that can be scaled in the future to large-area manufacturing.

Because they are so thin and lightweight, these solar cells can be laminated onto many different surfaces. For instance, they could be integrated onto the sails of a boat to provide power while at sea, adhered onto tents and tarps that are deployed in disaster recovery operations, or applied onto the wings of drones to extend their flying range. This lightweight solar technology can be easily integrated into built environments with minimal installation needs.

“The metrics used to evaluate a new solar cell technology are typically limited to their power conversion efficiency and their cost in dollars-per-watt,” says Vladimir Bulovic, chair in emerging technology at MIT, leader of the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory (ONE Lab), director of MIT.nano, and senior author of a paper on this work in Small Methods. “Just as important is integrability – the ease with which the new technology can be adapted. The lightweight solar fabrics enable integrability, providing impetus for the current work. We strive to accelerate solar adoption, given the present urgent need to deploy new carbon-free sources of energy.”

Traditional silicon solar cells are fragile, so they must be encased in glass and packaged in heavy, thick aluminum framing, which limits where and how they can be deployed. Six years ago, the ONE Lab team produced solar cells using an emerging class of thin-film materials that were so lightweight they could sit on top of a soap bubble. But these ultrathin solar cells were fabricated using complex, vacuum-based processes, which can be expensive and challenging to scale up.

In this work, the team set out to develop thin-film solar cells that are entirely printable, using ink-based materials and scalable fabrication techniques. To produce the solar cells, the engineers use nanomaterials that are in the form of a printable electronic ink. Working in the MIT.nano clean room, they coat the solar cell structure using a slot-die coater, which deposits layers of the electronic materials onto a prepared, releasable substrate that is only 3µm thick. Using screen printing (a technique similar to how designs are added to silkscreened T-shirts), an electrode is deposited on the structure to complete the solar module.

The researchers can then peel the printed module, which is about 15µm in thickness, off the plastic substrate, forming an ultralight solar device.

But such thin, freestanding solar modules are challenging to handle and can easily tear, which would make them difficult to deploy. To solve this challenge, the MIT team searched for a lightweight, flexible and high-strength substrate they could adhere the solar cells to. They identified fabrics as the optimal solution, as they provide mechanical resilience and flexibility with little added weight.

They ended up finding an ideal material — a composite fabric that weighs only 13 grams per square meter, commercially known as Dyneema. This fabric is made of fibers that are so strong they were used as ropes to lift the sunken cruise ship Costa Concordia from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. By adding a layer of UV-curable glue that is only a few microns thick, they adhere the solar modules to sheets of this fabric, forming an ultra-light and mechanically robust solar structure.

#composites #UltralightFabricSolarCells #MIT

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Photo Credit: Pusan National University