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Google Alert - RESINS UNSATURATED POLYESTER

Google Web Alert for: RESINS UNSATURATED POLYESTER

Unsaturated Polyester Division
Eternal has manufactured unsaturated polyester resins for over 30 years, and has gradually expanded its production capacity to become the largest production ...


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Google Alert - GRP PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

Google News Alert for: GRP PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

Avery Berkel weighs up second takeover from US
ic Birmingham.co.uk - Birmingham,UK
... weighing and food processing products, will enable Weigh-Tronix, which also owns the Salter brand, to concentrate on industrial weighing equipment. ...
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A $7 billion gamble on oil refining
Houston Chronicle - United States
Along with the expansion, Motiva is also adding equipment that will allow the Port Arthur plant to process a broader range of crude oils. ...
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Finding purpose through real work
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription) - Milwaukee,WI,USA
By SCOTT WILLIAMS Waukesha - When John F. Kennedy was in the White House, a group of civic-minded women in Waukesha County decided to improve job prospects ...
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Google Blogs Alert for: GRP PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

Google Alert - GRP PROCESSING EQUIPMENT
By ALLEN(INTERTOTOALLEN)
Google News Alert for: GRP PROCESSING EQUIPMENT. Optelecom-NKF Introduces New IP Video Surveillance Products Based ... CNNMoney.com - USA 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Optelecom-NKF, Inc. , today announced the introduction of a new group ...
ŒŒŒŒŒ復合材料資訊ŒŒŒŒŒ - http://upresin.blogspot.com/


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Google Alert - GEL-COATS CHEMICAL/CORROSION RESISTANT

Google Blogs Alert for: GEL-COATS CHEMICAL/CORROSION RESISTANT

Google Alert - GEL-COATS CHEMICAL/CORROSION RESISTANT
By ALLEN(ALLEN)
Google Web Alert for: GEL-COATS CHEMICAL/CORROSION RESISTANT. Top The FIBRALEX(r) GRP sheets have a high resistance to chemical corrosion, ... The following table shows how different polyester resin gel-coats fight corrosion . ...
REINFORCED PLASTICS - http://reinforcedplastics.blogspot.com/


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Google Alert - GEL-COATS CHEMICAL/CORROSION RESISTANT

Google Web Alert for: GEL-COATS CHEMICAL/CORROSION RESISTANT

Top
The FIBRALEX(r) GRP sheets have a high resistance to chemical corrosion, ... The following table shows how different polyester resin gel-coats fight corrosion ...


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Google Alert - GRP PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

Google News Alert for: GRP PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

Optelecom-NKF Introduces New IP Video Surveillance Products Based ...
CNNMoney.com - USA
21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Optelecom-NKF, Inc. , today announced the introduction of a new group of IP-based video surveillance products developed by ...
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TI Introduces Smallest Local Digital Temperature Sensor for ...
CNNMoney.com - USA
Please refer all reader inquiries to: Texas Instruments Incorporated Semiconductor Group, SC-07156 Literature Response Center 14950 FAA Blvd. Fort Worth, ...
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New Cachet For Old Industry
CNNMoney.com - USA
Another group of buyers includes process manufacturers that need equipment to make batches of fluids, chemicals and other compounds. ...
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Service Companies Give Positive Forecast for MLT in Russia
Oil and Gas Industry Latest News - Moscow,Moscow Region,Russia
"In terms of space restrictions and environmental concerns, by incorporating multilateral technology, we are reducing the surface location and equipment ...
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New Low-Profile Additives Introduced for Pultrusion & Compression Molding

New Low-Profile Additives Introduced for Pultrusion & Compression Molding

Reichhold has introduced two new low-profile additives (LPAs) for
pultrusion and compression molding applications: POLYLITE(r) 31702-40,
PVAC low-profile additive for pultrusion and POLYLITE(r) 31701-35,
low-profile additive for SMC / BMC applications. POLYLITE 31702-40 is
a 40% solids PVAC low-profile additive. It was developed to allow
pultruders to fabricate glossy and smooth profiles for applications
which demand improved cosmetic and aesthetic properties, the company
said. Applications for POLYLITE 31702-40 include Window Lineals,
Ladder Rails, Tool Handles. POLYLITE 31701-35 is a 35% solids
polystyrene, low-profile additive. It was developed to provide SMC /
BMC compounders with the ability to develop low-shrink formulations
for compression molding applications, according to the company
release. Applications for POLYLITE 31701-35 include: SMC - Residential
Door Skins, Shrink Control for SMC Formulations, BMC - Shrink Control.


--
KINGHOOO
Shanghai Newtianhe Resin Co., Ltd.
No.5995 Daye Road , Jinhui town, Fengxian county,
201404 SHANGHAI
CHINA, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC
Tel:+86-21-57481313
Mob:+86-13761666021
Fax:+86-21-57480370
MSN:kinghooo@gmail.com

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Plastic fencing: regional demand differs greatly

Plastic fencing: regional demand differs greatly

By Matt Defosse

Compared to wood and metal, plastics are very new to the fencing market, with PVC fencing only being introduced in the 1970s and not really reaching broader use until the early 1990s. Since then, demand for vinyl fencing has grown steadily, but according to a new report, market acceptance of vinyl fence varies by region from over 30% penetration to less than 5%. The report, called Residential Fence 2006, by market watchers at Principia (Exton, PA), found that PVC, for example, has significant penetration in Utah and the Long Island region of New York, while its penetration in Texas is negligible.

In addition to vinyl fence, polystyrene, wood-plastic composites (WPC), and polyethylene are the other plastic-based fence materials. Residential fencing in North America remains thoroughly dominated by wood and metal. The total North American demand for commercial and residential fence is estimated to be more than 1 billion running feet of installed fence valued at $6 billion in 2006. Commercial fence demand is the largest sector both on a volume and value basis. Demand in the commercial market is dominated by chain link used as perimeter security fence in industrial and infrastructure markets as well as post and rail and wire mesh fence used in agricultural markets.

Demand for residential fence is estimated to be nearly $3 billion of the total fence market value in 2006. Steve Van Kouteren, a principal at Principia Partners, explains, "The residential fence market consists of five major fence styles including privacy, post and rail, chain link, ornamental, and post and wire/wire mesh�ood and metal are the dominant materials used, accounting for over 70% of the total value." He says that the recent study estimates demand for plastic fence materials in the North American residential market to be greater than $600 million or nearly 25% of the total market in 2006. Privacy fence is the most popular type of fence style installed in the residential market, accounting for over 50% of the total value.

Principia's study shows the housing downturn has affected the overall demand for residential fence and will continue to do so over the next few years, but plastic fence will continue to expand its market share over the next five years. Most demand growth will be for vinyl and new wood-plastic composite privacy fence. Both materials will be replacing wood. The new WPC fence products have an edge over vinyl in regards to a wide range of darker colors, according to Principia. Both vinyl and WPC suppliers want to take advantage of the growing consumer demand for low-maintenance, non-shiny, white plastic fence by tapping into the huge portion of the wood privacy market that will not consider white vinyl as an option. Compared to vinyl post-and-rail fence, which has successfully penetrated and displaced as much as 50% of wood in many regional markets, vinyl only has about a 16% share of the North American privacy fence market. The large wood privacy market is also a target for the foamed polystyrene and 100% polyethylene-based fence products. Learn more about the report at www.principiaconsulting.com.―mdefosse@modplas.com

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Tips and Tactics to Finding the Right Exterior Door

Tips and Tactics to Finding the Right Exterior Door PDF Print E-mail
Written by ARAcontent   
Sunday, 16 September 2007
(ARA) - "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." Believe it or not, this sound advice – attributed to American humorist Will Rogers – also applies to your home and the exterior door that welcomes visitors.

A beautiful entryway can make a memorable first impression; it is after all one of the first things people see. It is also essential in boosting the curb appeal of a home when it's for sale, and can help add value through heating and cooling efficiencies. But when it comes to exterior doors, how do you know which one is the best for your home?

"Not all entry door products are created equal," says Shirley Wang, CEO of Plastpro, Inc., a producer of fiberglass door products. "Because some are more durable, attractive or insulate better, homeowners need to familiarize themselves with what's available and choose what best suits their needs."

More than ever before the perfect door is one that combines optimal insulation, easy maintenance, and great design. Take a closer look at your front door. Does it represent your personal taste, is it low-maintenance, and does it maximize your home's energy efficiency? If not, it might be time for a change.  

Technological advances and evolving designs mean there are more types of exterior doors available than ever before. Here are some tips for finding a door that is right for your home:

Material
Wood doors represent about 30 percent of the total market, according to industry insiders. Metal doors are very durable, but often are less visually pleasing. Fiberglass doors are an alternative option that combines the best of both worlds by offering a look similar to wood and the strength of steel, but with less overall maintenance.  

Wood doors have long been favored in older homes for their aesthetic appeal. However, wood is porous and can allow cold to seep into the home. Wood doors also tend to warp, rot, chip, and splinter, and need to be replaced more frequently.

While metal doors are a durable alternative, they tend to hold in the cold. Additionally, they can ding and dent easily, causing the door's exterior paint to chip off, leaving the unattractive metal core exposed.    

Fiberglass doors have become a popular alternative to steel and wood because of their aesthetic appeal and easy maintenance. Indeed, new technologies and manufacturing techniques allow fiberglass doors to simulate the warmth and texture of real wood but without its inherent problems such as cracking and warping. They also have many of the same durable qualities as metal, yet are more resistant to damage. Finally, fiberglass doors provide excellent insulation, and expand or contract very little with weather changes.

Glass
Whether you want to protect against solar heat gain, prevent heat loss, or simply create a more decorative effect with your door, there's a type of glass available to suit every situation. Insulating, tinted, noise-deadening, tempered, distortion-free, impact-resistant, opaque, and translucent glass are just some of the possibilities.

Companies like Plastpro are also manufacturing entry doors with built-in mini-blinds. Sealed between tempered glass, the pre-installed mini-blinds can be tilted as well as raised completely up and down to provide as much or as little light and privacy as desired.  

Color and Style
In addition to realistic graining that makes them difficult to distinguish from wood once they're stained, fiberglass doors also come in a wide range of styles and wood textures including smooth skin, oak, mahogany, or fir grain.

While door styles often vary by region, a basic four or six panel design is generally the most popular style in both Smooth Skin and Woodgrain. Regionally, a Rustic design is very popular in the Southwest and California, while a Craftsman style door is preferred in the Northwest. Plastpro has also developed a True White Oak door which features a completely white skin that hides scrapes and scratches – that are often visible on wood and metal doors – with a color guarantee of 10 years.  

Frames
While doors are often blamed for air leakage and related energy losses, it's often door frames that are in poor condition (or just very old) that are the culprit.

"When replacing an exterior door, homeowners should also consider replacing their frames," says Shirley Wang. She adds that while door frames are often made with the same materials as the door itself ( i.e. wood or metal), companies like Plastpro now manufacture frames made of a fully composite "poly fiber" material that resist moisture, rot, rust and insects. "These frames are more durable, require minimal maintenance and are less expensive than other frames over the lifetime of your home," said Wang.

No matter what door you choose, remember that it is an important representation of your home . When making an impression, the first one matters most.

For more information on doors, visit www.plastproinc.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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Scanfiber - Lightweight Armour

Scanfiber - Lightweight Armour

Scanfiber Composites specialises in the development and manufacture of lightweight armour based on advanced fibre composites. Utilising a hot pressing process, high strength fibres and a matrix are transformed into a lightweight panel, which is an excellent protection against projectiles and fragments. Depending on the required level of protection, the composite panels can be used either alone or combined with ceramics or ballistic steel to reach very high levels of protection.

At present Scanfiber can offer lightweight solutions to offer protection up to 14.5mm machine gun with armour piercing projectiles (according to NATO STANAG 4569 level 4). Scanfiber's lightweight armour is primarily used in vehicles, ships and aircraft where only minimal additional weight is allowed.

BALLISTIC PROTECTION WITH FIBRE COMPOSITES

The result of using fibre composites as armour is, in principle, a web of extremely strong and tough fibres that can brake and stop a projectile. A correctly manufactured composite panel can absorb very high impact loads and can defeat heavy pistol rounds at an aerial density (kg/m²), which is lower than reaching the same level of protection with a steel plate.

The composite panel is usually combined with a strike surface by high levels of protection. The surface is usually based on either ceramics or ballistic steel (which is extremely hard). The purpose of the strike surface is to crush or blunt the projectile, allowing it to be more efficiently defeated by the backing composite panel.

LIGHT COMPOSITE ARMOUR

The potential reduction of weight using composite armour is very dependant on the level of protection required and the type of fibre used. Often it is possible to reduce the weight of the armour down to one-third of the weight required by steel. A lower added weight can imply important advantages for a vehicle, including the following:

  • Higher loading capacity
  • Less tear, wear and maintenance costs
  • Better driving abilities and acceleration
  • Higher level of protection within the weight constraints of the vehicle

Scanfiber is ISO 9001 certified and all our products are tested according to international standards by independent testing institutes. Scanfiber manufactures composite armour based on three different types of ballistic fibres. These are fibreglass, aramide fibres (such as twaron and kevlar) and polyethylene fibres, such as dyneema and spectra.

ADD-ON ARMOUR

Scanfiber designs and manufactures various types of Add-on Armour (AoA) to upgrade the level of protection in military vehicles. For vehicles already operating this is usually done in connection with a mid-life update. For new vehicles an AoA system is often part of a flexible armouring solution, where the level of protection can be alternated depending on the mission.

The easiest and most economic way of increasing crew protection in vehicles already operating is to install a spall liner on the inside of the main armour. Spall is the description for pieces of metal shot into the cabin during impact of a projectile or other warhead. Spall has high density, temperature and speed and is spread in a wide cone within the vehicle.

ARMOUR FOR MILITARY TRUCKS

Military trucks can be equipped with many different types of armouring, going from a light protection against the fragments for anti-personnel landmines, to a high level of protection against the fragments from anti-vehicle mines and armour-piercing projectiles. All types of Scanfiber composite armours can be used due to the relatively high loading capacity of these types of vehicles.

Scanfiber is constantly developing its products towards a lower weight and a higher level of protection within the weight limits given. The research and development department surveys the market for new materials and new combinations; these are systematically tested to find new lightweight armouring solutions.

Scanfiber Composites A/S
Niels Bohrs Vej 11
DK-9870 Sindal
Denmark
Tel: +45 98934433
Fax: +45 98934544
Email: info@scanfiber.dk
URL: www.scanfiber.dk

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Foam & Balsa Humvees - Army Tests Lighter Composites

Foam & Balsa Humvees - Army Tests Lighter Composites


Foam & Balsa Humvees - Army Tests Lighter Composites

The U.S. army is going to be testing some lighter composite Humvees. Roadside bombs are the No. one killer of U.S. soldiers in Iraq so "a lighter vehicle that rides higher even with added armor might have a greater degree of protection if it runs directly over a bomb." The Army Times reported. "Adding armor weighs a Humvee down and makes it ride lower to the ground." A conventional Humvee weighs between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds.

"The nonmetal Humvee utility vehicle that is 900 pounds lighter than its conventional counterpart so it can carry extra armor to better protect soldiers against roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan," said the Times. "The prototype vehicle's frame and body is made of nonmetal composites — a combination of fiberglass, balsa wood, foam and carbon reinforcements all held together with resin."

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ARMOUR FOR MILITARY TRUCKS

Scanfiber - Lightweight Armour

Scanfiber Composites specialises in the development and manufacture of lightweight armour based on advanced fibre composites. Utilising a hot pressing process, high strength fibres and a matrix are transformed into a lightweight panel, which is an excellent protection against projectiles and fragments. Depending on the required level of protection, the composite panels can be used either alone or combined with ceramics or ballistic steel to reach very high levels of protection.

At present Scanfiber can offer lightweight solutions to offer protection up to 14.5mm machine gun with armour piercing projectiles (according to NATO STANAG 4569 level 4). Scanfiber's lightweight armour is primarily used in vehicles, ships and aircraft where only minimal additional weight is allowed.

BALLISTIC PROTECTION WITH FIBRE COMPOSITES

The result of using fibre composites as armour is, in principle, a web of extremely strong and tough fibres that can brake and stop a projectile. A correctly manufactured composite panel can absorb very high impact loads and can defeat heavy pistol rounds at an aerial density (kg/m²), which is lower than reaching the same level of protection with a steel plate.

The composite panel is usually combined with a strike surface by high levels of protection. The surface is usually based on either ceramics or ballistic steel (which is extremely hard). The purpose of the strike surface is to crush or blunt the projectile, allowing it to be more efficiently defeated by the backing composite panel.

LIGHT COMPOSITE ARMOUR

The potential reduction of weight using composite armour is very dependant on the level of protection required and the type of fibre used. Often it is possible to reduce the weight of the armour down to one-third of the weight required by steel. A lower added weight can imply important advantages for a vehicle, including the following:

  • Higher loading capacity
  • Less tear, wear and maintenance costs
  • Better driving abilities and acceleration
  • Higher level of protection within the weight constraints of the vehicle

Scanfiber is ISO 9001 certified and all our products are tested according to international standards by independent testing institutes. Scanfiber manufactures composite armour based on three different types of ballistic fibres. These are fibreglass, aramide fibres (such as twaron and kevlar) and polyethylene fibres, such as dyneema and spectra.

ADD-ON ARMOUR

Scanfiber designs and manufactures various types of Add-on Armour (AoA) to upgrade the level of protection in military vehicles. For vehicles already operating this is usually done in connection with a mid-life update. For new vehicles an AoA system is often part of a flexible armouring solution, where the level of protection can be alternated depending on the mission.

The easiest and most economic way of increasing crew protection in vehicles already operating is to install a spall liner on the inside of the main armour. Spall is the description for pieces of metal shot into the cabin during impact of a projectile or other warhead. Spall has high density, temperature and speed and is spread in a wide cone within the vehicle.

ARMOUR FOR MILITARY TRUCKS

Military trucks can be equipped with many different types of armouring, going from a light protection against the fragments for anti-personnel landmines, to a high level of protection against the fragments from anti-vehicle mines and armour-piercing projectiles. All types of Scanfiber composite armours can be used due to the relatively high loading capacity of these types of vehicles.

Scanfiber is constantly developing its products towards a lower weight and a higher level of protection within the weight limits given. The research and development department surveys the market for new materials and new combinations; these are systematically tested to find new lightweight armouring solutions.

Scanfiber Composites A/S
Niels Bohrs Vej 11
DK-9870 Sindal
Denmark
Tel: +45 98934433
Fax: +45 98934544
Email: info@scanfiber.dk
URL: www.scanfiber.dk

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USA. Owens Corning sells Fabwel unit: Composites & metals fabrication businesses sold separately

USA. Owens Corning sells Fabwel unit: Composites & metals fabrication businesses sold separately
Monday, 17 September 2007

Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) today announced it has completed the sale of its Fabwel unit in two separate transactions totaling $60 million in combined proceeds.

Owens Corning sold Fabwel's composite panel business to Crane Composites for $38 million. The sale includes a manufacturing facility in Goshen, Ind., and a new-business development center in Elkhart, Ind.

In a separate transaction, Owens Corning sold Fabwel's metals fabrication, Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) lamination and Midwest RV door business to Euramax International Inc. for $22 million. The sale includes facilities in Nappanee and Bourbon, Ind. Owens Corning previously announced the closure of its RV wall and door manufacturing facility in Riverside, Calif.   The plant was closed in August 2007.

Fabwel was a small unit within Owens Corning's Composite Solutions segment, employing approximately 350 people. The unit had sales of approximately $179 million in 2006.

Last Updated ( Monday, 17 September 2007 )

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Resin Systems Starts Commercial Production

Resin Systems Starts Commercial Production

Resin Systems?contract manufacturer, Global Composite Manufacturing, has begun commercial production of RStandard utility poles from the first production cell in Tilbury, Ontario.

Commercial production has begun following the completion last week of climate controls on the first production cell and all required quality checks. Production began with one shift and Global Composite Manufacturing plans to add second and third shifts shortly with full production from the first cell anticipated in the fourth quarter. The finished product will initially be dedicated to customer shipments and trial production of several product improvements developed this year.

�he beginning of commercial production is a critical milestone reached through the dedicated joint effort of Global Composite Manufacturing and RS over many months. We will now turn our attention to adding shifts on the first cell and working on the preparation of the second cell,?said Paul Giannelia, president and chief executive officer. �hese are the next important steps in reaching our goal of establishing meaningful revenue increases by the end of this year and reaching profitability in 2008."



Publication Date: 04/09/2007
WWW Link: http://www.grouprsi.com

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IAA 2007 - Miniature model maker wants to revive Trabant car

IAA 2007 - Miniature model maker wants to revive Trabant car 14/09/2007

By David Vink in Frankfurt
 
Herpa is seeking partners to design and produce the vehicle.
 

14 September 2007 – Once the mass-produced car in the former East Germany and practically the only choice for most of the population at the time, there are today very few original plastic composite bodied Trabant cars to be seen in Germany.

Recognising the small vehicle as "robust" and "entirely symbolic" and stating that "no car has emotionalised the Germans more than the Trabant", miniature car and aircraft model maker Herpa Miniaturmodelle in Dietenhofen in the German state of Franconia is presenting a 1:10 scaled down design study as a prime focus of its stand at the IAA 2007 (up to 23 September) with the bold declared strategy to find partners to develop a new full-size roadworthy version of the vehicle.
 

The first bright blue design study model has a white roof, but Herpa has been encouraging visitors to its IAA stand to contribute their own ideas and opinions on how it should finally look.

In connection with the "newTrabi" initiative, Herpa's managing director Klaus Schindler has already taken the first step by acquiring the Trabant trademark for the company from the Trabant-Register association. Herpa has made several hundred thousand Trabant models since 1990 in 1:87 scale.

Schindler says of the project "we want with our initiative to bring the Trabi onto the roads in a new form, in order to continue the history of this cult object".

Production of the original "Trabi" started on 7 November 1957 in the Saxony town of Zwickau and ended in 1991. It involved bodywork made in phenolic resin plastic composite with recycled wool or cotton textile fibres as reinforcement, a material rumoured to be edible by animals, as has been shown in a film featuring the car. It is an open question as to whether the "newTrabi" will use the same type of material or another plastic solution.

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Electric-field-enhanced transport in polyacrylamide hydrogel nano-composites

Electric-field-enhanced transport in polyacrylamide hydrogel nano-composites

Reghan J. Hill a, E-mail The Corresponding Author


aDepartment of Chemical Engineering and McGill Institute for Advanced Materials, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2B2, CANADA
Received 28 June 2007;  revised 3 September 2007;  accepted 11 September 2007.  Available online 15 September 2007.



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Carbon fiber buys its way onboard

Carbon fiber buys its way onboard

By Staff | September 2007

First used in one-off yacht and powerboat designs, where cost is no obstacle in the search for a performance edge in local regattas or around-the-world races, carbon fiber has since carved a niche in categories that were once the exclusive reserve of glass-reinforced composites, metals or wood. In applications as diverse as production powerboats and luxury megayachts, high-end boatbuilders are employing carbon in sophisticated component designs, aided by a growing body of data derived from virtual and actual testing. As a result, carbon fiber reinforcement is reducing weight and improving performance in mission-critical components, enabling designs once impossible with other materials and, as the following case histories demonstrate, enabling boat OEMs to hold the line on costs as well.

Source: Westport Yachts

Megayacht builders such as Westport Yachts are using carbon composites above the hull to lower a craft's center of gravity, damp engine resonance and extend design freedom. Westport's164-ft/50m Evviva has carbon reinforcement in the caps of deck beams that support its multideck superstructure.

Megayachts: Carbon comes aboard topside

While custom megayachts still cruise the seas on 100-ft-plus hulls constructed of glass-reinforced composites, aluminum or steel, above the hull, carbon fiber is enabling unprecedented design and engineering freedom.

When Taylor Olson, Westport Yachts' (Westport, Wash.) director of engineering, joined the company in 2000, carbon fiber was already in use for its annual production of five 112-ft/34m, five 130-ft/40m and two 164-ft/50m motor yachts. "We began looking at expanding carbon fiber usage mainly for strength-to-weight and labor savings improvements," says Olson. "The goal was to replace plies of unidirectional E-glass with a lot fewer plies of unidirectional carbon."

Source: Delta Marine

Triton, a 163-ft motoryacht, features carbon fiber in its structural deck beams, window mullions and radar mast. Carbon fiber in these deck-reinforcing stringers (above) enables Delta Marine engineers to maximize headroom by using shallow beams and to create large, spacious interiors without intruding stanchions and bulkheads, while meeting stringent structural performance and reliability requirements.

One target was deck beam caps, in which 15 to 18 plies of 18-oz unidirectional E-glass were replaced with one-third to one-half that many 20-oz uni carbon plies. Although Westport still hand lays some deck beams, the company now infuses a fair number of beams and all flat panels in its yacht decks to save weight and achieve better properties. "We get better shear properties out of E-glass laminates with infusion," Olson explains. "Ideally, you want even deck beams, which are bending-driven (vs. hull stringers, which are shear-driven) at their shear limit in order to make the materials work most efficiently."

Rather than infuse the beams separately and then bond them to the panels, Westport's beams are infused in place in a second shot. The cored sandwich deck panels are made on a flat table. The bottom skin includes one ply of unidirectional carbon fiber, placed longitudinally wherever a stiffening beam will be located. When core is placed, it is omitted at beam locations. Then the bottom skin and core are infused and cured. The beams are produced by laying in carbon first, followed by the E-glass buildup and then a final layer of uni carbon so that both faces of the beam are carbon, resulting in an I-beam configuration where the flanges contain stiffer carbon material, and the all-E-glass web is optimized for shear.

Because the overall boat structure, which is primarily E-glass-reinforced, flexes more than the stiffer carbon fiber-reinforced structures, Olson notes that the 3M Co.'s (St. Paul, Minn.) very flexible 5200 polyurethane structural adhesive is used to secondarily bond the predominately E-glass deck beams to nonstructural carbon fiber panels. "It lets the boat's structure move a bit without introducing excessive stress into the carbon panel, which is not designed to take it," Olson explains. "This is mainly done with our exterior overhead liner panels."

Source: Delta Marine

At Delta Marine (Seattle, Wash.), carbon has progressed far beyond niche status. Delta's recently launched Laurel, a 240-ft/73.2m steel-hulled motoryacht, for example, carries more than 20,000 lb (9,070 kg) of carbon fiber in its all-composite superstructure.

According to Jay Miner, Delta's chief naval architect and engineering manager, carbon fiber was practically mandated because the yacht's design requirements included a very low profile. "Carbon fiber enabled us to reduce the beam depths to an absolute minimum," he explains, "which was the only way to meet the very low side elevations of the yacht design."

Unidirectional carbon fiber is used to in all of Delta's deck beam caps to save weight and to help stiffen the large panels necessitated by the open spans required for today's spacious yacht interiors. According to Miner, a typical structure in a 150-ft/45.7m Delta motoryacht includes web-frame spacing on 7-ft/2.1m centers transversely, and longitudinal stringers that are 6 inches to 8 inches (152 mm to 203 mm) deep and 6 inches wide. Carbon fiber also enables Delta's engineers to maximize headroom by using shallow beams.

"Having big open staterooms in a yacht precludes the use of stanchions and bulkheads for supporting structure. Thus, you are left with large panels and open spans." Miner continues, "But this is what is valued in a yacht — large, beautifully appointed spaces with bountiful headroom." Carbon fiber also reinforces Delta's slender but highly loaded window mullions, which are frequently tied into a deck beam.

Source: Delta Marine

This cantilevered bimini top (at bottom of photo on the left) on the motoryacht Happy Days (above) features carbon fiber construction to reduce weight up high and lower the vessel's center of gravity. The carbon reinforcement also increases rigidity in inherently flexible structures to avoid resonant frequency problems.

Among the most important targets are the highest points on a yacht's top side — the radar antenna arches and mast (see photo, p. 50). These are among the most weight critical and inherently flexible structures, thanks mainly to their slender geometries. A typical arch has a 20-ft/6.1m span with 7 ft/2.1m of headroom underneath and a 6-ft/1.2m section extending fore and aft. Arches usually have a swept-curve, wing-like shape with other structures extending on top (it is common, for instance, to have arches on top of arches).

Here and elsewhere, all-carbon construc-tion helps engineers achieve the rigidity and styling required. It also addresses resonant frequency problems that arise when engine vibrations are carried through the yacht structure. "By using a small amount of high-modulus material we can achieve a dramatic result and obtain precisely the performance we need," Miner notes. "Our payback on investment is maximized, even though the relative cost of carbon compared to E-glass is roughly 10x."

Up high, Westport uses carbon in hard tops, which are two-part clamshell pieces made using very thin-skinned cored sandwich construction and measuring 25 ft/7.6m long and 18 ft/5.5m wide. Hard tops use either a 6-oz carbon/aramid 2×2 twill from JB Martin (Leesville, S.C.), featuring Kevlar aramid fiber supplied by DuPont Advanced Fiber Systems (Richmond, Va.), or a 6.5-oz all-carbon plain weave. Also, some exterior headliner panels located in upper nonstructural areas use carbon. These panels are made on 16-ft by 18-ft ( 4.9m by 5.5m) vacuum tables and can total as many as 10 in the 130-ft yachts and 16 on the 164-ft triple-decked vessels.

Delta uses resin infusion or hand layup depending on the size and complexity of the part. Miner also has done research to verify the physical properties that Delta is achieving with its material/process combinations. "We have our own in-house test bench where we test our composites, plus we use outside labs for doing the standard ASTM-certified coupon testing for the regulatory body approvals," Miner says. The in-house test bench is one that Miner designed, after concluding that a second set of tests on large structures was needed, in addition to small coupon tests. Delta's test bench can accommodate sandwich panels as long as 8 ft/2.4m (typical web-frame spacing). Its hydraulic ram can test panels to failure to determine ultimate strength and stiffness.

Westport sources its carbon through distributor Composites One (Arlington Heights, Ill.), including a 20 oz/yd2 warp uni from Comptex Inc. (La Connor, Wash.). The fabric is made with Zoltek Inc. (St. Louis, Mo.) 50K Panex 35 fiber and is optimized for infusion, using 2 percent, by weight, E-glass in the weft direction (rather than polyester stitch yarn) to enhance wetout. Delta's primary carbon fiber supplier is Vectorply Corp. (Phenix City, Ala.). Although Delta has used tow as large as 80K in the past, it now uses mainly 24K, which is consistently available.

Both boatbuilders prefer vinyl ester resin to epoxy because it combines ease of processing and good structural properties with superior resistance to blistering. Although additional weight could be saved by making some strength-critical parts with epoxy, "there are too many complications with bonding vinyl ester to epoxy," says Miner, observing that there are a great number of secondary bonds on a large yacht. "We keep it simple and reliable by staying with all vinyl ester." For Olson, an additional factor is worker safety. "We have … so much hand layup occurring in our facilities that epoxy sensitization is a real concern." Both companies use Reichhold Inc.'s (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) Hydrex vinyl ester. For Miner, the selection meant one family of resins tailored for infusion, hand layup and adhesive applications would share the same properties, facilitating engineering and increasing part reliability. Racers and cruisers: The cost-to-value equation Carbon use is growing among builders of high-performance powerboats, both one-off racers and production speedsters called cruisers, but where it is used in the boat structure differs widely.

A high-profile source for 22-ft (6.7m) to 145-ft (44.2m) racing and cruising sailboats, J/Boats Inc. (Newport, R.I.), designs and markets craft built by nearby Pearson Composites LLC (previously Tillotson Pearson Inc. and TPI Composites in Warren, R.I.). The companies have 12 models in production, the longest at 133 ft/40.5m, including several limited-production (2 to 20 units) carbon-intensive designs. Alan Johnstone, J/Boats' vice president of design, explains that the cost-to-value trade-off of using carbon fiber changes, depending upon the boat configuration. The J/90 and J/125 — high-end racing sailboats — featured hulls and decks of sandwich construction, using perforated foam core, premolded to the shape of the boat, and carbon/Kevlar and all-carbon skins, respectively, infused with epoxy resin to meet very aggressive weight and structural property requirements. For its more cost-sensitive J/145, the company used a carbon fiber product specially developed by Toray Carbon Fibers America (Flower Mound, Texas) to be compatible with vinyl ester resin. The use of vinyl ester brought the cost of the final laminate down vs. epoxy while reportedly maintaining 95 to 98 percent of the overall properties, says Johnstone. "With a production sailboat, you can't ignore the other [boat] manufacturers and what value they are offering," notes Johnstone. "Carbon fiber has to buy its way in."

The J/90, J/125 and J/145 were all built using TPI's SCRIMP (the Seemann Composites Resin Infusion Manufacturing Process). The company's highest production volume model, the J/105, uses a carbon fiber retractable bowsprit, which is basically a carbon fiber tube that extends to support the tack (turning) loads from the spinnaker sail. Since 1992, more than 2,000 of these boats have been outfitted with carbon bowsprits, which are fabricated by outside vendors according to strict J/Boats specifications.

Unusual in the powerboat market, Outerlimits (Bristol, R.I.) produces carbon fiber parts for its high-end powerboats with a stronger postcured epoxy matrix rather than vinyl ester. At 28 to 30 boats per year, Outerlimits is not a high-volume builder, but surprisingly, its customers aren't racers. "They use our boats for pleasure boating and poker runs," says Outerlimits general manager Aaron Crawford, referring to rally-type events for performance boaters sponsored by the American Poker Run Assn. "However, they are looking for low weight and high horsepower. Thus, we want to build a lighter, stronger product that is more durable than the 'one-off' carbon fiber racing boats." In the company's standard models — the 39-ft/12m Quatro, the 42-ft/13m Legacy, and the 46-ft/14m Limited, carbon fiber/epoxy construction extends far beyond stringer caps and can include all-carbon decks, longitudinal and transverse hull stiffeners and engine bays. Crawford notes that the extensive use of carbon/epoxy enables Outerlimits to make a stiffer, stronger boat using less material. "There is no premium for use of carbon fiber in our standard production models," he notes.

Carbon's use in the deck significantly reduces the boat's weight. "You can have an extremely efficient hull bottom design, but it won't deliver the performance if the boat is heavy," says Crawford. Further, a carbon deck lowers the boat's center of gravity and optimizes its planing, stepped-hull design. "The center of pressure has to be exactly where you want it to be," he says, "for planing and speed and for handling control while making turns at 90 mph."

For its 51-ft /15.5m GTX, the company adds an all-carbon hull and aramid honeycomb-cored bulkheads (Nomex, supplied by DuPont). Crawford says the goal was to build the GTX lighter, stronger and stiffer than standard models to generate greater speed with the same horsepower. "The weight savings from all-carbon fiber and re-engineering the laminate is maybe 10 percent," he says, "but then we augment this by using Nomex and other weight-saving tactics."

The carbon/epoxy decks and hulls are sandwich constructions, featuring Corecell styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) foam, supplied by Gurit (Magog, Quebec, Canada). According to Crawford, the SAN foam delivers a significant level of impact resistance and durability with no negative side effects. "Our boats are frequently painted with dark colors, and we had issues with outgassing using other foams," he explains.
 

Although some small parts are prepreg, Outerlimits wet lays all large-scale components. "We build quickly anyway, so prepreg does not save us time, and our facility is air-conditioned, so we already control our environment and properties." For wet layup, Outerlimits uses two older, manual, roller-type impregnators, which have been converted for pneumatic control. "Our modifications allow us to control the wet out of the material very precisely," he says. "Our component weights do not vary by more than 2 percent." Further, resin, reinforcements and core for each component are weighed prior to construction and the finished boat is weighed, using load cells. "Our weights are so consistent that I can tell what options have been installed on a given model by how much it weighs." Outerlimits lays up outer skins and core, then vacuum bags and cures them in its in-house-built computer-controlled oven, made using components purchased from oven supplier Watlow Electric Mfg. Co. (St. Louis, Mo.). Then the inner skin is wet layed, bagged and cured. The epoxy parts reach initial cure at room temperature and then are postcured in the oven at 140?F/60?C over a 26-hour period, including an eight-hour dwell.

The Outerlimits staff has a long history in Nomex-cored carbon epoxy sandwich construction. Many of its laminating crew came onboard when Outerlimits bought nearby sailboat builder and subcontractor Carroll Marine. Some of the former Carroll Marine staff worked with Gougeon Brothers (now Pro-Set Inc., Bay City, Mich.) to develop its Pro-Set epoxy resins for marine construction.

Today, SP laminating epoxy (SP is the marine business division of Gurit AG, Wattwil, Switzerland) is the resin of choice. The company avoids costly, hard-to-get aircraft-grade fiber and tries to produce most parts from four basic reinforcements — unidirectional, ±45?, lightweight and heavyweight 0?/90? — to reduce inventory. Outerlimits buys from several manufacturers to ensure supply, including Gurit (Isle of Wight, U.K.), JB Martin, SEAL SpA (Legnano, Italy) and T.E.A.M. Inc. (Slatersville, R.I.), sourced through distributor Core Composites (Newport, R.I.).

Outerlimits continually looks for ways to increase carbon construction. One example, says Crawford, is its all-carbon head unit (toilet). "The unit also functions as a bulkhead, so there is a structural benefit," he explains, "but, really, we do it purely for weight savings, and we can build it with material left over from constructing other parts of the boat, so we get significant weight savings at very little cost."

Production boats: Optimizing carbon for infusion

Baja Marine (Bucyrus, Ohio) is a well-known producer of high-performance powerboats, including its famed Outlaw series of Poker Run boats. It currently produces 10 to 12 high-performance models ranging from 23 ft to 40 ft (7m to 12.2m) in length, valued by owners for their speed and durability. According to VP of operations Bill Regan, Baja stresses design and engineering. "We're considered a midstream product, price-wise," he notes, "but our customers are very loyal, and it is important for our boats to have quality designed in."

Source: Delta Marine

Baja started working with carbon fiber as part of a program with Toray Carbon Fibers America's Decatur, Ala. PAN-based fiber plant and distributor Core Composites to investigate the use of Toray's FOE-sized carbon fiber with vinyl ester resin. According to Rich O'Meara at Core Composites, "Toray has invested significant effort and money into supporting the marine market. They see it as one of the fastest growth areas for carbon, and they have targeted some of their 2008 capacity increase into supporting Baja and other marine programs."

The Baja program took two years and was begun, with the aid of consulting engineer Rick Strand (Impact Matrix Systems LLC, Hampstead, N.H.), to obtain better information on the actual load distributions seen by the Baja boat hulls, starting with the 30-ft/9m Outlaw model. "It is nearly impossible to find any data on the loads that boats really see in service," Regan comments. So they modeled the overall boat design using HyperMesh finite element analysis (FEA) from Altair Engineering (Troy Mich.) and began running a variety of load simulations. They also performed in-service testing using actual boats on the water, collecting data from strain gauges applied throughout the stringer system and interior of the hull.

"The FEA and, really, the strain-gauge data collection showed us areas where the deflections were more than we were comfortable with," Regan says. Baja also wanted to take weight out of the boats but, says Regan, "our customers push the boats hard, so we couldn't afford to just take material out. We had to engineer strength and stiffness in. Thus, it became obvious that we needed to use some type of high-strength material because we needed to take care of the high-stress areas without adding weight."

While Regan's previous experience with carbon in the design and manufacture of ultralightweight racing sailboats made him comfortable with the material, he also knew that Baja could get into trouble if it used carbon fiber in the wrong place: "It definitely has a price premium, but it also exhibits catastrophic failure once it reaches its strength limit, which is just as important if not more so for our products. So we had already decided to take a conservative approach: slow and steady." Regan says that his two basic rules of working with carbon fiber are: don't use more than you have to, and if you add carbon in, take material out. "Our goal was to obtain load-handling and weight benefits without adding cost. We know we saved weight, but what was more important was that it allowed us to do other things."

What other things? Baja already had moved to resin infusion for the fiberglass hull of the 30-ft Outlaw because it produced an excellent, very compact layup with good fiber-to-resin ratios. But the real push for carbon fiber came with the company's change in its boatbuilding approach to incorporate Design for Manufacturing principles, which resulted in a completely different structural stringer system. According to Regan, most production boats use tall, narrow plywood stringers that are attached to a fiberglass liner (a thin pan bonded to the interior of the hull) using strips of resin-impregnated fiberglass fabric. "We changed to an integrated stringer-liner system, which relies primarily on geometry to provide the necessary load handling and buckling resistance, vs. foam or wood core," he says. Not just the ordinary "egg crate" with longitudinal and transverse stiffeners, the Outlaw's carbon stringer structure is a complex of "braces" that move outward in many directions. "We angled the liner structure to minimize both local and global deflections," says Regan, "aligning the fiber in the direction of the load, with the ultimate goal to put mass only where it was needed to address areas of high load and/or high deflection."

However, as Baja expanded its use of carbon fiber beyond the 30-ft Outlaw, the originally selected 36-inch/914mm wide carbon fabric didn't fit, and the intricate geometry of the infusion preforms required so much trimming that the material was falling apart. O'Meara explains, "It wasn't that the carbon wasn't working, it was that the product format no longer fit the process and manufacturing needs."

Source: Delta Marine

The integrated structural liner was so complex that infusion actually nullified cost savings because more time was required to kit and lay in the dry preforms than had been expended in the previous sequential wet layup process. Also, infusion required technicians to move about on the mold, which dislodged the pre-applied outer gel coat and forced significant gel coat repair. Regan concludes, "With our price point, we just couldn't afford that manufacturing time and cost." As a result, Baja returned to hand layup of the liner but still wanted to move forward with infusion of carbon fiber in other parts of its boats — such as infused decks. Regan reports that the company has just begun to integrate infused decks into new models.

Core Composites suggested that commercial-grade carbon fiber supplier Zoltek Inc.'s stitched warp unidirectional fabric would allow Baja to use carbon fiber with either infusion or wet layup. "It's easy to handle because it's stitch-bonded, so it doesn't fall apart when you cut it," says O'Meara. Additionally, the fabric's polyester stitch yarn wraps around the carbon fiber bundles, holding them in place. This prevents fiber wash during infusion. Further, the stitches secure lightweight, weft-inserted fiberglass yarns stitched to the back of the carbon layer. O'Meara explains that carbon fiber has a filament diameter of 6 to 7 microns, while fiberglass is 6 to 24 microns — the larger diameter provides larger spaces in between the filaments, which promotes resin flow in fiberglass reinforcements. The lightweight fiberglass yarn, positioned at 0.5-inch/12.7-mm intervals, reportedly helps carry the resin to the carbon filaments.

Zoltek's stitched warp unidirectional fabric is used not only in the hand-layed liner stringer caps but also in the infused hull to help control bending: "For example, we actually lay up carbon fiber in the dry preform of the hull," says Regan, "adding it just where we need it along the line where the longitudinal stiffener will be located." Thus, when the integrated liner is bonded in, it has a carbon fiber spar cap as well as a line of carbon fiber underneath it along the hull, analogous to an I-beam with carbon fiber flanges. Regan comments, "Because of the design-to-manufacture approach, we were able to achieve dramatic savings in overall build time — up to 25 percent per model. The carbon fiber also enables reduction in the amount of material laid up: Normally we replace at least two layers of knitted E-glass with one layer of carbon fiber material."

Baja uses a vinyl ester blend from AOC (Collierville, Tenn.) because it gives good adhesion and also has good elongation. Regan notes, "We worked very hard with our suppliers to make sure that the sizing on the carbon fiber material matched the vinyl ester so that we could achieve the optimum adhesion." According to O'Meara, this was part of Toray's original goal at Baja because it realized that fiber compatibility with the resin matrix can improve the shear strength by 10 to 15 percent, and it can improve compression by at least this amount.

Baja also is using all engineered fabrics, including E-glass fabrics for the noncarbon remainder of the stringers, aligning the fibers with the loads to optimize material use. ITW Plexus (Danvers, Mass.) supplies the methacrylate adhesive used to bond the integrated structural liner to the hull. Baja has modeled the adhesive by itself using FEA and also tested it for shear strength to ensure it was possible to obtain the performance needed.

According to Regan, 10 new production models released since 2003 have carbon reinforcement in their stringers, totaling about 1,000 boats, to date, in its Outlaw, Islander Bowrider and Baja Performance series.

The company pursued a different philosophy with Baja's own one-off racing models, the 35 Outlaw and 40 Outlaw. "The goal here is pure weight savings," says Regan, "which actually is somewhat trickier because of the catastrophic failure behavior of carbon." While some one-off models are all carbon, most use a hybrid fabric woven by JB Martin from Kevlar aramid fiber and Toray's standard-modulus T700 12K FOE-sized carbon fiber. The result was roughly 50 percent weight savings vs. standard production models because, as Regan notes, this fabric is the laminate stack, with two layers on either side of a 1-inch/25.4-mm thick core.

"That's why I said it's so vital to understand exactly where your loads are and where to place the material," Regan adds, noting that the boats successfully endured heavy abuse during an entire Poker Run summer series and provided valuable data that will help his team to incorporate similar construction into Baja's standard production models and possibly a new model by early 2008.

The future: Finding a practical balance

Carbon fiber has come a long way in a short time, but no one is saying it's reached its limit. "Expectations in the megayacht industry are always increasing," says Delta's Miner. "Our philosophy is to balance progress with realistic promises that can be achieved. We believe in the right balance between our historically conservative outlook and progressive opportunities. Our yachts cruise all over the world, and the ocean doesn't play favorites. We'll continue to use carbon fiber but only where it really buys something for the customer and where we can verify its performance and reliability."

While carbon fiber always will have a future in select J/Boats models, J/Boats' Johnstone can't say for sure that its use will progress to those produced in high volumes. "There is always more pressure for boats that perform better and go faster," he explains. "But in general, the higher the performance, the higher the price and thus, the lower the volume."

Baja's Regan is sure that carbon fiber will be integrated into more new production boats — a prediction that could have far-reaching effects because Baja not only designs its own models but also performs design work for other boatbuilders within parent company Brunswick Corp.'s (Lake Forest, Ill.) marine construction family.

While their carbon design and fabrication philosophies differ, these boatbuilders agree on one thing: Carbon may not be the answer to every boatbuilding challenge, but it is increasingly answering the call — and paying its way — where marine designers want to push past the limits of established technology.


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Will advanced composites move into the marine mainstream?

Will advanced composites move into the marine mainstream?

By Staff | September 2007

Independent consultant, writer and syndicated columnist Michael R. LeGault is the former editor of Canadian Plastics and has served as a columnist with The Washington Times and as an editor at The Financial Post. In 2002, LeGault received the Canadian Business Press Award for best regularly featured column. He received a BS in biology/chemistry from the University of Michigan, and a MS in chemistry from the University of Miami (Fla.). His book, Think! Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye, was published in January 2006. He can be reached at mikel4230@yahoo.com.

The days when carbon fiber was just a material that gave wealthy yachters the chance to "hang more lead off their keels" have passed. While the marine carbon fiber market is still small, carbon is moving into a more diverse range of increasingly commercial, large-scale marine applications. The potential for growth is significant — if enough carbon fiber is available at an acceptable price.

Gauging the size of the marine carbon fiber market involves educated guesswork because there is no good mechanism for tracking carbon fiber sales to specific markets. Standard reporting regimes — NAICS codes, for example — lack this specificity. Additionally, public companies tend to provide only general information about their markets.

One way to ballpark market size is to assume that the market breakdown at a large composite materials manufacturer roughly reflects the general market. For example, figures released by supplier Gurit (Wattwil, Switzerland) suggest that the marine market accounted for no more than 10 percent of the company's total 2006 sales. In addition, based on Gurit's sales figures, carbon fiber accounts for no more than 10 percent of the total composite materials sold into the marine industry. That puts Gurit's sales of carbon fiber materials to the marine industry at roughly 1 percent of its total sales.

Toray Industries (Tokyo, Japan) has estimated worldwide annual demand for PAN-based carbon fiber at 59 million lb (26,760 metric tonnes). If we assume that marine accounts for roughly 1 percent of Toray's estimated worldwide demand, then the size of the marine carbon fiber market is about 590,000 lb (267 metric tonnes).

Richard O'Meara, president of advanced composite materials distributor Core Composites Inc. (Newport, R.I.), believes the actual size is slightly lower. Having consulted with marine customers for more than two decades, O'Meara puts the estimate at 405,000 lb (184 metric tonnes) per year, with masts, high-performance sailing boats and megayachts currently the three highest-consuming applications (see Table 1, p. 9).

If we split the difference between the two estimates, we have 500,000 lb (almost 227 metric tonnes) per year, worth $10 million to $12 million (USD). Marine carbon fiber growth at "break out" stage

Although the market is relatively small, indications are that it is poised for significant growth. One indicator is new boat sales, which hit bottom in 2003, rebounded in 2004 and since have grown at roughly prerecession rates, according to the National Marine Manufacturer's Assn. (see Table 2, p. 9). Sales for outboard and inboard boats (not broken out in the table) were down again in 2006, but new boat unit sales were up 6 percent, led by canoes and kayaks, which were up by 29 and 13 percent, respectively.

The jump in canoe sales is significant because carbon is increasingly used in high-end canoe designs. Gordon Shank, district sales manager at carbon fabric supplier JB Martin Ltd. (St. Jean Sur Richelieu, Quebec, Canada), reports that using carbon fiber in the 90° or transverse axis and glass or aramid in the 0° axis is the trend. "By combining carbon with glass," he explains, "you get the stiffness but neutralize the inherent brittleness of carbon fiber." Canoes, however, are just the beginning.

While the use of carbon fiber in sailing yacht rigging systems — masts, shrouds, stays and spreaders — has become standard, says Al Horsmon, chief naval architect, Gurit USA Inc. (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), the practice is now spreading, primarily in Europe, to the upper deck structures of mega poweryachts to decrease topside weight and increase boat stability.

Elsewhere, the racing boat category has been a steady but flat-growth segment of marine carbon fiber use because it is specialized and small. Observers, however, see the greatest growth potential in a closely related but much larger segment, the 20-ft to 40-ft sport or "cruiser" boat. Although cruisers historically feature fiberglass construction, a study conducted by boatbuilder Baja Marine (Bucyrus, Ohio) found that it was more economical to use 50K carbon fabric than multiple layers of fiberglass on stringer-beam systems used to provide structural support for decks, bulkheads and other structures. Baja VP of operations Bill Regan says his plant now builds about 1,000 boats a year with carbon-fiber stringer-beam systems. The company is also building four or five high-performance boats a year with hybrid S-glass/Kevlar/carbon hulls and decks. He says he expects the use of carbon fiber in the company's boats to expand.

Carbon's incursion into the cruiser segment could be a turning point. "That's where the meat of the market is," O'Meara contends. "If Brunswick [Baja's parent company] alone uses 25 lb of carbon fiber per boat, on average, and builds, say, 15,000 units a year, that is 350,000 lb of new carbon fiber demand just from one company."

According to marine market research firm Info-Link Technologies Inc. (South Miami, Fla.), total registrations for new high-performance and cruiser boats in 2006 totaled more than 58,000. At 25 lb/11.3 per boat, annual carbon fiber consumption in this segment alone could reach nearly 1.5 million lb (680.3 metric tonnes) — three times the size of the current overall marine carbon market. Incorporation of carbon into all cruisers may seem far-fetched, but O'Meara believes other sport boat manufacturers will be forced to follow the trend to stay competitive.

Horsmon believes that military boats are a potentially huge market for carbon fiber. While carbon fiber has long been used in military aircraft, use in military boats has been limited because the technical challenges are greater. "You obviously have more highly loaded parts in water than in air," he notes, pointing out that military boats require higher weight/strength ratios than commercial boats.

According to Horsmon, enabling technologies, especially resin infusion molding, are paving the way for greater acceptance and use of carbon fiber in naval applications. Gurit USA, he notes, has worked as a subcontractor in the development of two all-carbon, prototype littoral (shallow water) military craft, the 82-ft Mark V.1 and the 80-ft Stiletto (see "Inside Manufacturing" in this issue, p. 42). Horsmon says the government has not given the go-ahead to put either boat into production, but if it does, each could replace a fleet of 20 to 40 existing boats over the long-term.

Yet, just when demand for carbon in marine is accelerating, the market has rolled a boulder in the way. Although the worldwide supply of carbon fiber is increasing, it is still outpaced by demand. The result has been a four-fold increase in the price of the material over the past three to four years.

"The pricing issue has had an adverse effect on carbon in marine," reports JB Martin's Shank. "Commercial applications that were ripe for the picking have been delayed."

The short-term impact on growth is hard to pinpoint, but the above indicates that some new applications are moving forward despite the price spike. However, the good news, Shank says, is that commercial applications for marine "should really take off" when supply gets in line with demand. Full relief from the carbon fiber shortage, however, may be a year or more away. Toray is investing $452 million to boost its per-year production capacity of PAN-based carbon fiber from 30.65 million lb to 39.46 million lb (13,900 metric tonnes to 17,900 metric tonnes) by 2009. The increase will include a new 3.97 million lb/yr (1,800 metric ton/yr) production line at the company's subsidiary plant in Decatur, Ala. The company also is boosting its prepreg production capacity by 34 percent to 363.8 million ft2 (33.7 million m2) annually over the same period. Hexcel Corp. (Dublin, Calif.) announced an $80 million expansion that will increase its production of carbon fiber 40 percent by 2008.

Tim McCarthy, VP of sales and marketing for Zoltek Corp. (St. Louis, Mo.), says his company is boosting its annual commercial-grade (50K) fiber capacity from 3,000 tons to 10,500 tons (6.61 million lb to 23.1 million lb) by 2008, a 350 percent increase in little more than three years. "We designed this company to be able to respond to a surge in the market," Zoltek's McCarthy maintains. "We can build a line in six months, whereas the industry standard is over two years."

Additionally, Fiberex, a manufacturer of E-CR glass in Leduc, Alberta, Canada, reportedly is installing a carbon fiber line, which is scheduled to begin operation sometime in 2009. The capacity and type of carbon that will be produced on the line were not known at press time. According to an industry source, however, the company is currently taking orders out to a year in advance.

Although Toray predicts 15 percent annual growth in demand through 2010, planned capacity increases (those outlined above and others) should meet this demand. When it does, Shank believes marine carbon fiber growth could exceed the high single- to low double-digit growth of the past decade.

Considering only the active applications that are coming into the market, O'Meara predicts overall marine carbon fiber growth of 20 percent per year for the next five years. In the long-term? O'Meara sees an even rosier picture: "The use of carbon fiber in boats is going to grow exponentially."

For a detailed discussion of the ways and means by which carbon fiber is being employed by boatbuilders, see "Carbon Buys Its Way Onboard," in this issue, p. 48.

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Paris Air Show review

Paris Air Show review

The biennial aircraft showcase confirms composites as an established,permanent presence in commercial aircraft construction.

By Staff | September 2007

TCorp. 47th International Paris Air Show — Salon International de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace — held June 17-24 at Le Bourget airfield near Paris, was yet again a resounding success with more than 1,900 exhibitors and a very large contingent of both flying and static aircraft and equipment exhibits. Show organizers, the French aerospace industry society Groupement des Industries Françaises Aéronautiques et Spatiales (GIFAS), reported that the show attracted a record 153,920 visitors from the trade (12 percent more than in 2005), with the overall number of attendees, including public visitors, at well over 400,000.

While the display halls were extremely busy with plenty of interesting technology exhibited in the stands, there was little evidence of the truly new developments in composite technology that have characterized previous shows in recent years — innovations resulting in large part from developmental efforts on the now production-ready A380 from Airbus Industrie (Toulouse, France) and The Boeing Co.'s (Seattle, Wash.) 787 Dreamliner.

There were, however, a number of existing technologies on show by new entrants into the composite sector, including, notably, two from Japan (see below). And it was abundantly clear from the large number of composites applications on display that the aerospace industry is geared up for the use of composites and expects continued long-term growth. Boeing confirms rollout, Airbus bounces back

Volumes of composite material are now set to soar with the next generation commercial airliners taking to the skies over the coming years. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the redesigned Airbus A350 XWB are claiming the benefits of composites technology in terms of weight savings, environmental friendliness through lower fuel burn and reduced maintenance costs.

Boeing's 787 VP and general manager Mike Bair gave a progress report on the 787, saying everything was on target for the first rollout in July — a prediction that proved to be accurate (see "Learn More," p. 37). Three new 787 production line photographs were released to the press, demonstrating that the main airframe sections were beginning to come together. Boeing noted that because there was a delay in the delivery of fasteners, the components were connected with temporary fasteners, which had to be replaced on the final assembly line.

Bair was questioned about whether the 787 would hit its weight target — a crucial issue because weight reduction is a key benefit claimed by both Boeing and Airbus for their new, composites-intensive midsized aircraft. Bair said that a true picture of the aircraft's production weight would not be available until the seventh aircraft came off the assembly line, which would be the first delivery aircraft.

Bair also noted that a "phenomenal improvement" in maintenance scheduling has been achieved from the use of composites. Specifically, the intervals between "C" checks, when aircraft are inspected but not dismantled, would be extended from two to six years, while "D" checks, which require that aircraft be stripped for detailed structural inspection, would occur only every 12 years rather than every six. Boeing, therefore, claims that "the 787 would not have to go into a hangar for 12 years from delivery to the customer" — a particularly relevant statistic to airlines because out-of-service aircraft produce no revenue.

In reference to Boeing's 787-10 model, which would feature new technology that will permit the aircraft to carry 50 additional passengers without increasing maximum take-off weight, Bair said its launch would depend on the response from the marketplace. When questioned about the technology that would enable this, he said only that "it is commercially sensitive at this stage."

Meanwhile, Airbus dominated press reports coming out of the event as it continued to rediscover itself in terms of new business. The company announced firm orders for 425 aircraft, valued at more than $45 billion (USD). Although the twice-delayed A350 XWB is running well behind the 787 in terms of entry into service, airline confidence in the product was back on track, with a total of 232 firm orders, as of the end of the Paris show, recorded since the launch of the A350 XWB in December 2006. With composites fueling innovation in commercial aircraft, the Airbus-Boeing rivalry will no doubt continue despite Airbus' most recent challenges.

Mitsubishi unveils regional jet design

It also was quite clear from the show that the Japanese aerospace industry is intent on becoming a real contender in the marketplace with professional examples of research and development, component manufacture and product development activities on display. This was perhaps best demonstrated by the 90-seat Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) cabin mock-up and scale model, which attracted a lot of attention. Representatives from its builder, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI, Shinagawa, Japan), revealed that it had been in development since 2003 and, at this stage, was intended to gauge market interest. Although there is no specific program at this time, the MRJ, if built, would enter into service in 2012. Composites are targeted to the fuselage, wing and empennage, building on the technology development and experience gained by MHI from its development and production of the first composite wing boxes for the Boeing 787. Composites and a newly developed engine are projected to offer a 20 percent savings in fuel consumption compared to current regional jets.

New tiltrotor debuts

Although Airbus Industries' now-certified A380 superjumbo passenger jet once again overshadowed all other aircraft during the show's flying display, the Bell/Agusta BA609 tiltrotor (see photo, this page) made an impressive debut. Designed for the civil aviation market and billed as "a new way to fly," the BA609 is based on the original military V-22 Osprey concept — a joint venture between Bell Helicopter Textron (Hurst, Texas) and The Boeing Co.'s rotorcraft division in Ridley Park, Pa. During its early development phases in the 1990s, it was a showcase for composite primary structure demonstrators that, at the time, pushed the boundaries of composite technology in terms of unitization and bonding techniques that replaced fasteners, thereby minimizing weight. After a checkered history in terms of schedule compliance and, hence, time to market, the product has now evolved into a versatile machine for both the military (V-22) and the civilian (BA609) markets. The version flown at the show features an aluminum fuselage frame sheathed with composite skins and stringers; a single-piece composite top and bottom wing skin cover; and composite engine driveshafts. Liquid closed molding makes mark in aerospace Touted in the last decade as a potentially more cost-efficient manufacturing method for aircraft composites than autoclaved prepreg, liquid closed molding turned up in Paris on two significant programs.

Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc. (Montreal, Quebec) announced that its CRJ700 and CRJ900 NextGen aircraft have entered service with new advanced composite components, including flaps, vanes and ailerons fabricated in a resin transfer molding (RTM) process. The company claims that use of RTM has enabled significant parts consolidation — the total number of parts required for wing component assemblies has fallen by almost 80 percent for the aileron and 95 percent for the flap and vane. As has been the case with designers of Boeing's 787 and Airbus's A350, Bombardier's engineers anticipate reduced inspection and maintenance costs because, unlike their metal counterparts, the composite components are much less susceptible to fatigue and corrosion.

On show at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) exhibit was another example of Japan's developmental efforts — a very high-quality, 6m/19.7-ft long demonstrator wing section made using vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM). JAXA has been developing its process since 2005. The primary objective of the demonstrator was to prove manufacturing process control. The VARTM'd panel (see photo, p. 35) is a half wing and includes the main spar and stringers together with manholes (consistent with a lower wing skin panel). It was manufactured from unidirectional T800SC carbon fiber (Toray Industries Inc., Tokyo, Japan) for the skin and Tenax IMS5131 noncrimp fabric (Toho Tenax Co. Ltd., Tokyo) for the stringers, each infused with epoxy resin (XNr6809/xnh6809, supplied by Nagase ChemteX Corp., Osaka, Japan).

The demonstrator's simple architecture in terms of skin thickness and sculpturing is typical of a large commercial airliner vertical tail plane structure. The skin was designed using representative finite element modeling and computational fluid dynamics to ensure correct sizing. In the next stage of the development program, JAXA will build a demonstrator wing box of the same size by assembling this lower skin to an upper skin, together with the associated ribs, and then use the assembled specimen to verify the strength as a primary VARTM structure. This step will help JAXA engineers identify risks in obtaining type certification. JAXA representatives at the stand said the technology had been supported thus far by a pyramid of testing, using coupons and elements, but they acknowledged that there remain a number challenges to be overcome in the application of VARTM'd composites to high-performance commercial flying surfaces. These include tolerances across the line of flight, in terms of controlling the aerodynamic surfaces, and the joining technology. According to JAXA, work is in progress to overcome these challenges before the next phase of structural testing. The panel, after assembly, will be installed in a structural test rig and subjected to tests carried out in close collaboration with Japanese and U.S. aviation authorities. Composite armoring systems Although no actual material examples were displayed at the Plasan Sasa Ltd. stand, the armor specialist, based in Merom Hagalil, Israel, touted its many diverse composite applications for survivability solutions, ranging from personal protection systems, land- and sea-based systems to both fixed and rotary wing airborne armor systems. The latter are designed for versatility and already have been applied to a variety of aircraft. Plasan Sasa claimed the unique distinction as the only armorer to offer commercial aircraft manufacturers solutions that are all based on combat-proven technologies previously applied to Black Hawk, C130, Mi17 and Chinook helicopters. Product development benefits from the company's in-house research and testing program, which reportedly receives continuous combat performance feedback on product already in the field.

The company touted new armor that combines composite and ceramic materials and can be supplied as modular, portable kits or used in permanent, fixed installations, some of which can be applied without specific modification to the aircraft. The kits provide protection for pilots, aircrew and vulnerable parts of the airborne platform. U.K., EU groups merge The U.K.'s National Composites Network (NCN) announced that it is extending its activities into Europe by merging with the European Composites Network called IQ. Billed as a "unique knowledge transfer network," NCN is jointly funded by government and industry and is open to the entire U.K. composites industry and its supply chain. The U.K. NCN has established a number of Regional Centers of Excellence where companies can obtain hands-on support and expert advice.

The NCN intends to grow this cluster of centers from existing U.K. capabilities and focus future infrastructure investment on "capability gaps," as they are defined by the industry. This will enable the development of a national strategy for promoting the composites sector in the U.K. and abroad. The merger with the IQ network will help broker new collaborative teams within Europe to work together to further the technology and seek funding from the recently launched European Commission Framework Program 7. The seventh in a series of similar EU programs, FP7 is designed to improve Europe's competitive stance in the global marketplace by centralizing research-related EU initiatives under one roof. Administered in Luxembourg, FP7 is an outgrowth of the EU's ambitious Lisbon Strategy, a 10-year action plan conceived by the European Council in 2000, aimed at making the EU the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.

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Displaying 1-10 of 0 local Web site and business directory results

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Nse Composites
1101 N Northlake Way  Seattle, WA 98103
206-545-4888
Axium Composites
Redmond, WA 98052
425-885-2805
Composite Group
14680 Ne North Woodinville  Woodinville, WA 98072
425-482-6835
Heatcon Composite Systems
600 Andover Park W  Tukwila, WA 98188
206-575-1333
Novus Composites Inc
2911 Chandler St  Tacoma, WA 98409
253-476-8582
Pacific Coast Composit
11302 Steele St S  Lakewood, WA 98499
253-572-6262
Toray Composites America Inc
19002 50th Ave E  Tacoma, WA 98446
253-846-1777
All-Composite Inc
3206 232nd St E  Spanaway, WA 98387
253-847-5106
Composit Atlantic Ltd
8407 S 259th St Ste 303  Kent, WA 98030
253-852-4055
Composite Applications Inc
19649 70th Ave S  Kent, WA 98032
253-872-0870

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