As the CAMX media sponsor, CompositesWorld reported on several new or improved developments on display, from CAMX Award and ACE Award winners, to the keynote speaker and interesting technologies. #camx #ndi #787
Exhibitors have descended on Dallas for the more than 130 presentations and 360+ exhibitors showcasing their capabilities and the projects they’ve been working on, despite the pandemic. Day 1 and 2 were full of networking, demonstrations and unparalleled innovations. Photo Credit: CW
Seven hundred and forty four days after the iteration of CAMX 2019, composites exhibitors and attendees were finally able to come back together. It was agreed that the turnout for this year’s trade show was larger than expected, and the visual aspects of it — such as Composite One’s (Schaumburg, Ill., U.S.) demo booth at the center of the hall — were a big hit after such a long period of isolation.
Moreover, it was made abundantly clear that composites fabricators and engineers had been far from idle since the shutdown back in March 2020. As the CAMX media sponsor, CompositesWorld reported on several of these developments from CAMX Award and ACE Award winners, to several new or interesting technologies on display in the CAMX Show Dailies. Below is an aggregation of this work.
By Hannah Mason, Associate Editor, CompositesWorld
Keynote speaker Gregory Ulmer, executive VP of Aeronoautics at Lockheed Martin. Photo Credit: CW
Keynote speaker Gregory Ulmer, executive VP of Aeronautics at Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, Md., U.S.) capped CAMX 2021’s general session presenting the past and future of composites within aeronautics, focusing on the role of automation and the digital thread.
Lockeed Martin has several divisions — rotorcraft, space, missiles and aeronautics. Within Ulmer’s aeronautics divisions, focuses include fighter aircraft like the F-35, hypersonics and other technology developments within the company’s Skunk Works division. He noted the importance of partnerships in the company’s successes: “Composites are two dissimilar materials combined together to form something new. That’s the way that Lockheed Martin approaches its partnerships, as well.”
The history of composites within Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics division, Ulmer explained, began in the 1970s, with the F-16 fighter jet which had a 5% composite structure. By the 1990s, the F-22 was 25% composite. Within this time, Lockheed Martin did a variety of trade studies, he said, to calculate the cost savings on lightweighting these vehicles, and whether composites are the best option.
The current era of composites development at Lockheed Martin was ushered in with the development of the F-35 in the late 1990s, with composites on the aircraft incorporating approximately 35% of its structural weight. The F-35 program also ushered in automation and digitalization technologies such as automated drilling, optical projection, ultrasonic nondestructive inspection (NDI), laminate thickness control and precision machining of composite structures.
Another area of focus for the company’s composites R&D, he said, is bonding. Over the past 30 years, he reports successes in this area on parts such as a composite engine inlet duct, wing components and a fuselage structure.
He noted, however, “The benefits of bonding are often diluted by challenges in processes, inspection and verification for high volumes.” For high-volume programs like the F-35, Lockheed Martin has also worked to develop fastener robots for automated mechanical connections.
He also mentioned the company’s work in developing structured light metrology for composite parts, for comparing as-built structures with their original designs. Current technology developments include rapid low-cost tooling; more automated processes like drilling, trimming and fastening; and low-rate, high-quality manufacturing. Hypersonic aircraft are also a focus area, including work in ceramic matrix composites (CMC) and carbon-carbon composite structures.
Also new for the company, a future factory location is under development in Palmdale, Calif., U.S., he said, and will support multiple future programs. This facility will include automated assembly, metrology inspection and material handling, as well as portable automation technologies, and a flexible, temperature-controlled manufacturing floor.
“Lockheed Martin’s digital transformation continues,” he said, and is enabling the company to focus on agility and customer responsiveness, performance insight and predictability and overall competitiveness in the market.
“Composites will continue to be a key aerospace material for future programs,” he concluded, “and continued materials and process development is required to make it happen.”
By Jeff Sloan, Editor-in-Chief, CompositesWorld
Ken Huck, director of product development at TrinityRail, received the Combined Strength Award (left). The Unsurpassed Innovation Award went to Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials (right). Photo Credit: CW
CAMX 2021 was officially kicked off yesterday with the General Session, which included the announcement of the winners of the CAMX Awards. There are two CAMX Awards, one called the Combined Strength Award and the other called the Unsurpassed Innovation Award. Nominees this year were highly diverse and spanned a variety of end markets, applications, materials and processes.
TrinityRail entry. Photo Credit: CW
The winner of the Combined Strength Award went to TrinityRail (Dallas, Texas, U.S.) for a first-of-its-kind composite primary load floor the company developed for one of its refrigerated boxcars. Developed in cooperation with Composite Applications Group (CAG, McDonald, Tenn., U.S.), Wabash National (Lafayette, Ind., U.S.) and Structural Composites (Melbourne, Fla., U.S.), the composite floor replaces an all-steel legacy structure and enabled a 4,500-pound weight reduction in the boxcar. The design also allowed TrinityRail to innovate a secondary floor that allows easy transition for transport of frozen food or fresh produce.
Ken Huck, director of product development at TrinityRail, received the award and thanked TrinityRail’s composites industry partners for their help on the project. He also described the composite primary floor as marking a “new era for composites in the rail industry.” He also noted that TrinityRail is working on other composite structures in other rail applications. “We will have more exciting things to show you soon,” he said.
Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials entry. Photo Credit: CW
The Unsurpassed Innovation Award went to Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials (Mesa, Ariz., U.S.) for its entry titled “High-Volume Structural Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Injection Molded ETP Composite.” The focus of the entry is Mitsubishi’s new injection moldable KyronMAX carbon fiber/nylon material that offers a tensile strength of more than 50,000 psi/345 MPa. Mitsubishi describes KyronMAX as the strongest injection moldable material in the world and says the performance of KyronMAX is attributable to the sizing technology the company developed, which allows short fiber reinforcements to exhibit the mechanical properties of long fibers (>1 mm). The material was launched on the MY 2021 Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Gladiator, used to mold receiver brackets that attach the roof to the vehicle.
By Jeff Sloan, Editor-in-Chief, CompositesWorld
Airtech International mold. Photo Credit: CW
Gregory Haye, director of Additive Manufacturing at Airtech International (Huntington Beach, Calif., U.S.), outlined for CW at CAMX 2021 Airtech’s strategy surrounding its recent entry into the resin and mold making market with additive manufacturing technology. Airtech began offering, right before the pandemic struck, moldmaking services using a Thermwood (Dale, Ind., U.S.) LSAM large-format additive manufacturing machine. The first system was installed and operates in the company’s Custom Engineered Products division location in Springfield, Tenn., U.S. The second is installed at Airtech’s Luxembourg location.
Haye says the expansion is part of a two-prong strategy for Airtech in additive manufacturing. The first and most important prong is the development of thermoplastic resin systems designed specifically for 3D-printing of molds and tooling. The second prong, the moldmaking service, is an enabler of the first prong.
“We felt we needed to push the market forward to support adoption and qualification of 3D-printed molds and resins,” Haye says. “Further, it is critical our customers of both the tooling and resins are successful with these new solutions so we went to extreme lengths to validate both the resins and finished tooling. By printing every day, we are able to better support our customers with industry leading materials and process know-how as well as help us identify new solutions to develop for the market.”
Airtech’s current printing materials lineup (see photo below) includes Dahltram S-150CF ABS, Dahltram C-250CF and C-250GF polycarbonate, and Dahltram I-350CF PEI. This also includes two purging compounds, Dahlpram 009 and Dahlpram SP209. Further, says Haye, the company is engaged in new product development that is evaluating resins for high-temperature, low-CTE applications. Airtech has also conducted extensive materials testing, building a database of as-printed mechanical properties. Airtech has also identified suitable repair materials and is continuously testing compatible contact materials and thermoset resin systems. In addition to this database, the global team has been extensively testing these resins systems on end-use tooling products with extensive autoclave cycle testing and part fabrication.
The company had on display at CAMX one tool manufactured by CEAD (Delft, Netherlands) using one of its resins, and another (see photo above) printed by Titan Robotics (Colorado Springs, Colo., U.S.). Both were made with Dahltram C-250CF. Airtech is dedicated to making these materials machine agnostic and suitable for all large scale 3D printing.
Airtech International resins. Photo Credit: CW
By Hannah Mason, Associate Editor, CompositesWorld
On the show floor, Massivit 3D (Lod, Israel) is displaying its Massivit 3D printing system for producing fast, 3D-printed tooling for the production of composite parts.
The goal is fast tool production, says Jeff Freeman of Massivit 3D — reportedly a week or less for a finished mold compared to many weeks for traditional tooling. Using Massivit’s gel dispensing printing (GSP) technology, the system prints a hollow mold “shell” from a UV-curable, acrylic-based thermoset gel. This material is water-breakable — not water-soluble, so the material doesn’t contaminate the water. The shell mold is filled with a liquid epoxy and then the whole structure is oven-cured and then submerged in water so that the acrylic shell breaks away. The resultant mold is said to be an isotropic, durable, strong mold with properties capable of hand layup of composite parts. According to Massivit 3D, materials R&D on the resultant epoxy mold material is ongoing, including the addition of fibers or other reinforcements or fillers to reduce weight or add properties for various applications.
The Massivit system can also print water-breakable interior mandrels for use in producing hollow, complex-geometry tube-shaped composite components. The inner mandrel is printed, and then after layup of the composite component, it is broken up by submersion into water, leaving the final part. The company has a beta machine on display at the show with a demonstrator seat component and hollow tube-shaped part. Massivit plans to start selling machines starting Q1 2022. The current system on display has a temperature capability of up to 120°C (250°F), and the goal is to release a system capable of temperatures up to 180°C.
Current target application areas include medical and automotive components, and Freeman notes that aerospace-grade components will likely be possible in the near future.
By Grace Nehls, Assistant Editor, CompositesWorld
(Left) outlet guide vane, (top right) containment case and (top bottom) UAV drone body. Photo Credit: CW
A&P Technology (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) is previewing a range of projects including an outlet guide vane for aeroengines, a UAV drone body, a tunnel closeout for the 2021 Chevrolet Corvette and a containment case for small business jet engines. The outlet guide vane, used to guide airflow, is a braided carbon fiber with a toughened epoxy (PR520) resin system, produced via RTM. A&P says it is a custom-tailored product and was jointly developed. The UAV drone body is overbraided as one piece and processed via infusion. Approximately 4.5 meters, it applies a spread tow for both aesthetics and because the fibers are said to lay flatter; this aids in a smoother aerodynamic surface. The tunnel closeout makes use of A&P’s QISO material and chopped fiber. The pultruded part boasts a custom-made width to avoid material waste. Finally, the containment case, a commercial piece produced for FJ44-4 Cessna aircraft, has a QISO-type architecture with a contoured fabric, which makes it easy to wrap and reduces waste. RTM is the processing method.
Re:Build Manufacturing’s (Framingham, Mass., U.S.) primary focus centers around returning manufacturing to the U.S. It is composed of a collection of companies — including the recent purchases of Oribi Manufacturing (Commerce City, Colo., U.S.), Cutting Dynamics Inc. (CDI, Avon, Ohio, U.S.) and Composite Resources (Rock Hill, S.C., U.S.) — covering the entire supply chain, from design, to production and assembly, and brings a holistic approach to composites; Re:Build uses thermosets, thermoplastics, carbon, glass and natural fibers for a wide variety of applications. Further, the company says it has acquired multiple engineering service groups equipping them with more than 200 engineers to design the products and processes which will make reshoring of advanced manufacturing in the U.S. increasingly possible. Re:Build is specifically showcasing its advanced materials group at CAMX.
Temper Inc. (Cedar Springs, Mich., U.S.) is displaying an example of its Smart Susceptor tooling made using a metal alloy tailored to provide efficient, even induction heating across large spans and 3D geometry, but also with an inherent Curie temperature, at which heating will stop. Areas below the temperature, for example, in complex corners or between skin and stringers, will continue to heat until they reach the Curie temperature. Temper showed a demonstration tool for an 18” x 26” automotive seat back made using chopped glass fiber/PPS compound in a matched-metal tool and press for an IACMI program with Boeing, Ford Motor Co. and Vestas. Temper also showed a section from an 8-foot wide by 22-foot long demonstrator representative of a Boeing 787 horizontal tail plane. Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T, Seattle, Wash., U.S.) made two such demonstrators using Smart Susceptor tooling, both using unidirectional (UD) carbon fiber, one with PEEK and the other with PEKK. The part was made using bladder forming/diaphragm molding with a thin aluminum membrane. Smart Susceptor tooling offers energy-efficient composites molding with part cycle times from three minutes to two hours, depending on the part materials, geometry and smart susceptor configuration.
By Jeff Sloan, Editor-in-Chief, CompositesWorld
A few of the ACE Award winners for CAMX 2021. (Top left) Frost Engineering & Consulting, (top right) Oak Ridge National Laboratory, (bottom left) Mallinda Inc. and (bottom right) Victrex.
The American Composites Manufacturers Assn. (ACMA, Arlington, Va., U.S.) yesterday hosted the awards ceremony for its Awards in Composites Excellence (ACE) competition. ACE recognizes nominees and winners in six categories that include innovation in green design, application creativity, equipment and tooling innovation, material and process innovation, sustainability and potential for market growth.
Aditya Birla Advanced Materials (Rayong, Thailand), a part of Aditya Birla Group (Mumbai, India), and composite materials recycler Vartega (Golden, Colo., U.S.) have recently signed a memorandum of understanding to partner on recycling and developing downstream applications for composite products. See “Aditya Birla Advanced Materials, Vartega develop a recycling value chain for thermoset composites” for the full report.
By Ginger Gardiner, Senior Editor, CompositesWorld
L&L Products (Romeo, Mich., U.S.) is displaying its PHASTER XP-607 two- component rigid foaming adhesive that offers structural bonding to composites, aluminum, steel, wood and cement without surface treatment. PHASTER does not crumble but offers high toughness via a 100% closed-cell foam that is tappable for mechanical fastening and also inherently fire resistant. PHASTER’s flexibility in formulation also allows its use in gasketing and sealing applications. All PHASTER formulations are VOC-free, with no isocyanurate and no air permit requirements.
L&L is also highlighting its Continuous Composite Systems (CCS) pultruded products, featured in the 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L composite tunnel reinforcement, which was recognized with a 2021 Altair Enlighten Award, along with partners BASF (Wyandotte, Mich., U.S.) and automaker Stellantis (Amsterdam, Netherlands). The part features a continuous hybrid glass and carbon fiber/PA6 pultruded CCS overmolded with unreinforced PA6.
Qarbon Aerospace (Red Oak, Texas, U.S.) carries forward decades of experience from Triumph Aerospace Structures, with new investment in the processes needed for next-gen platforms. One example is the thermoplastic composite wing box demonstrator on stand formed by induction welding stringers and thermoformed ribs to skins, all made from Toray Cetex TC1225 UD carbon fiber low-melt PAEK tape. This patented, TRL 5 process is dynamic, using an in-house developed end effector and enables blind welding (one-side only access) without a susceptor. The process, which also allows heat to be focused only at the weld line, has been proven via physical testing, showing lap shear strength greater than co-cured thermosets and approaching that of autoclave co-consolidated structures.
By Hannah Mason, Associate Editor, CompositesWorld
On display this week at IDI Composites International’s (Noblesville, Ind., U.S) CAMX booth, X27, is a Coyote Mustang sporting carbon fiber composite wheels made by Vision Composite Products (Decatur, Ala., U.S.) from a combination of IDI’s Ultrium U660 carbon fiber/epoxy sheet molding compound (SMC) and braided preforms from A&P Technology (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.).
Darell Jern, senior project development specialist at IDI Composites, says the wheels are the result of a five-year collaboration between the companies and are the first components to use IDI’s U660 1-inch chopped fiber SMC. The compression molded wheels, produced at Vision Composite Products’ facility, are said to exhibit a 40% weight reduction compared to aluminum wheels, as well as low density and high strength to meet all SAE wheel regulations.
The carbon fiber forged wheel, displayed on the CAMX show floor. Photo Credit: CW
“It was a great collaboration with Vision all the way through,” Jern says. “We worked with them through multiple iterations and material development to get the results we wanted.” The epoxy-based SMC was developed to meet the high strength requirements, and were put to the test in a 48-hour durability test.
Jern adds that these are cost-effective, U.S.-made products are capable of producing wheels at high volumes for lightweighting racecars, utility terrain vehicles (UTV), electric vehicles (EV) and more. He notes that Ultrium U660 is suitable for many other types of automotive applications as well, in the vehicle interior and exterior, with more projects underway.
By Hannah Mason, Associate Editor, CompositesWorld
The pandemic and ongoing supply chain issues were, of course, points of discussion on the show floor, and in several presentations. During his general session address, Marcio Sandri, president of composites at Owens Corning (Toledo, Ohio, U.S.), said, “What the pandemic demonstrated is that when we need to, the composites industry can work together to find new solutions for old problems.” He spoke about the increased use of digital tools, and the importance of a localized supply chain and partnerships.
Marcio Sandri, president of composites at Owens Corning. Photo Credit: CW
On the show floor, CW had the opportunity to speak with Sandri and Chris Skinner, VP of strategic marketing for Owens Corning.
Sandri reiterated that the pandemic has actually brought several opportunities for both materials suppliers like Owens Corning and fabricators. “The pandemic has helped us see the increasing value of composites for sustainability and lightweighting, infrastructure and more,” and he noted that automation and digitization of composites manufacturing operations allow for less touch labor in manufacturing— important during workforce shortages.
Regarding ongoing supply chain issues, Sandri said that current conditions are teaching the industry not to rely on long supply chains. He said conversations between suppliers, fabricators and others on the supply chain need to have conversations about simplifying both the supply chain itself, and the way that composites are presented to the industry.
Regarding opportunities in sustainability, Owens Corning is working toward recyclable materials for wind turbines, Sandri said. This includes work with the ZEBRA (Zero wastE Blade ReseArch) consortium, which began in 2020 with the goal of designing and manufacturing a 100% recyclable wind turbine blade. Partners include LM Wind Power, Arkema, Canoe, Engie and Suez.
By Grace Nehls, Assistant Editor, CompositesWorld
As a U.S. representative of Adapa A/S (Aalborg, Denmark), Metyx Composites (Istanbul, Turkey and Gastonia, N.C., U.S.) exhibits the company’s adaptive mold technology at booth S20 as a solution for composite parts with dimensional and geometric complexity, including applications in aerospace, marine and construction, to name a few. The intelligent, reconfigurable mold, offered in sizes up to 10 x 10 m (approximately 33 x 33 ft), uses a 3D file or model, which is then panelized into smaller pieces to fit the mold. Once this is complete, the file information is fed into the mold’s control unit, and each individual panel can then be modified to the desired shape.
The adaptive mold is comprised of linear actuators, powered by CAM-controlled electrical step motors, which bring it into the desired 3D position, while the flexible rod system enables high accuracy and low tolerances. On top sits the 18-mm thick silicon ferromagnetic composite membrane, which stays in place by magnets attached to the rod systems; according to Adapa’s John Sohn, this silicon membrane does not need to be replaced. Resin infusion and thermoforming are some processes that are possible when using this tool. Sohn mentioned that Adapa’s more industrial partners also use it for hand layup and automation.
Metyx Composites is a manufacturer of high-performance technical textiles, which include multiaxial reinforcements, carbon fiber reinforcements, RTM reinforcements, woven reinforcements and vacuum bagging products. Its two composites-related businesses include METYX Composites Tooling Center and METYX Composites Kitting.
On display at the Polynt Reichhold (Carpentersville, Ill., U.S.) booth W3, the hood of this all-terrain vehicle was built using light resin transfer molding (LRTM) by Eastside Industrial Coatings & Composites (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) using fiberglass and Polynt A 6104 A halogen-free fire-retardant resin. According to Polynt Reichhold, the resin is an unsaturated polyurethane resin that meets Federal Transit Authority docket 90 flammability requirements, and exhibits the low viscosity and processability needed for LRTM. With this new fire- retardant product, Polynt Reichhold anticipates moving into more mobility and rail components in future.
By Hannah Mason, Associate Editor, CompositesWorld
DowAksa sub-frame. Photo Credit: CW
At its CAMX booth L50, DowAksa (Farmington Hills, Mich., U.S.) is displaying its capabilities for cost-competitive carbon fiber solutions in various end markets. Since forming in 2012 as a joint venture between Dow and Aksa, the company’s primary business has been its 70% carbon fiber/polyurethane pultruded profiles, used mainly for wind blade spar caps, according to Ramki Subramanian, managing director of DowAksa USA. “All wind blades over 70 meters today use our spar caps,” he says.
The company, he says, is expanding its carbon fiber capacity at its facilities in Turkey, leading to additional business in wind but also into other markets such as automotive, marine and other mobility markets.
On display at the show are several R&D automotive components DowAksa has built with its new line of XForge thermoset- and thermoplastic-based carbon fiber materials. For example, at the booth is a hybrid aluminum and carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) assembly concept for a Ford Transit front sub-frame. Part of the Composite Hybrid Automotive Suspension System Innovative Structures (CHASSIS) project, the component incorporated DowAksa’s XForge VZ (for the rear beam) and XForge VF (for upper and lower panels), and is said to have achieved a 41% overall weight savings over the original steel assembly.
Also on display is a floor plan concept part, which also incorporates XForge VZ and XForge VF products. Part of Aston Martin’s Continuous And Discontinuous Fiber Engineered Composites (CADFEC) project, two separate composite materials were co-molded in a fully automated process and achieved a weight savings of 31% compared to the original aluminum assembly.
According to Subramanian, within its wind business, DowAksa is also looking into ways to reuse carbon fiber composite pultruded parts at a wind blade’s end of life (EOL). One development on display at the show is the use of recycled wind blade pultrusions to reinforce wooden beams used in construction, which Subramanian says increases stiffness and ultimately the capability for increased beam length.
By Jeff Sloan, Editor-in-Chief, CompositesWorld
At left are two identical parts, one machined aluminum with metallic coating, the other molded HX5 with the same coating. At right are two identical HX5 parts, one painted and coated. Photo Credit: CW
The thermoplastic resin systems typically used in composites fabrication include PEEK, PEKK, PAEK, PEI, PES and nylon. Joining that list is HX5, an engineered thermoplastic formulation developed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and now offered by Alpine Advanced Materials (Dallas, Texas, U.S.), booth U47.
HX5 is offered in pelletized format for injection molding or extrusion. Its chemistry is proprietary and includes a carbon fiber reinforcement and a nanofiber to enhance mechanical performance. The material’s mechanical properties are substantial and Alpine has positioned it as an alternative to aluminum. It has RT tensile strength of 38.2 Ksi, RT tensile modulus of 4,000 Ksi, RT compression strength of 43 Ksi and RT compression modulus of 1,240 Ksi.
Alpine, however, is doing more than supplying HX5 into the marketplace. The company is also providing part design engineering, mold design and manufacturing services. Roger Raley, president, says moldmaking and injection molding is provided by third party manufacturers. Alpine also offers HX5 in billet format that can be CNC machined.
Raley says HX5 offers very low viscosity and flows easily into deep-draw and complex molds. Further, he notes that Alpine’s manufacturing strategy allows it to source injection molding with flexibility and scalability, depending on the needs of the customer. HX5 is also highly receptive to coatings and plating, whether for decorative or functional purposes, including EMI shielding.
Boeing and Airbus each is generating as much as a 1 million lb of cured and uncured carbon fiber prepreg waste each year from 787 and A350 XWB production. If you include the entire supply chain for these planes, the total is closer to 4 million lb/year. And with the automotive industry poised to consume (and waste) more carbon fiber than ever, recycling of composite materials has become an absolute necessity. The technology is there, but the markets are not. Yet.
Decades of development have propelled it to prominence but its future demands industrial solutions for handling cost, complexity and process control.
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