Photo Credit: Airbus Teledyne CML Composites (Bromborough, U.K.) recently announced that it has been awarded a “Life of Program” contract with Airbus (Madrid, Spain) to supply composite wing components and assemblies for the A400M Tactical Airlifter. The awarded packag

Photo Credit: Notus Composites Notus Composites (Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates) announced on Jan. 11 that it has completed the final shipment of its fire-retardant (FR) epoxy prepregs to Dubai for use in the construction of the Museum of the Future (read “Building the Museu

This blog is a follow-up to a presentation given by the German Aerospace Center (DLR, Stuttgart and Augsburg) at the TU Munich symposium last fall and CW’s summary published during the same time period, “Moving forward on the Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD)”. The

Service and engineering provider for lightweight technology and business development AZL Aachen (Aachen, Germany) is hosting the fifth webinar in its Lightweight TechTalk series, titled, “Best Practices in Lightweight Design with Thermoplastic Composites” on Thursday, Jan. 28, 13:0

Photo Credit: Victrex In a step toward the production of large-scale aerospace components from thermoplastic composites, polymer solutions provider Victrex (Cleveleys, U.K.) and automation and tooling specialist Electroimpact (Mukilteo, Wash., U.S.) recently announced t

Audax Private Equity (Audax, Boston, Mass., U.S.) announced on Jan. 19 that it has completed the sale of Gabriel Performance Products (Akron, Ohio, U.S.) to chemical manufacturing company Huntsman Corp. (The Woodlands, Texas, U.S.). Gabriel is a manufacturer of specialty chemicals, inc

Automotive liftgates, or rear-hatch doors, have slowly been transitioning from metals to composites for decades. While it wasn’t until 2013 that the first all-plastic/composite liftgate, minus metal support structure, was commercialized, most liftgates today still feature this support co

Photo Credit: Hexcel Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn., U.S.), a manufacturer of carbon fibers and other composite materials, reported on Jan. 25 its fourth quarter and full year 2020 results. This includes Q4 2020 net sales of $296 million and adjusted diluted EPS of ($0.18) per

CF3D technology uses snap-curing thermoset materials to reduce high cost, long lead times and design constraints. Photo Credit: Continuous Composites In September 2020, continuous fiber 3D printing specialist Continuous Composites (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, U.S.) announced a strategic pa

It was reported on Jan. 21 that Northrop Grumman Corporation (Falls Church, Va., U.S.) conducted the validation ground test of an extended length 63-inch-diameter graphite epoxy motor (GEM 63XL) in Promontory, Utah. This variation of the company’s GEM 63 strap-on booster was

Suprem SA (Yverdon-les-Bain, Switzerland) reported on Jan. 25 that it is leveraging its decades of thermoplastic composite materials into a new pultrusion line. The company says the advanced machinery enables the combining of continuous fibers (carbon, glass and aramid fibers) with high-per

It was reported on Feb. 1 that Evonik Industries (Essen, Germany) and consortium partners have developed a lighter and more cost-effective high-voltage battery housing concept for e-mobility solutions using glass fiber-reinforced epoxy sheet molding compound (SMC). According to

Photo Credit: Solvay On Feb. 2, Solvay (Alpharetta, Ga., U.S.) and Leonardo (Rome, Italy) announced the launch of a joint research lab dedicated to the development of novel thermoplastic composite materials and production processes, targeted at enabling a step-change in composite aerostr

Photo Credit: Carbitex Carbitex (Kennewick, Wash., U.S.), a company that makes flexible carbon fiber/thermoplastic composites for high-performance footwear, announced on Feb. 2 that it has received new investments and capital expansion from its principal investors, including the recently add

It was announced on Feb. 1 that Hawthorn Composites (Dayton, Ohio, U.S.) manufacturer of high-performance, complex geometry, structural composites (and Spintech Holdings’ new composites manufacturing business division) was awarded a structural inlet duct manufacturing co

In November 2020, Tecniplas (Cabreúva, Brazil), a manufacturer of tanks and special fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) equipment, took advantage of FRP’s versatility and developed composite equipment for a paper mill,  extending the equipment’s useful life

Covestro (Leverkusen, Germany) is planning a new production facility for polyurethane dispersions (PUDs) at the Covestro Integrated Site in Shanghai, China (CISS) to address the rising demand for environmentally compatible coatings and adhesives in the Asia-Pacific region. An additional

Specialty chemicals manufacturer, BYK Additives and Instruments (Wesel, Germany) has reported that its BYK-C 8001 additive product has earned Germanischer Lloyd (DNV GL, Oslo, Norway) Type Approval certification, for use within wind turbine rotor blades’ glass

Sicomin (Châteauneuf les Martigues, France) announces its latest collaboration with Greenboats GmbH (Bremen, Germany) to deliver what is said to be the first natural fiber composite (NFC) nacelle for an offshore wind turbine, and the largest NFC structure to date. Working with

The term “hydroelectric power” often brings to mind immense operations driven by purpose-built infrastructure such as dam systems and large turbines with traditionally metallic, propeller-based turbine blades. However, many areas are running out of new capacity for large, high-power