ENATA Industries (Dubai, UAE), founded by Sylvain Vieujot with offices in Singapore, France and Switzerland, was, says the company, born from the passion for applying high-tech engineering to sailing, flying and architecture, underpinned by advanced composites technology. In 2016, ENATA ac

Covestro (Leverkusen, Germany) and EconCore N.V. (Leuven, Belgium) have announced a joint collaboration on development of strong and lightweight honeycomb panels that comply with Fire, Smoke, Toxicity (FST) requirements for public transportation applications, including railway and aer

Weight reduction continues to be a goal for electric vehicles (EVs), improving performance and extending range. To that end, designers and manufacturers are exploring the use of composites in battery enclosures, body panels, chassis structures and suspension components. However, one project has set

Altair Altair (Troy, MI, US), provider of advanced software solutions to a broad array of industry verticals and business segments, announced Jan. 8 it has added Amy Messano as chief marketing officer (CMO), and Ubaldo Rodriguez as senior vice president of Global Sales. Messano will lead

Automotive OEMs and Tier 1s are grappling with the need to reduce vehicle mass to meet fuel economy and carbon emission targets. Composite materials have the potential to contribute significantly to this lightweighting push in many areas, but cost, design issues, unfamiliar processing and competitio

Teijin Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced in January that its Tenax carbon fiber and carbon fiber thermoplastic unidirectional pre-impregnated tape (Tenax TPUD) have been qualified by Boeing and registered in its qualified products list. Teijin will supply Tenax TPUD as an intermediate advanced composite

The list of mechanical functions that composite materials are expected to provide is well known and long: Strength, stiffness, toughness, durability, weatherability, corrosion resistance, impact resistance, fire resistance. This last requirement is one that composites have been addressing for many y

Chem-Trend (Howell, Mich., U.S.), developer and manufacturer of high-performance release agents, purging compounds, and other process chemical specialties, announced on January 29 the opening of an advanced research and development (R&D) laboratory space in Maisach, Germany, about 25 kilome

Hull Industries (New Britain, Pa., U.S.), manufacturer of plastic and composite processing equipment, has been acquired by Trinks Inc. (Green Bay, Wis., U.S.), formerly known as LMG. The two companies have had a friendly history and Trinks Inc. plans to combine the product lines. &ld

AeroLas (Munich, Germany) is working to develop a new spinning technology for creating thermoplastic hybrid yarn. The process combines recycled carbon fiber with PEEK using adapted art textile machines and a patented air guided ring spinning technology.  According to AeroLas, the result

This blog is in response to a Jan 2019 article in WIRED magazine, which claims carbon fiber composite production is holding back the development of electric vehicle (EV)/vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft for the urban mobility and air taxi market. I’m going to debate this, but also

Epoxies, Etc. (Cranston, R.I., U.S.) has launched its new 10-3041 Toughened Epoxy Adhesive, which reportedly develops a 3,000 psi lap shear strength within four hours. Within minutes the material is dry to the touch.  The 10-3041 high performance epoxy adhesive bonds to a variety of

My latest blog, about HIA Velo bicycles, concerned the use of high molecular weight polypropylene (HMWPP) combined with carbon fiber for more durable bicycle frames. But there’s more to cover on this topic: bicycle rims (wheels) that combine carbon and HMWPP for greater toughness. I recently h

In April 2016, I authored a column titled “Can we make recycled carbon fiber sexy?”. It was written after I had seen a roof panel on a BMW i8 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit that was made from a visible, clear-coated carbon fiber mat, recovered and repurposed fro

Great Bay Community College (GBCC, Portsmouth, N.H., U.S. ) has added morning classes for its Advanced Composites Manufacturing Certificate, enabling students working the second or third shift to attend classes. The change directly benefits many employees at Safran Aerospace Composites (Ro

SABIC (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), is showcasing for the first time in the Americas, STADECK heavy duty-panels for scaffolding and numerous other applications, at the NAHB – International Builders Show in Las Vegas, February 19-21. The high-strength, lightweight panels for the building an

Making electric cars lighter also involves reducing the weight of the motor. One way to do that is by constructing it from fiber-reinforced polymer materials. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT are working together with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT to de

This blog is a follow-up to my February feature “Withstanding fire without the weight”. In my interviews for that article, three different resin suppliers/brands were mentioned: Ashland, Polynt and Scott Bader. I decided to follow up with these three companies to learn more.  

At JEC World 2019, Engel Austria (Schwertberg, Austria) is presenting its technologies for processing of organic sheets and unidirectional tapes, in-situ polymerization, high-pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM) and flow molding with SMC. Engel is demonstrating its organomelt process at th

Automated preforming of thermoplastic tapes and subsequent hybrid molding — thermoforming and injection overmolding ribs, clips and bosses onto part surfaces — have been heralded as the future for composites manufacturing in high-volume applications such as automotive. But what if it was