Pultruded composites, discussed at the 2018 EPTA Conference in March, discussed composite rebar as a potential growth area. The European Pultrusion Technology Association (EPTA, Frankfurt, Germany) has published an in-depth report on its highly successful 2018 conference, which att

Airborne Oil & Gas (IJmuiden, the Netherlands) announced April 30 it has been awarded the first pipe supply for Over Sea & Land Concrete (OSL, San Francisco, CA, US), a new company that manufactures and delivers concrete from marine vessels. Airborne’s thermopl

  This is a follow-up to the recent series of articles on thermoplastic composites (TPCs) that I have written (see below) plus the thermoplastic tapes feature Jeff Sloan wrote in the Feb issue. Consolidating thermoplastic composite aerostructures in place, Part 1 Consolidating thermoplasti

Plastics manufacturing and composites manufacturing theoretically should, given their shared polymer-based DNA, have much in common. However, the predominance of continuous fiber reinforcements in composite parts and structures makes crossover between plastics and composites more the exception than

RTP Company (Winona, MN, US), a leading global compounder of custom engineered thermoplastics, announced May 3 the development of new light and tough (LT) Compounds, a series of thermoplastic compounds that weigh 5 - 10% less than typical filled compounds, but with equivalent mechanical properties a

M. Holland Company (Northbrook, IL, US), a leading distributor of thermoplastic resins, announced May 7 it has signed a distribution agreement with Owens Corning (Toledo, OH, US), a global leader in the glass fiber reinforced composite industry, to distribute the company’s XSTRAND pr

CW has written about continuous fiber-reinforced 3D printed composites since 2014, when MarkForged released the Mark One printer at the SolidWorks World conference (Jan 26-29, 2014). We then covered Arevo and its development of multi-axis printing using continuous fiber, including in the z-direction

Automotive Management Consulting (AMC, Penzberg, Germany)  is consulting firm  specializing in automotive industry strategies, processes and structures. It has developed the patented xFK in 3D process which uses continuous composite fibers (e.g., carbon, glass, basalt) and 3

Resin manufacturer Sicomin (Marseilles, France) reported on May 9 that it has received the ECOBOARD Project Gold Level qualification for its entire range of bio-based epoxy resins. The certification applies to Sicomin’s GreenPoxy range that now consists of five resin system

SOURCE for all images: Arevo.   CW has covered Arevo (Santa Clara, CA, US) since 2014. Known for its use of high-performance thermoplastic polymers, including polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyaryletherketone (PAEK), polyetherimide (PEI) and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), the company was also

  I found in my inbox last week a picture like this one illustrating a blog by Jake Kavanagh (May 24, 2018) in the Epoxycraft newsletter —Epoxycraft is published by West System International (Romsey, UK), the maker of well-known marine epoxies WEST SYSTEM and PRO-SET under license from

  CW has written about Lingrove and its Ekoa products many times, but those were thermoset prepregs and panels using flax fiber and bio-epoxy resin. The company has now launched Ekoa TP, using a lignin-based thermoplastic for industrial-scale fast processing and recyclability in a structura

At the onset of carbon fiber composites’ current advance into automotive applications, manufacturer BMW Group (Munich, Germany) seemed to stand apart. Initial work to accelerate resin transfer molding (RTM) for production of its M sport model’s roof led to establishment of a complete sup

  As the feature article “The spread of spread tow” went to print, this Side Story was much different, talking mostly about how much we don’t know about how tow is spread. And then I ran across an article in the AZL newsletter NewsLIGHT #7: ITA titled &l

The SAMPE 2018 general session featured the announcement of the top three papers presented at the conference, and a keynote presented by Carmelo Lo Faro, president, Solvay Composite Materials (Alpharetta, GA, US). The top three papers were:

EconCore (Leuven, Belgium) is making progress in development of new all-thermoplastics continuous honeycomb cores. The advances come after the installation of a laboratory-scale extrusion and forming line at the company’s R&D facilities in Leuven, Belgium. At the heart of t

KraussMaffei (Munich, Germany) on June 6 announced two pipe extrusion technologies. KraussMaffei Berstorff’s TCP (Thermoplastic Composite Pipes) pilot line supports pre-qualifying customer-specific sample pipes meeting the pressure standards of the oil and gas industry.&nb

Fynotej (Mexico City, Mexico), a well-known manufacturer of high-quality automotive non-wovens, is the first licensee in North America focused on automotive applications for EconCore’s (Leuven, Belgium) ThermHex thermoplastic honeycomb core production technology. Fynotej began produc

Ashland (Columbus, OH, US) announced June 21 it has appointed VELOX (Hamburg, Germany) as its new main composites distributor for France. The new distribution agreement, which is effective July 1, 2018, includes all Ashland unsaturated polyester resin, gel coat, low-profile additives products

    The 2018 AIA Conference on Architecture, the annual national meeting for the American Institute of Architects (AIA