Loading ...Construction on Bombardier’s new CSeries aircraft wing manufacturing plant, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, began this week. U.K.-based composite aerospace and defense manufacturer Cobham announced a new facility opening in the U.S. BAE Systems won a $23.75 million year-long contract with the US Army to manufacture Launcher Chassis for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HMARS) and at the Dubai Air Show, Mubadala Aerospace signed agreements with both Airbus and Boeing to develop aircraft components. Mubadala hopes that these and other contracts will help it, and the UAE, become an aerospace global hub.
In the automotive sector, BASF has developed Acrodur, an eco-friendly acrylic thermoset. It is designed to incorporate natural fibers such as flax, hemp and wood into the production of shaped interior automotive panels. Delphi Automotive won the grand prize at the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards for its injection-molded plastic radio housing. XD Plastics, which develops, manufactures and distributes plastics primarily for the automotive industry, reported a 62 percent increase in revenue due to a surge in demand for economy vehicle models in the country.
Global wind turbine manufacturer Siemens is turning its sights on Latin America as it strives to become a top three turbine producer. Meanwhile GE launched three new wind turbines off the coast of Maine, which will power island communities off the state’s central coast. The turbines will generate 11,600 megawatt hours of electricity per year, supplying the island’s communities with year-round cleaner, more affordable power.
Colburn, Ind., now features the state’s first installed composites bridge. The bridge, which replaces a 50-year-old concrete model, was built using fiberglass beams and a polymer composite decking. The $600,000 project was funded through local funds and a federal grant for innovative construction materials. The Canadian town of Callander used bridge decking made of fiberglass-encased composite wood to replace and straighten a bridge of its own.
In other global news, 3M named U.K.-based MC Products as the distributor of its marine composites flooring applications. Norwegian Shipbuilder Brödrene Aa AS and Swedish-based Kockums AB signed an agreement concerning the development, production and marketing of passengers vessels based on carbon sandwich designs. Honeywell plans to invest $34 million to open a new technology center in India. The facility will house labs for process and application development for specialty materials, including composites.
Within the U.S., Australia’s CST Composites, which supplies filament tubing to the marine and high-tech markets expanded to Newport Beach, Calif. And Oak Ridge National Laboratory will receive $34.7 million from the Department of Energy for a new Carbon Fiber Technology Center to further research processing and manufacturing of the material, primarily in automotive and wind applications.
Finally, some news from schools. The University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composite Center was asked to conduct a feasibility study of composite buoys to see if they could save the U.S. Coast Guard time and money. A University of Michigan team engineered a cement composite designed for infrastructure applications. Specialty coated fibers allow the material to bend and stretch without coming apart as well as heal its own cracks. The university is pursuing patent and commercial partners to market the product.
For daily composites updates, subscribe to CM Twitter.
