Loading ...The industry began the week with HR and acquisition ups and downs. Park Electrochemical Corp., an advanced materials manufacturer, appointed Susan Macaluso as Program Manager for the company, while the CEO and CFO of Denel Saab Aerostructures (DSA) both resigned with immediate effect. Kaman Aerospace Group announced a broad organizational realignment in support of strategic growth plans. Resolute Racing Shells hired Jeff Sturges as director of sales and New Business Development. UST Mamiya named Michael Guerrette as senior director of Research and Development. United Technologies closed its subscription and partial tender offer to acquire an aggregate 49.5 percent stake in Clipper Windpower. T. Boone Pickens cut his order for wind turbines from GE by more than half, which puts his Texas wind farms on hold.
On the manufacturing front, GKN Aerospace delivered its first windshields as part of a contract for Boeing’s P-8A Poseidon aircraft. Meanwhile Boeing selected Science Engineering Services (SES) to disassemble and prepare its Army AH-64D Apache helicopters for upgrading, and Airbus posted record deliveries with 498 jets in 2009 and 271 orders. Terrafugia chose Dassault Systemes’s CATIA Analysis and CATIA Composites Design (CPD) solutions to design and develop the beta prototype of its Transition Roadable Aircraft. Grant County in Washington State was revealed as a possible site for a new $200 million BMW factory to make carbon fiber material for next-generation electric BMW cars. Revenge announced plans to build 3,000 American supercars in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana during the next four years. The $200,000 vehicles will feature an apple-green carbon fiber body. Blackbird Guitars developed the first ukulele with a carbon fiber body.
The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering of the University at Albany will receive nearly $4 million for nanotechnology research areas, including the development of super-strength, lightweight composites. PPG Industries received certification of HYBON fiber glass roving products for wind turbine blades by Germanischer Lloyd (GL), an international certification body in the wind energy industry. Fyfe Group LLC, a maker and installer of fiber reinforced polymer systems for use in structural retrofitting and rehabilitation of buildings, has raised $20 million in private equity funding from Bison Capital.
In news around the world, China ended restrictions on the use of foreign parts in wind power turbines in order to access more advanced technology to meet its clean energy targets. Materials scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites created an artificial leaf that can harness light to split water and generate hydrogen. In an effort to revamp the UK’s energy strategy, various energy companies were awarded contracts for a project that will be one of the biggest wind power initiatives in the world. Dutch company TenCate has been granted significant defense orders for antiballistic composite materials. In time for the Winter Olympics, Apex Composites is developing a carbon fiber plate system for the Canadian snowboard team.
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