Loading ...Boeing calls its Dreamliner wing stress test a success, one that will determine whether the program can complete its certification by year-end. Elsewhere, testing got underway on Bombardier’s new CSeries aircraft composite demonstrator wing. The company says the new CSeries is scheduled to launch in 2013. And Web Industries, a custom manufacturing and development company, is expanding its latest projects to service new sections of the composites industry such as aerospace and military applications.
Demand for wood-plastic composite and plastic lumber is projected to advance more than ten percent per year to $5.6 billion in 2013. LifeTime Composites LLC had growth of its own after adding new privacy fences and pergolas to its line of outdoor living products. Ameron’s first quarter reports were down compared to last year, but the company says fiberglass-composite pipe operations helped increase profit margin. ASTM has approved a new standard to address the tension testing of materials that are externally bonded to concrete and other structural materials for repair, retrofit and strengthening purposes.
In wind energy, a diminutive alternative to wind turbines could soon be on the market, according to the manufacturing company Humdinger. GE plans to establish an offshore wind turbine manufacturing plant in the U.K., creating 1,900 new jobs, but will have competition between Siemens, which also announced its plans to build a factory in the country. Contracts continue to roll in. Repower Systems announced it will provide 15 wind turbines to Poland and Vestas is contracted to supply 81 turbines to We Energies for a farm in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, nearby Michigan is giving its industry a makeover, with wind turbine factories in the works and the development of new wind turbine courses that will prepare students to work anywhere in the world.
However, not all wind news was positive. Construction of Maryland’s first industrial wind farm has been halted after mud runoff was discovered on a mountaintop. Rhode Island regulators rejected a proposal by Deepwater Wind to sell power from its turbines to the national grid. And India-based Sintex Industries delayed the reopening of two U.S. plants another six to seven months.
Fetha Styx and North Fork Composites are teaming up to create limited edition fishing rods with proceeds benefiting the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA-PNW). Also in recreation, Viking Pools is now offering a 20-year surface warranty on its products, and Cabela’s has acquired New Millennium, which makes acoustic design carbon fiber mandolins.
In automotive, BMW has long been rumored to create its new carbon fiber plant in Washington state. Speculation is that a press conference (scheduled for today) in Seattle will make it official. On the other side of the country, an unnamed company plans to construct a plastic injection molding facility to produce automotive applications in Augusta, Georgia.
Maine middle school and high school students have spent the year studying wind power and building their own turbines to enter in the spring’s Wind Blade Challenge. In higher education, the University of Guelph hosted a bioplastics and green conference which drew 100 participants from industry, government and academia to discuss the growing bio-economy.
Finally, DuPont Performance Polymers increased prices for certain polymer products in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while Ashland Performance Materials is increasing the price of its water-based, solvent-less and radiation-cure laminating adhesives and coatings sold in North America by six to 15 percent.
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