Space shuttle separating after leaving Earth's atmosphere. Photo courtesy of ATK.

Alliant Techsystems (ATK), a Fortune 500 aerospace company based Arlington, Va., announced it will reorganize its business into three groups—aerospace, defense and sporting—starting in 2013. Along with this reorganization, the company says it will need to cut 200 jobs. This is the second company reorganization since longtime CEO Dan Murphy stepped down two years ago. According to CEO Mark DeYoung, ATK is streamlining its business to address government budget pressures and the individual needs of each market.

Prior to 2010, the group operated within three groups: mission systems, armament systems and space systems. Then in 2010 it reorganized to become aerospace systems, armament systems, missile products, and security and sporting. Now, ATK states, it will condense the armament and missiles group to offset government cuts and lower sales in those markets. Meanwhile the reorganization will allow ATK’s to focus on emerging sport group and increase international sales.

Moving forward, the reduced defense group will work on armament and missiles led by Vice President Mike Kahn out of Baltimore, Md; the aerospace group will develop ATK’s flying projects, led by Senior Vice President Blake Larson in Magna, Utah; and the sporting group will focus on ATK’s growing market for accessories and equipment for sporting goods as well law enforcement, led by Senior Vice President Ron Johnson in Anoka, Minn.

The S-97 RAIDER helicopter predecessor, the X2. Photo courtesy of Sikarsky Aircraft.

LORD Corporation in Dayton, Ohio was selected by Sikorsky Aircraft to help build two prototypes of the Sikorsky S-97 RAIDER helicopter. LORD will join a consortium of 35 companies and will manufacture elastomeric bearings and an Active Vibration Control System.

The S-97 helicopter is capable of speeds twice as fast as traditional helicopters and cruises at a speed of 230 mph. It will presumably be capable of both one or two man piloting as well as autonomous flight. The small helicopter can hold up to six passengers in addition to two flight crew. The first prototype is scheduled to fly in late 2013.

To read more about the S-97 helicopter, click here.

Key numbers and economic indicators for 2012

This post is an addendum to Composites Manufacturing‘s January/February 2012 State of the Industry feature. For a comprehensive Industry Report, pick up a free copy of the January/February 2012 issue.

Marine: Anchored or Ready to Set Sail?

For the first time in several years, the marine segment has better news to report in terms of customer demand and improving business results among boat fabricators. Boat making was one of the early success stories for composites proving itself a better performing and more cost-effective material, and strong market demand made it one of the core segments of the composites industry for several decades. The U.S. marine market matured and leveled off in the 1980’s with 1988 being the peak year in composites usage when 538,000 powerboats and sailboats were sold. Sadly, the trend has been downward almost every year since with the exception of a few years in the mid-1990’s when personal watercraft were taking off and industry unit sales technically surpassed the 1988 record. In 2012, the industry is likely to achieve new boat retail sales of 190,000-210,000 which pales in comparison to the 1980’s and 1990’s, but is good news because it signifies the end of a downward trend of the last many years. U.S. boat sales fell 26 percent in 2009 to 207,000 units and went down another 9 percent to 188,000 units in 2010.

Over the last several years, the marine industry has been forced to consolidate and downsize and the survivors have sought ways to cut costs and raise productivity. Industry leader, Brunswick, now offers 24 separate boat brands, 17 of which it acquired since 2000. Through nine months of 2011 it reported stronger unit sales until divesting its Sealine boat brand in the third quarter. Revenues for the Boat Group were up 9 percent to $820 million and its operating losses were only $12 million compared to $77 million during the same period of 2010. Brunswick commented in its SEC filing for the third quarter that stronger unit sales were offset by the unfavorable effect of a change in sales mix towards smaller boats from larger, higher margin boats.

In May of 2010, the market research firm Freedonia Group published a five year outlook on the U.S. recreational boating industry and estimated the segment would rebound and grow at the rate of 9.3 percent annually through 2014. Not only did that forecast miss the 9 percent decline in 2010, it appears far too optimistic given the lackluster economic recovery underway in the country at large. It might be reasonable to expect the industry could generate that kind of growth for a year or two (possibly 2011 and 2012), and while composites fabricators would love to see boating maintain that pace indefinitely, there does not seem to be enough middle class enthusiasm for large discretionary purchases like a new boat so long as much of the public is still preoccupied with declining home prices and job market uncertainties.

Sports & Rec Outlook

From skis and snowboards to fishing rods, golf clubs and racing bikes, composites are being used more and more to improve performance in a number of sports. Hockey sticks, archery bows, tennis rackets and surfboards are other well-known sports applications. As such, the market is fragmented and growth comes in spurts and starts as individual products are introduced and, hopefully, accepted. While there’s no denying the success of composites in delivering light weight and strength in these products, the consumer thus far has been fickle in terms of their willingness to make the purchase decision for a discretionary item. 2011 retail sales growth in the U.S. is expected to grow about 6-8 percent and will continue in 2012, albeit at a slower pace. Even if the payroll tax is extended, customers will rein in spending early in 2012 as they pay off credit cards and return to rebuilding their savings.

Aerospace, Military and Ballistics

Today the aerospace, military and ballistics segment represents approximately 3 percent of the total volume demand for composite materials but it easily reaches 10-15 percent of the sales value, largely because of their expensive reinforcements and/or high performance resins and sometimes because of the more costly engineering and fabricating processes required to mold these sophisticated materials. Carbon fiber, aramid, S-2 glass and other exotic fibers are the typical reinforcing materials and some E-glass yarns and rovings are used sparingly. The segment has supplied carbon fiber-reinforced components for use in military and civilian aircraft during the last few decades and significantly advanced its penetration of the commercial aircraft market with Boeing’s mostly-composite design of the new 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 XWB.

The aviation portion of this segment looks forward to a very healthy demand outlook for commercial aircraft. Boeing Corporation’s “Current Market Outlook: 2011-2030” predicts that global air travel will grow 6 percent in 2011 and should continue to growing at or above the historical trend of 5 percent through the middle of this decade. While the number of passengers is estimated to grow 4.2 percent over the long term and the number of revenue passenger miles will grow 5.1 percent, the actual increase in the size of the global commercial fleet will be only 3.6 percent. In hard numbers, the worldwide fleet will grow from 19,410 planes at the end of 2010 to 39,530 planes in 2030, a net gain of 20,120, but factoring in the number of aircraft that will be retired over the next 20 years raises the required build to 33,500 aircraft.

While that is a very respectable order backlog to address, the number of composite-intensive new airliners will be in the minority. Boeing currently has the capacity to produce only two Dreamliners per month and hopes to raise this figure to 10 by the end of 2013. Fully 70 percent of the total aircraft to be built in this forecast period will be single-aisle passenger jets with nominal amounts of composites. Another moderating factor in assessing the demand for U.S. composites fabricators and suppliers is that a growing percent of the composite components will be sourced overseas. As an example of how global the sourcing of composite aircraft parts has become, Boeing announced at the recent Dubai Airshow that it had signed an agreement establishing Mubadala Aerospace of the United Arab Emirates as a major Tier 1supplier of composite aerostructures. It also was no coincidence that Boeing announced at the same event that it would sell $26 billion in planes to Emirates Airlines.

Meanwhile, military demand for lightweight conventional defenses and weaponry has created many ingenious applications of composite materials since the original military uses of fiber glass during World War II. Blast panels for use in constructing barracks and mess halls in the theater of operations and improved armor for light weight vehicles like the Humvee are but a few common applications widely adopted by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the more high-volume applications have already begun to phase down and are likely to continue shrinking. A strong signal of the trend in future purchases was President Obama’s 2011 federal budget which proposed that total Department of Defense (DOD) expenditures should rise by 3.4 percent or only 1.8 percent after adjusting for inflation. This ties nicely with other administration stated goals like “rebalancing the force” and “reforming how DOD does business” elaborated by Defense Secretary Gates in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) the year before. Many suppliers of military-oriented products have already noticed a reduction in spending and we can expect leaner defense budgets for the foreseeable future.

Heavy Truck Sector

The heavy trucks industry segment represents less than 5percent of total new vehicle builds but accounts for a disproportionately large amount of composites consumption. Large truck composite features include exterior components, aerodynamic applications above the cab, jumbo-sized panels used in trailers and side skirts that can run most of the length of the trailer. As of the fourth quarter of 2011, we saw good strength in truck sales as replacement buying follows the absence of equipment buys from 2007-2009 (graph 6). Recovery in the medium-duty truck market (class 4-7) has been more subdued than heavy duty (class due to weakness in construction, small business and public-sector markets. On the other hand, operators of large rigs seem to be pressing ahead with long-delayed buying programs.

Trucking serves as a rough barometer of overall economic activity because it accounts for 67 percent of the tonnage carried by all modes of domestic transportation. According to the American Trucking Association, truck tonnage rose 5.7 percent in October from a year ago, the 23^rd consecutive month of year-over-year growth. On a monthly basis, October’s tonnage rose 0.5 percent from September. These modest growth rates in operating volumes will be exceeded in new truck unit sales in 2011 and 2012 because truckers have cut back on fleet size during the recession. The number of big rigs on the road is approximately 12 percent less than the 2006 peak year, yet tonnage levels are about the same as in late 2006. Class 8 sales are expected to rise 46 percent to 156,100 units in 2011 and 191,000 units in 2012. There is upside potential here, too, because replacement demand is currently driving the heavy truck recovery but fleet expansion is on the horizon for the more successful carriers. And looking further out, recovery in construction-sector activity should finally hit its stride in another year or two, which should allow the next stage of truck recovery to materialize.

Toyota FT-EV II

Vehicle Lightweighting
In 2011, the automotive industry started dropping a few thousand pounds off the weight of compact cars and trucks to increase fuel efficiency. Carbon fiber suppliers, such as the SGL Group and Quicksilver, contracted with European auto giants like BMW and Audi to get ready for a new wave of composite automotive parts.

First 787 Delivery

Terrafugia Transition

Cars with Wings
“It’s 2012, why don’t we have flying cars?” Well, soon you’ll have the opportunity to purchase one. The Terrafugia Transition is expected to hit the roads in 2012 and will cost upwards of $250,000. There are several other roadable aircraft prototypes currently being tested, which suggest that more designs may be on the way.

SpaceShipTwo by Scaled Composites

Personal Space Travel
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic providing customers with personal space travel, aided by the development of SpaceShipTwo by Scaled Composites. But there are also companies, like XCOR, building commercial spacecraft for two people to be shot out into space from Caribbean-island Curacao in 2014. Even several Russian companies and Bigelow Aerospace in the U.S. are building space hotels for this growing industry.

Asimo by Honda

Is that a robot?
Honda recently upgraded its Asimo robot to run, pour drinks, communicate through sign language and do other cool tricks, making it the most inundated robot ever built! Even the military is supporting new robot technology. An updated AlphaDog robot – modeled to look and operate like, well, a dog – and its LittleDog brother are manufactured by Boston Dynamics and sponsored by DARPA. Alpha can walk over 20 miles of rough terrain and carry 400 pounds.

Knickerbocker Bridge

Bridging the gap
More bridges like Knickerbocker Bridge, the longest composite bridge in the world, are using composites to extend the life and reduce maintenance life of installations. This is increasing the visibility of composites in large structures and giving DOTs the opportunity to learn more about the material.

What was your favorite composite engineered product from 2011? Weigh-in now!

Ben Glass—founder of Altaeros Energies, Inc.

Ben Glass received his S.M. and B.S. from the MIT Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering Department. He is the inventor of the Altaeros Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) and has engaged in a number of MIT wind research projects. As a Research Assistant in the Gas Turbine Lab, Ben worked to improve the efficiency of rotating machinery for industrial process applications. Prior experience also includes the design and construction of a solar/electric race car and structural analysis of a commercial rocket propulsion system at Space X. At Altaeros, Glass is responsible for the AWT overall design and fabrication.

Why begin developing a flying wind turbine?

My background is in aerospace engineering. I was working on aerospace repulsion at MIT when I became more and more interested in the clean energy world and its interesting challenges and opportunities. The airborne wind turbine concept joins both. We are essentially developing a flight vehicle that also harnesses wind energy. From the clean energy perspective, high-altitude wind is one of the few resources that can actually scale up to make an impact on a global or societal scale.

What’s the potential for airborne wind turbines?

Obviously, there is still a lot of technical development to be done. But I absolutely think it can be a predominant renewable energy resource. It has the necessary power density and availability, in terms of consistency and geographically, to be one of the top renewable energy resources. I believe we can bring the cost of airborne wind energy down to truly be competitive with the grid. And that’s the only way to make renewable energy have the impact it needs to have to solve any environmental problems.

What role do composite materials play?

We are using typical aerospace composites. Interestingly, what makes this concept possible now and not 20 or 25 years ago  are the advances in the fabric materials, which are essentially composite fabrics coming out of competitive sail racing. To make this wind turbine work and be economically viable, the fabric structure has to be very lightweight, very strong and prevent any leaks or diffusion of the helium through the material. To accomplish all those potentially conflicting requirements requires pretty advance materials. The lightweight materials we are using moving forward are composite fabrics with a layer of Mylar or polyester film that is adhered to a carbon scrim or an aeroknit and any other number of typically synthetic high-strength fibers with very specific strength and elongation behavior.

The other requirement for windborne turbines – and that’s where we are pushing the envelope on traditional wind turbines – is driving weights of the actual turbine system down. We are essentially using a traditional horizontal axis turbine that sits in the middle of the shroud; so we can leverage the advances with traditional wind turbines. But, of course, we have a much higher premium on low-weight design and will therefore look to advanced aerospace composites. We’ll likely be using a carbon fiber composite fabrication method for the blades themselves. Even for parts of the mistel or the frame structure we’ll most likely be using some combination of traditional metal materials but also advanced aerospace composites.

What are major challenges in developing a new product?

One of the major challenges, as with any energy system and especially one this new and a break from what has been done in the past, is keeping the cost where we actually predict it will be. And that’s a matter of good design and thinking a full system through from the beginning. We are doing just that by trying to be as realistic as possible and taking conclusions into account early on. Even if there are parts of our system that won’t be in our POC prototype, we still need to have a good answer for what we’re doing – like, how will we actually take the power from our turbine and condition it and give it to the end user?

From the design perspective, there are challenges around the liability of the system. Our approach to that is to invent as little as possible and take as many mature technologies as possible, at least on the component level. The innovation lies more in how we are combining existing technologies. That’s why we think leveraging the work that’s been done in the lighter-than-air world, both the technical advances and the regulatory framework, will give us a very good chance of successfully introducing our product on the liability front.

What’s ahead for you in regards to marketplace development?

The big push right now is a fully functional proof-of-concept prototype. With any startup, there is a strong focus on meeting critical milestones that align with fundraising rounds. For example, we will be testing our proof-of-concept prototype this fall, which will demonstrate the stability and reliability of our airborne platform, our ability to produce more power than a traditional, tower-mounted turbine and the ability to operate autonomously in real-world wind conditions. After this milestone, we will focus on raising a new round of fundraising to continue the development efforts for the full-scale system design. The other critical step for any new wind energy technology is to prove its market readiness. A pilot project of 18 to 24 months at a commercial scale is essential to validating the technical capabilities of our product.

Who do you envision as your first big customer?

The military has a very keen interest in new renewable technologies that can be deployed in the field or at forward operating bases. Not only is fuel incredibly expensive in a military setting (over ten times the cost of electricity form the grid), but fuel convoys have been frequently attacked and cost many lives. Rapid deployment is very important in a military setting, and the military already has the infrastructure and knowledge needed to operate our airborne wind turbines as a result of their extensive use of aerostat surveillance platforms. This makes them an excellent first customer for us. And, most importantly, the military has the clout, money and culture necessary to actually implement the technologies that they talk about.

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Project: Morphing aircraft wings

School: University of Maryland

Location: College Park, Md.

Director: Norman M. Wereley

In an attempt to make aircraft safer, more efficient and versatile, the aerospace industry introduced morphing technology. Using advanced materials and technologies, morphing aircraft can change from one configuration to another. They can maneuver much like birds.

Birds use camber and twist for flight control. In essence they can alter their wings to switch between cruise and attack mode. The idea of morphing aircraft wings is to mimic this flexibility, thus allowing planes to reduce drag, improve range, reduce vibration, control flutter and expand the flight envelope.

Morphing technology has been implemented in military aircraft such as the F-14 Tomcat, F-111 Aardvark and B-1 Lancer. “The morphing aircraft fielded to date all employ discrete, single-point morphing mechanisms, such as wing sweep, that limit the changes in aircraft performance due to limited changes in vehicle shape,” says Norman M. Wereley, techno-sciences professor and associate chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland. “This approach also creates weak points in the wing structure, which require significant reinforcement and thus incur a substantial weight penalty.”

The university’s Composites Research Laboratory (CORE) is currently developing composite materials capable of large shape changes for use in morphing aircraft wings. Instead of the usual rigid resin, these composites use a flexible elastomeric matrix that has been dubbed Elastomeric Matrix Composite (EMC) skins. The fiber in the EMC is unidirectional, so the skins are very rigid when pulled in the fiber direction. However, they are compliant when pulled perpendicular to the fiber direction.

“Our unidirectional EMCs combine the stiffness of carbon fiber with the compliance of an elastomer, making it capable of supporting aerodynamic loads and deforming when desired,” says Wereley. Previous morphing technologies rely on rigid sliding structures, which can be heavier and less efficient than a continuous aerodynamic surface made of EMC skin, he says.

The CORE lab is developing advanced EMC morphing aircraft skins that combine the high-elongation capability of rubber-like materials with the high-strength and stiffness of advanced fiber reinforcements. The lab also is working on high strain-capable morphing core structures that stretch the skin to allow for transfer of air loads into the primary structures. “Combining these technologies allows for replacement of discrete mechanical morphing structures, such as the F-14 wing sweep, with continuous and integrated morphing mechanisms,” says Wereley.

Recently, the CORE lab successfully wind tunnel tested a working model of a morphing wing capable of a complete change in area.

Project: The Fly-Bag

School: University of Sheffield

Location: Sheffield, United Kingdom

Director: Jim Warren

As terrorists increasingly targeted airlines by planting bombs in passenger luggage, Jim Warren turned his attention to preventing catastrophic damage to planes. Warren and his research team in the University of Sheffield’s Department of Civil and Structural Engineering developed the Fly-Bag, a flexible container to hold passenger luggage. It features multiple layers of fabrics, composites and coatings designed to absorb a bomb blast.

“The Fly-Bag works like a high-strength balloon,” says Warren. “In the event of an explosion, it stretches slightly, holding the explosive gas and fragments inside. Then it gradually allows the gas to escape into the hold at a rate the vent valve in the plane can deal with.”

The Fly-Bag is an alternative to hard luggage containers, which are expensive and heavy. In addition, they don’t fit in many narrow-body aircrafts. “[Hard luggage containers] give airlines a large capital and ongoing fuel cost,” says Warren. “We saw a need for a low-weight, lower-cost solution.”

A prototype of the Fly-Bag is attached to the hold of an Airbus A319.

The proprietary Fly-Bag uses several different high-strength, Aramid-based fabrics, some of which have yarns coated with shear thickening fluid. The inside of the bag is coated with a high-strength elastomer that acts as a gas seal. The floor is constructed of a glass fiber sandwich. “The floor plate had to be stiff enough to accept bags and workers, but lightweight and able to decouple the blast shock,” says Warren.

The researchers tested several sandwich architectures by detonating explosives on a standard fabric pack on the sandwich and comparing the performances. “We required something that spreads the load temporally and spatially,” says Warren. “From the lessons we learned in the tests about fiber concentrations, resin types, resin process, foam infill and relative sandwich thickness, we honed in on what we wanted.”

The team designed two rigs for testing multiple layers of various materials—one small and one large. In small-scale tests, Warren’s team assessed the stiffness and burst strengths of fabrics under high-rate loading and quasi-static pressure loading. They used a small-volume pressure chamber venting into a similar chamber, closed at its free end with fabric. Based on those results, the team selected materials for a large-scale test in a 1 x 1 x 1-meter steel box open on one side. The opening was covered with the composite fabric and explosives were detonated beneath it.

A prototype of the full-size Fly-Bag has been tested using actual luggage. “It worked as planned!” says Warren. The University of Sheffield is now working to produce the Fly-Bag, either by licensing the technology or partnering with a consortium of European companies.

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Mike Packer, vice president of Manufacturing Strategies and Processes, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.

Mike Packer is vice president of Manufacturing Strategy and Technical Integration for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. He is responsible for modernization initiates, production engineering and technology, industrial engineering and workforce development across all company programs at seven production facilities. He previously served as director of F-22 productions, director of Joint Strike Fighter manufacturing and key positions for the company. Packer is an active member of Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Institute of Industrial Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

What role do composites play in Lockheed Martin products?

Lockheed Martin produces advanced military aircraft, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22 Raptor, which have a large structural content composed of composite materials. Composites are widely used in high performance aircraft because of their strength and weight properties.

What are current challenges regarding the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft?

The F-35 will eventually be produced at a high rate of about one aircraft delivery each business day to meet the needs of our U.S. and allied military customers. The aircraft has extremely stringent quality requirements because of the tight material fit requirements for production of a low observable or stealth aircraft of this type. We are also being challenged by our customers to reach aggressive affordability goals both in the production and field maintenance, or sustainment, of the aircraft. These are some of the principal challenges we are facing and addressing with new manufacturing processes and technologies.

How will Lockheed implement composites usage in 2011 and beyond?

The near term goals are to develop sources for composite materials, including international participants as well as second sources in the United States. In addition we continue to aggressively attack quality and cost for all components of the F-35. In the long term, we continue to invest in R&D to expand the use of composites where we can identify product performance advantages.

How do composites need to change to keep up with industry requirements?

We will continue to look for ways to produce components more affordably and to simplify assembly processes. For future programs, material development goals have always been improved; performance including stiffness, damage tolerance, lower cost processing and assembly technologies. There continue to be developments in the industry including nano-materials and advanced forming technologies, which may buy their way into future and current programs.

How can more mainstream adoption of composites occur?

The military aerospace industry has been willing to invest in composite materials because of the weight savings in certain applications like wing skins, where we can justify the significant cost premium for composite materials to save weight and improve performance. The commercial aerospace business is certainly growing its use of composites as evidenced by the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 programs; however, widespread use in commercial aircraft depends on how well cost savings can be realized since they are not willing to pay as much for weight savings as is the high performance military sector.

What do you look for in a supply chain partner?

For composites manufacturing the keys are facilities, experience and cost, as well as current and past performance. We are actively developing domestic and international sources of composite materials and are transferring technologies approved by the U.S. government as needed to companies meeting our basic requirements. They must be willing to work with us to develop a robust, low cost supply chain.

What advice would you give to a composites manufacturer trying to break into the aerospace industry?

First, anyone entering the business must realize that it is difficult because of the capital and technical knowledge required, along with tolerances and inspection criteria. However, partnering with a prime contractor is probably the best approach. It may also take several years to qualify a new supplier to make parts for the aerospace business because of the stringent requirements, but this is a perfect time as military and commercial programs search for new sources.

Are there inherent properties that limit composite usage?

The relative cost of graphite composite raw materials versus aluminum (especially high performance materials for advanced fighters), the high capital cost for processing and inspection equipment do limit composite usage in aerospace applications. Although composites have good properties for skin-like applications on wings, empennage, etc., (strength and stiffness in two directions), the inherent weakness in the third direction limits composite application in understructure, where the isotropic properties of metallics are welcome. Overcoming these weaknesses is the key to increased applications in all industries.

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Rani Richardson—product specialist at Dassault Systèmes

Rani Richardson worked at Magestic Systems, a nesting and laser projection solutions company, for nine years, finishing as its director of Operations. She currently consults with Dassault Systèmes (DS) as a composites product specialist, particularly in the aerospace and automotive industries. Richardson is an active member of SAMPE, the National Composite Center (NCC), SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers) and SPE (Society of Plastics Engineers). She is also a frequent presenter at various industry conferences on the subject of composites.

What is your focus and how does that apply to the composites industry?

The Dassault Systèmes composites team primarily focuses on the CAD (Computer Aided Design) side of composites alongside with the seamless integration into CAE Computer Aided Engineering) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing). Most CAD systems have been used within industries for a long time and are mostly made for metals, but they don’t address complex composite structures. They don’t provide necessary feedback to the engineers, stress analysts or manufacturers. Our job is to look at a CAD model and let OEMs know that there is technology available to help them virtually see what they want to build—using software tools specifically designed for composites—before they build it.

What do you see driving the industry right now and why?

The cost of raw materials, structure lifecycle and time to market are three major areas driving the composites industry. Because of new regulations, demand for sustainability and the need for lighter weight, adoption of composites within different industries is beginning to emerge.

For example, within automotive the new CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) regulations and the need to reduce emissions make using composites for mass production sensible for automotive OEMs and their supply chain. One major hurdle the automotive industry needs to overcome is the cost of carbon fiber. The lifecycle of a composite part and the time to market go hand-in-hand. In a traditional sense, designing and manufacturing composite structures is a long, tedious and sequential process. Using product lifecycle management software for composites design on the same virtual platform permits the designers, stress analysts and manufacturers to collaborate and provide feedback throughout the product lifecycle, allowing companies to go to market faster with a better product. As more automation comes into play, we have to make sure we provide the tools to address companies’ manufacturing processes in a cost effective manner.

Do you see composites as thriving or failing in your sector and why?

Composites are thriving. There is a strong need for lighter and stronger planes, trains, cars, trucks, sporting equipment, medical devices, and so on. Composites are strong and durable with a lot of design flexibility which can be used in many market sectors. Addressing the price of raw materials and the high manufacturing cost will allow more companies to take composites mainstream. There are no limitations on the markets composites can aid, both FRP and high-performance composites. There is a huge need for both and the technology needs to catch up with the processes that are already out there so we can optimize them.

In your opinion, what would help the composites industry expand?

One major factor is awareness. Awareness is built through education, events and white papers. Education is key because, for example, if a manufacturer who uses metals begins to move into composites, they have a lot of decisions to make. Will they send composites manufacturing down the supply chain or will it go in-house? One example is an aerospace company that until recently used 97 percent sheet metal for its products. They made the decision to shift their vehicle to composites and are now deciding whether to farm-out the design and/or manufacturing work or keep it in-house. Those are tough decisions; those are the kinds of choices they have to make. To increase the market we have to help companies understand the tools available and how best to optimize them to get the results they expect.

What more would you like to see from composites and why?

Composites becoming more diversified into other industry sectors such as sports and leisure, medical devices, automotive and ship building on a larger scale, and less of a niche. There is no doubt we can build parts for these emerging markets. It is our job as an industry to make composites materials more affordable while optimizing the design, analysis and manufacturing processes so companies can bring affordable products to market faster.

What is your focus for 2011 and beyond?

In 2011, one focus will be to continue to educate the composites community. That could include companies already producing composites structures to make them more efficient or new companies entering the industry. We’ll also expand in other design and manufacturing areas to address the needs of the composites community.

How does your company stay competitive?

Dassault Systèmes focuses on strong involvement with the composites community. While composites are entering more industries, composite materials and technologies are still in constant evolution. To develop the right technology necessary for the next generation of optimized, high-volume, low-cost applications, we work closely with major players in the domain: composites associations, industry clusters, software and equipment providers, material providers, research institutes, and consultants.

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