Axion will present a case study on the installation of recycled plastic railroad bridges at the Army Transportation Corps’ Ft. Eustis training facility in Virginia.

The EU plans to impose higher tariffs on Chinese fiberglass.

To attract waning customers, Automobili Lamborghini is considering adding a four-door sedan to its portfolio of two-seater models.

CRP Technology set to resell Zircotec composite coatings for race and road applications including F1 and NASCAR.

Beijing-based Sinovel Wind Co. unveiled plans to build a turbine factory in Shanghai. Worth $441 million, the plant will help meet domestic and overseas demand.

The French government will launch a tender for contracts worth 10 billion Euros to build 3,000 megawatts of offshore energy across France.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the Cape Wind offshore wind farm.

Global Technologies acquired Hybrid Wind Turbine Designs and CLE (Creative Laboratory Enterprises), increasing its small and medium wind development portfolio.

GKN Aerospace delivered the first major assembly CH-53K heavy lift helicopter to Sikorsky Aircraft.

Albany Engineered Composites was contracted to Boeing’s CLEEN Engine Nozzle program to supply ceramic matrix composite acoustic engine nozzle.

Cri-Cri, an all electric aircraft jointly developed by EADS Innovation Works, Aero Composites Saintonge and the Green Cri-Cri Association, took its maiden flight on Thursday outside of Paris.

Composiflex hosted a plant tour for Pa. Representative and NIST Director.

PPG’s Kentucky plant rebounds on strong demand for fiberglass yarn.

Wausaukee Composites plans to invest $1.9 million to expand and renovate a Michigan plant.

Under Secretary of the Army met with the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) to discuss technology developments of lighter, efficient protection for combat vehicles.

A $65 million, five-year composite research program by the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures (CRC-ACS) began.

Skeeter Products wins awards in “Fiberglass Bass Boats” and “Fiberglass Outboard Boats” categories from NMMA.

Interplastic announces the recipients of its 2010 Scholars Award.

For daily composites updates, subscribe to CM Twitter.

Scottish Adventurer Jock Wishart plans a rowing expedition, using composite boats, to the North Pole.

According to the latest reports, aerospace manufacturer TenCate sales doubled in the first half of 2010.

Boeing Tianjin Composites Co Ltd. plans to double the number of its employees. The company is a joint venture between Boeing and China Aviation Industry Corp.

Bicycle manufacturer Edge Composites has changed its name to Enve Composites to avoid trademark infringement in international markets.

A former employee of Fiber Glass Systems, who filed a lawsuit claiming harassment and discrimination, was awarded a substantial judgment.

Wausaukee composites received Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax credit, effectively helping the company hire more than 100 people over the next five years.

Clipper joins Minnesota wind turbine research at the University of Minnesota.

Denmark will soon get a new wind test center, located in north-western Jutland, and will soon house seven mega wind turbines for testing purposes.

TPI Composites will open a wind blade innovation center in Massachusetts and will be the center for development of advanced blade manufacturing technology.

The new Kestrel, a compact electric vehicle, is made with a composite material made from cannabis-composite material.

For daily composites updates, subscribe to CM Twitter.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology have developed a new thermoplastic fiber composite for safer cars.

An SPE conference keynote speaker from McLaren Automotive will discuss the company’s carbon fiber-reinforced-plastic safety cell or MonoCell.

Wausaukee Composites received tax credits from Michigan to help hire 100 workers during the next five years.

Fiberglass boat sales dropped sharply in July.

A study conducted by the Global Wind Energy Council and the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association found wind energy can generate up to 24 percent of the country’s total power by 2030.

Renewable energy is seen as the new cash crop for British Farmers.

Dow Venture Capital group made a minority equity investment in Blade Dynamics, a designer and manufacturer of advanced wind turbine blades.

Norwegian-based turbine manufacturer Statoil is considering sites off Scotland and the eastern U.S. to test its floating wind farm.

Aerospace-parts manufacturer Royal Plastics changed its name to Royal Engineered Composites, which the company says more accurately reflects its name.

The landing gear on the Virgin Galactic space tourism jet collapsed during a test flight on Thursday. However, manufacturer Scaled Composites called it a “minor incident.”

Ocean Renewable Power Company successfully generated grid-compatible energy with its 60-kilowatt tidal power generator installed off the coast of Maine.

Former Vestas employees formed a new company, Sureblades, and re-opened a closed turbine plant in Isle of Wight.

Duke Energy dropped plans to install demonstration wind turbines off the coast of North Carolina, citing the project was too small to be worth the cost.

The global cast polymer market will grow by 9 percent, according to a new report.

TPI Composites adds a supply chain expert from GE to its board of directors.

Construction has begun on the National Composites Centre in Bristol.

For daily composites updates, subscribe to CM Twitter.

The Seattle Boat Show took place last week, giving attendees a chance to shop around with 90-minute sailboat rides, free stand up paddleboard lessons and other demos.

Seawind Catamarans was named the Australian Marine Exporter of the Year during the Sydney International Boat Show.

Florida-based Catalina Yachts launched its new Catalina 355.

California candidate for senate Carly Fiorna visited SnugTop Custom Fiberglass Manufacturing last week.

North Fork Composites’s owner was named a defendant in a lawsuit filed by his former company over trademark use for fishing products.

ASA Manufacturing Inc. caught fire last week. The plant, which makes fiberglass structures for theme parks, was almost destroyed.

Miles Fiberglass received a $50,000 grant from the Oregon Business Development Dept. to help create jobs that support wind energy.

Matrix Composites & Engineering recorded more than $18 million profit last year.

Now one of the biggest cultured marble companies in the southeast, Atlanta Marble Manufacturing is celebrating 40 years in business.

Continental Structural Plastics is closing an Ohio plant and moving its production to India.

Turkish Aerospace Industries delivered its first composite prototype for the new F-35 Lightning II.

ATK and NASA will begin the second ground test of the Ares five-segment solid rocket motor at the end of August.

Renovalia Energy invests 220 million in Canadian wind farm, scheduled to begin in early 2011.

The British government plans to install solar panels and wind turbines to every public building and hospital car park, giving local authorities a way to earn up to 100 million pounds a year from electricity generation.

Siemens Canada will build new turbine blade factory in Ontario, employing 300 people.

Beacon Power began construction on a flywheel energy plant in New York, made of carbon-fiber composite material, which will reduce emissions by 82 percent and provide 10 percent of the state’s energy.

Struggling solar panel maker Energy Conversion Devices will eliminate 140 U.S. jobs as it shifts production from Michigan to Mexico to save money.

Australia-based AGL Energy announced a joint venture wind farm with New Zealand-based Meridian Energy. Construction of the Victoria farm will begin by early 2013.

Former GE executive joined wind turbine manufacturer TPI Composites.

For daily composites updates, subscribe to CM Twitter.

A federal grant to Missouri’s DOT will build three bridges with hybric composite beams (HCB).

Start-up New Wind Solutions plans to manufacture carbon fiber blades in Walla Walla, Wash.

Chem-Trend celebrates 50 years in business this year.

Boral Composites is building a plant in North Carolina to produce a new green product line for home building.

The National Science Foundation is funding a new research center focused on environmentally friendly wood-based composite materials.

Manufacturer Innovative Composites International was a first-stage winner in the Building Back Better Communities housing competition sponsored by the Haitian government.

A new fiberglass plant is set to employ 1,200 in Bahrain, the result of a joint venture between Saudi Arabia’s S & A Abahsain Company and China’s Chongqing Polycomp International Corporation (CPIC).

Manufacturer Sigma Industries accepted a restructuring proposal, after recently filing for bankruptcy protection.

Goodrich bought DeCrane, which  produces molded composites and other products for aircraft interiors.

More composites in airplanes means more work for airplane repair companies like Ultimate Aircraft Composites.

For daily composites updates, subscribe to CM Twitter.

Zvi Yaniv – President/CEO of Applied Nanotech Holdings, gives his take on the expanding composites industry.

Applied Nanotech Holdings is a research and commercialization that has developed a process involving multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) which it says could help products increase their mechanical properties even while weighing less.

How does your firm fit into the composites industry?

We learned how to handle blocks of CNTs and put them together to make a material whose properties are tailored in what we call assembling processes in three dimensions. Afterward, we worked more towards commercialization, so we developed a new material that has a specific application to large-volume applications. This is accomplished with nanocomposites using CNTs to enhance certain qualities of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) or glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRPs).

What was your first market?

We first worked in sporting goods applications to make products stronger and lighter. We discovered that you can integrate enough CNTs to make up only 1 to 2 percent of the product yet still create improvements in mechanical properties. We understood that CNTs must be dispersed and functionalized individually in order to spread well into an epoxy matrix such that when force is applied on the final product, a part of the stress is transferred to the CNT.

That was our first success. Since then, we’ve licensed the technology, at least territorially, to a large sporting goods company. We’ll receive royalties and now we’re assembling it for other applications from construction to defense.

Why did you target sporting goods initially?

Even if we had a good idea, we couldn’t implement it if we didn’t have an identified strategic partner with an issue we could solve. It also had to be a sector with a large market potential, which happened to be sporting goods. Now, we are approached by companies for bridge materials and aerospace.

What opportunities exist in those markets?

Within all of these industries, they want to use less weight, less gas, and they’re looking for portable and flexible applications. In the aerospace industry, the new Dreamliner is an example of a shift toward using more composites; the car industry is moving along that path as well.

What challenges have you encountered working with manufacturers?

Companies are worried about their commercial success, and as a result, sometimes don’t give us all the data we need to understand what to do for them for fear of sharing proprietary information. So if the CNTs are not functionalized properly, or the penetration of the epoxy enhanced into the fiber is not proper, the final material will have visible defects and no mechanical enhancement. Good communication is essential when working with another party.

What composite parts could incorporate CNTs that don’t currently?

One of the markets I see developing lighter and stronger composites is wind energy. Current blades are made with old technology and are very heavy. If you don’t have a very strong wind, you lose a lot of background energy. So, we are currently discussing CNT options with some companies. Cost is always a huge factor, but you have to look at overall costs. If I can obtain 20 percent more energy from my turbine, then the blade will perform better even though it costs a little more.

Is cost a common concern in other markets?

Cost is always a serious concern. Even in sporting goods, if cost is prohibitive it doesn’t matter how much lighter a product is because widespread adoption will not happen. This is one of the reasons people must carefully look at what kind of nanotube they use. In the past, the biggest players in enhanced composites used single-wall nanotubes and they achieve some great results, but the cost was too prohibitive. But now, the price for functionalized CNTs is dropping considerably, so we chose to focus on multi-wall CNTs.

To subscribe to CM’s weekly Q&A, click here.

If job creation is the next phase of economic recovery, the renewable energy industry is doing its part. Vestas announced it will hire more than 1,000 people at three Colorado-based turbine manufacturing plants after receiving a surge of orders. Daewoo finalized an agreement with the government of Nova Scotia, Canada to build a wind turbine plant, creating 120 jobs within the first year and up to 500 in the next three. Meanwhile, support for ‘green’ initiatives from governments and industry continues to grow. State lawmakers in Massachusetts moved ahead with a bill that would make it easier for wind projects to receive permits and overcome opposition, while GE issued a call for entries in a 10-week contest to speed global power-grid upgrades, promising investment and marketing help for the best submissions, to the tune of $200 million. Also, the Sierra Nevada Corporation provided $1 million to the University of Nevada, Reno for research into a transportable, renewable energy generating system. The project will bring together the mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical and advanced composites departments within the university. However, reaching renewable energy goals is still a distant future for some: With six months left to hit their target, California utilities struggle to meet mandated renewable-power requirements.

Boeing grabbed most headlines in this week’s aerospace news. The new 787 aircraft made its European debut on Monday at the UK-based Farnborough International Airshow, and the F-15 Silent Eagle demonstrator made its first flight, used to validate the initial engineering design approach. The company forecasts a $3.6 trillion market for new commercial airplanes over the next 20 years.

In marine news, U.S. Navy vessel manufacturer Northrop Grumman is considering a sale or spinoff of its shipbuilding unit; but will take several quarters to make a decision. UK-based Composite Mouldings is now manufacturing pram dinghies made entirely of surplus materials, thus preventing large amounts of waste within the yard.

Carbon fiber applications continue to find acceptance in the automotive and motor sports market. Lamborghini opened an Advanced Composites Research Center (ACRC) in the brand’s hometown of Sant’Agata Bolognese. The facility will research cutting-edge carbon fiber production and design processes. The Indy Racing League announced it will stick with current chassis-builder Dallara for the next generation of lighter-weight, all-carbon fiber chassis. Tesla Motors announced it will soon tour its pure-electric, hand-build carbon fiber Roadster. And after a fatal accident in Seattle last week, the NHRA announced that carbon fiber brake rotors and pads will be a mandatory part on Top Fuel dragsters and cars by August 11, 2010.

In other news, West Virginia University Professor Barbero, of mechanical and aerospace engineering, recently completed a second edition of “Introduction to Composite Materials Design”, aimed at undergraduate students and practicing engineers. Core-composites supplier Tricel Honeycomb announced Sue Mesmer as its new customer service manager.

In an online article, Aviation Weekly addressed the future of composite repairs in aerospace. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) announced it will present aerospace awards in late July, including innovative design concepts incorporating new composite materials. Hartzell Aerospace received Nadcap accreditation for composites, accompanied by upgrades to its manufacturing capabilities within the facility.

The infrastructure industry was looking a little green this week, as New Polymer Systems Inc. announced it plans to commercialize a bio-based additive from lignocellulose fiber for use in landscaping, roofing and drainage pipes applications. Meanwhile, fiberglass siding may soon become a more widespread option for residential homeowners. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) plans to file a lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for removing a provision that allowed contractors to bypass extra preparation, clean-up and recordkeeping requirements in homes where there were no children under six or pregnant women, thus avoiding additional costs.

Efforts in renewable energy received some high-profile boosts. President Obama announced a $400 million loan to support solar panel manufacturing. The University of Houston’s efforts to become a national leader in offshore wind technology received a $2.3 million boost from the U.S. Department of Energy for a testing facility. And Colorado-based Abound Solar secured a $400 million Recovery Act loan guarantee for manufacturing thin-film solar panels. Danish-based wind energy giant Vestas announced a new R&D office in Louisville, Ky. that will employ up to 240 people over the next few years. Elsewhere in the sector, a recent feasibility study published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy says that deepwater, floating wind turbines up to 5-megawatts won’t topple. China officially started transmitting power from its biggest offshore wind farm, off the coast of Shanghai, to the mainland grid. Suzlon bagged a wind turbine order from Hindustan Petroleum Corp for the company’s 25.5-megawatt project in Rajasthan, India. A wind farm project protest proves that, to some, green energy isn’t green enough.

Turning to marine, the U.S. Court of Appeals exonerated Cook Composites and Polymers for claims related to gel coat cracking on yachts built by Viking Yacht Co. and Post Marine Co. between 1997 and 2004. Sabre Yachts celebrated its 40^th anniversary this past weekend in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. And Australian-based Bar Crusher introduced a new 550CR model, the first in a new series, offering crossover boats to a broader audience.

If you kept an eye on the leisure and recreation industry, you would have seen a new giant fiberglass eye sculpture at Chicago’s Pritzer Park. Deakin University researchers will incorporate out-of-autoclave composites in the development of a “Smart Bike” for the UCI World Road Championships later this year. Reynolds’ composites division unveiled a more aerodynamic version of their RZR 46 wheels in the opening prologue of this year’s Tour de France. Finally, composite baseball bats suffered another setback as the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) banned the materials until they can meet a revised performance standard.

For daily composites updates, subscribe to CM Twitter.

Find out where your state falls on composite usage in infrastructure, where there’s room for composite replacement in motorsports or discover why Boeing believes in, but isn’t sold on, using composites in future aircrafts.

All these answers and more can be found in Composites Manufacturing’s online CM Interviews. So put the meat on the grill, grab a drink and take some time to tap into your industry.

To subscribe to CM’s weekly Q&A, click here.

The automotive industry is flying high as well. Terrafugia was granted a weight exemption by the FAA for its roadable aircraft. Its takeoff weight is 1,430 pounds, or 110 pounds above the typical limit for light sport aircraft. BMW not only released carbon fiber components for its M3 line, but also unveiled a model of its new carbon fiber electric car to journalists in Germany. The electric car wars could prove to be interesting, as composite models will compete with aluminum models like Tesla, which went public this week. Meanwhile, Plasan Carbon Composites could play a strong role in its region’s economic growth.

Turning to recreation, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Felt Bicycles announced a voluntary recall on some of Felt’s bikes. The company has reported several cases of its carbon steer tube breaking. In more positive news, wood composites are being touted as a safer construction option for sandboxes. Ducati is implementing more carbon fiber in its Ducati’s Desmosedici RR motorcycle – including in the wheels, discs and frame. Prodrive, a motorsport company, seeks to implement racecar composites technology into offshore applications such as crude-oil filters.

Staying offshore with renewable energy, the Department of Energy confirmed it is committing $20 million to further the development of deepwater offshore wind energy development. Michigan-based Energetx Composites was awarded $3.5 million to manufacture large scale composite turbines as part of the state’s overall Clean Energy Advanced Manufacturing program grants. The University of Houston was awarded a $2.3 million research grant to build a testing facility for offshore wind turbine materials and components. General Electric has plans to install four 4-megawatt wind turbines off the coast of Norway and Sweden as part of its $450 million investment in Europe. A U.S.-based company, marine Innovation & Technology, proposed an offshore wind turbine platform design based on existing gas and oil platforms.

In other marine developments, Pursuit Boats introduced a new 26-foot dual console boat called the DC 260. Boston Whaler prepares to launch the latest 345 Conquest Open, an offshore fishing and cabin cruiser with an open cockpit design, as part of the 2011 lineup. And New Jersey-based Viking sport Cruisers announced it will adopt the Princess brand name, after 15 years of collaboration.

Finally, infrastructure is expected to play a large role in Asia doubling its composite production by 2015. Elsewhere in the sector, LCOA Composites and Hertel have partnered to develop a new rapid deployable shelter system. Marshall Composites will open a plant in Salem, Oregon to manufacture composite re-bars for bridges. Housing opportunities may take a hit, however, as a record low number of people signed contracts to buy homes in May.