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.

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The top story in August comes in the form of a Q&A with Zoltek Automotive’s CEO David Stewart.  In the Q&A, Steward discusses which automakers are most likely to use composites, why it’s easier to use composites in wind energy and why automotive OEMs haven’t embraced composites until now.

Two other popular stories are Finding the Right Composite Retrofit and Composite Utility Pole Committee Woos Electric Co-ops.

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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.

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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.

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Applications such as this bio-fiber door will help composites in lightweight applications to meet new fuel economy standards.

In April, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly established new federal rules that set the first-ever national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States. The rules, which will significantly increase the fuel economy of the vehicles starting with the 2012 model year, will conserve about 1.8 billion barrels of oil, and reduce nearly a billion tons of GHG emissions over the lives of the vehicles covered and give lightweighting composites an opportunity to shine.

The final rules, issued by DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and EPA, establish increasingly stringent fuel economy standards under NHTSA’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy program and GHG emission standards under the Clean Air Act for vehicles produced in model years 2012 through 2016.

Starting with 2012 model year vehicles, the rules require automakers to improve fleet-wide fuel economy and reduce fleet-wide GHG emissions by approximately five percent every year. NHTSA has established fuel economy standards that strengthen each year, reaching an estimated 34.1 miles per gallon by 2016.

So what exactly does this mean for composites? A greater focus on fuel economy brings lightweighting to the forefront. With an oft-cited advantage of composites being a lighter alternative to substances such as metal, it only seems natural that composites emerge as a prime option to meet this directive.

John Schweitzer, senior director of government affairs for the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) says there’s a vehicle technology program at DOE that has a list of technologies for applications like hybrid engines and alternative fuel vehicles. “The problem is, it skips over glass composite materials and goes on to things like carbon nanotubes, lignum and magnesium. I think composites should be in that mix, but they’re not, even though they can offer a significant improvement in fuel economy through weight reduction.”

However, Jim deVries, manager of the manufacturing research department at Ford Research Laboratories, says conventional composites alone may not be enough. “Glass composites do not achieve the weight savings created in aluminum and magnesium, so I think the composites industry must look towards alternative reinforcements, ways to make conventional composites more lightweight.”

Which Fibers Win Out?

Carbon fiber represents a more commonplace solution to the lightweighting issue. “We see more emphasis on carbon fiber,” says Hamid Kia, group manager for polymer composites at General Motors. “The dollar-per-pound saved related to mass savings is going up because companies are more willing to pay more up front.”

The problem is that the material has always been too expensive. “Carbon fiber may be the next big composite material for the automotive industries, but for that to occur, the price of carbon fiber has to go down,” says deVries.

Natural fibers such as flax and hemp could play a larger role in achieving these standards, and composites are fully capable of being involved. “The need for renewable sources has been driving more emphasis on natural fiber and developing composites,” says Kia.

“This material is strong in its natural form and is rapidly renewing. It plays right into the green initiative that’s emerging,” says Mark Townsley, ground transportation engineer at the Composites Innovation Centre (CIC) in Winnipeg, Canada. CIC has an internal program of commercializing hemp bio-fibers, and the institution is hard at work on developing parts to meet this need.

Last December, CIC started work on a natural fiber battery door for a J4500 motor coach. Townsley, had worked at Motor coach Industries for over a decade and worked with them on manufacturing the product using a typical sandwich construction in a light RTM mold.

As one might expect with an emerging building material, there were challenges. “In the first tests, the permeability wasn’t as good as we wanted,” says Townsley. “We did mechanical and flex sandwich testing of the pure hemp material and found it wasn’t great when compared to glass. We went back and combined some glass fiber with it and managed to get some good parts using that technique, so we used the hybrid lay-up for the door.”

So far, the bio-materials are slightly heavier than fiberglass (about two percent). The material itself is lighter, but becomes heavier because it tends to soak up resin. “As we design the mats to become more permeable in the closed molding form, we hope to tailor it to weigh less than glass,” says Townsley.

Thanks in part to Townsley’s past employment, CIC has good connections with all local ground transportation manufacturers. “Transportation companies are keen on using the green products. It’s more important to people than many realize. It didn’t take much convincing to actually try them. Everybody’s game to try new things,” he says.

Of course, anyone can try something, but real-world adoption is a different matter. “There can be a lot of excitement generated in bio-based materials but in doing so, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to make these compatible with the automotive environment, whether it is humidity or heat or so forth,” says deVries.

For its part, CIC is also concerned about cost as they attempt to commercialize natural fibers on a global scale. “If it doesn’t compete price-wise to existing materials, we have to make sure it does,” says Townsley. “We’re very cognizant of what we have to do. Our stuff is being done on prototype lines and experimental lines, so it is more expensive now. These are low-quality experimental runs right now, but I have every confidence that they’ll cost less, especially with the rise of fuel costs to process existing materials. Those and transportation costs will factor into the lower costs.”

Projects like CIC’s bus cover are just the first step on the auto industry’s path to achieve better fuel economy. Lightweighting is a straightforward method in accomplishing that goal, and composites companies may do well to jump on the idea now and connect their product with that concept.

Dirk Plas – President, BYK, USA

BYK makes additives for composite applications in the construction, transportation, automotive, recreation, and wind energy markets. Applications include wind blades, fiberglass tubs, boat hulls, automotive body panels, and duroskins for fiberglass doors. The additives are designed to improve the processing or air release in spray-up and lay-up manufacturing as well as the casting process (marble, solid surface). Dirk Plas, BYK-USA president, discusses his view of the composites industry.

What markets are you more focused on?

The area we’re most focused on is anything to do with energy savings, which includes “green” and wind energy. Many customers are working actively to replace existing raw materials with more sustainable materials. There’s a lot of money being invested there. There’s a very significant focus right now on developing alternative energy technologies. There’s a high demand for green products and more money going into that area. A lot of our customers need help in making these new materials work.

What challenges do your customers have?

When formulating with green products, there are challenges with regard to compatibility. Customers are always looking for ways to reduce scrap. Anytime you make a composite, you have an air release problem. Filler materials help make composites more cost competitive, and so do the wetting and dispersing additives. These additives reduce rollout time and filler increase.

Is the “green” movement here to stay?

I think so. Green doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. Some industries will be slow to adopt, but ultimately it’s not a fad, and it’s not going away.

What is the state of the additives industry?

Like everyone else, we suffered a decline at the end of 2008 that continued through 2009. Things have started to improve; however, the market was already competitive but has become even more so. Everyone’s looking for new business, scrambling after stimulus dollars and looking for new areas. As a result, competitors are also moving into new areas. But we’re also doing the same thing. We’re not seeing a lot of consolidation, but rather more people coming into the market.

How has the market changed in the past decade?

The market for additives in composites isn’t an old market, so we’ve seen a lot of growth. New technologies are being developed and it’s still a growing market. Our company in particular started focusing on the composites industry about 20 years ago, and we began seeing strong market pickup.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that now, we get more demands or requests for composites that are highly flame-retardant because reduced emissions of the actual composite are a more important factor. In any industry, everything focuses on low VOCs. Personal safety for the workers, the people who work in manufacturing, is always important. Nanoadditives have also come on strongly in the last three to four years in the composites market. There have been a lot of government regulations, particularly in regard to styrene. ACMA has been an active voice in regard to styrene regulation.

How do you see the styrene issue playing out?

I speculate we have reached the minimum amount of styrene that we can work with. I don’t think those can go much lower. There are trends in development that are styrene-free, but I don’t think the government will push much for us to reduce styrene content. Styrene is an integral part of the polyester, which is responsible for cross-linking in chemical processes. It has over 50 years of historical use in these types of composites. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to take them out in the next few years. Alternatives to styrene do not offer same type of historical use or consistency in use. Partial replacements could occur in the near future, but we’re talking about a very long time to make a total replacement.

How will the composites industry change in the next five years?

I think lower densities and lighter weight composites will be a trend for all applications. Everyone’s always looking for stronger composites, so that will be a trend. Renewable resources will continue to grow. You’ll also see an increase in coupling agents that will increase the physical properties of composites. Nanoadditives will emerge more and more for certain applications such as antimicrobial tendencies.

In aviation, there’s a big push for carbon fiber. It’s a little bit of a fragmented, niche application market, so it’s hard for us to focus on that market. We want to though, because we believe it’s an area where composites is going to grow. Technology in aviation sometimes transfers to automotive, so we’ll see a trend in that direction.

From your viewpoint, how can composites grow?

There needs to be more applications away from steel, aluminum, and wood. The standard approach composites has had for years is converting applications, but there needs to be more of a focus on day-to-day growth. That approach has picked up in the construction market and has helped reinvigorate the infrastructure market. Those two areas have strong immediate and long-term growth opportunities.

What segments have been hit hardest?

The recreation market was down almost 80 percent in 2009. It has recouped a little bit since then, but it’ll be a long-term process to get back to where it used to be. A lot of baby boomers are coming onto the market, and they may be interested in RVs, so that might drive growth a bit. Concerning boats, manufacturers have had success with making boat hulls from composites. You can see a conversion to infusion-molding and vacuum bag from spray-up and lay-up. I think companies that make RV parts can diversify by integrating their parts into construction or fire-retardant panels.

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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.

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Techniques used to make this F1 wishbone could increase composites usage in automotive.

The Formula One (F1) industry is one of the more extensive users of composite materials, as the lightweight nature of composites aids greatly in race teams looking to clock the quickest time. But can F1’s unique composite techniques trickle down to the mainstream automotive industry?

Formtech Composites thinks so, and it’s stepping up efforts to educate other industries on new ways of incorporating composite materials. Managing Editor Mark Preston has worked in the technical side of the motorsport industry for over a decade, and researching how to incorporate those technologies into the wider automotive industry and enhance composites usage beyond F1.

Structural health monitoring is at the heart of these efforts. Preston says that car companies are used to knowing that parts made of traditional materials can last for several decades. Composites don’t have that history, and thus lack a robust performance history. “My opinion is we target lightweight part with structural health monitoring systems, so we start at the higher end ranges and monitor them to project more confidence,” he says. Continuous monitoring is an important step to accomplish this objective. “To give an example of how we do this in F1, after every few races, we do 100 percent load inspection testing where we monitor the part under full load conditions and we check it using acoustic emission analysis and if it’s OK, we send it again,” explains Preston.

Preston says one of the roadblocks for companies automating F1 type parts is because it’s a complicated process integrating a lot of functionality in the car. For example, the monocoque does a lot of jobs (body work, safety cell, chassis, fuel cell protection, driver’s seat, mount points for suspension members) and thus integrates a lot of functionality into one part. “It’s a complicated process, but there’s a performance gain to be had, so there’s a trade-off,” he says. “If you want to get the ultimate in performance and weight, you need to integrate functionality even though it’s complicated.”

The company has worked on integrating composites into a rear top wishbone (which acts as a suspension member) of an F1 car to illustrate this potential. The part had typically been made of steel due to temperature from exhaust pipes in the engine. The company reduced weight in the part by introducing carbon legs and retained titanium end pieces to handle stress concentrations around the joints. The result is a full carbon wishbone with fewer manufacturing processes and reduced complexity, including the removal of bonded joints which require complex sign off processes.

Ultimately, Preston believes one of the guiding principles of F1 philosophy manufacturers can harness is to think outside the box. This goes beyond simply replicating an existing metal part from composites, which will lower the weight but also raise the cost. “As companies integrate more functionality, they’re adding more value. That’s difficult to do in metal, to add curves and shapes to enhance the material itself. At some point, you can’t do it in metal.” Approaching business in terms of functionality could appeal more to companies looking to adopt new technologies.

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.

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The top story in July, Composites Bend the Bar, is about consulting and marketing company Flexi-StiX, LLC process in creating and secured a patent for its process of incorporating pultrusion into a thermoplastic tube. President Gordon Brown took his knowledge of bombproof wallpaper and made a niche for himself in the sport and recreation market.

Two other popular stories are Supercar Made by Composite Hand Lay-up and Cultured Marble’s Eco Trends.

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