Competitive snowboarders rely on a slim piece of fiberglass and some plastic strapping to ride down the sleek, often precarious slopes like the Colorado Rocky Mountains. In stiff competition, snowboarders must trust the equipment they bring to the slopes to keep from breaking in harsh conditions. Especially when the boards are tested in extreme...
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...
We're almost ready for a new year filled with engineering innovation! this past year was bursting with success stories that massively impacted the industry and spurred trends towards composite integration in new markets. As we wave goodbye to 2011, here are some interesting developing technologies that the industry can look forward to in 2012.
When Lane Segerstrom heard that three professors at the University of Illinois had developed a corn-based structural composite technology, he was intrigued. He grew up on a farm in Iowa and has been inventing and taking products to the marketplace for 10 years. He instantly recognized the huge opportunity, called the University and secured...
James Colegrove has been working in the composites industry for nearly 30 years, 20 of which has been with Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle. He helped develop Trek’s OCLV molding technology and has been involved with design and process development of carbon fiber bikes like the Madone, Speed concept, "Y" bike, and the original 5500 models....
Recycling carbon fiber may be complicated but Trek Bicycle decided that keeping this valuable material out of landfills was the right thing to do regardless. This past spring the company, which designs and manufactures bicycles, launched an ambitious full-scale carbon fiber recycling program at its Waterloo, Wis.-based manufacturing facility.
Perhaps because the sport involves riding a force of nature, surfers tend to be environmentally conscious. But the tool of their trade, the surfboard, has traditionally been anything but green.
Avid skiers love the buttery smooth ride of an aluminum or titanium ski. Achieving a steady ride without vibrations—coined as “flutter”—at high speeds is a major challenge for any ski designer because most vibration reduction techniques are parasitic; they may reduce vibrations but with a weight penalty and without adding more value to the...
Pete Wagner is the CEO and founder of Wagner Custom Skis. Pete received a BS in mechanical engineering, focusing on composite materials and computer-aided design at UC San Diego before entering the golf industry as a product designer. For close to 10 years, Pete created software tools for the design, analysis and manufacturing of...
Before much longer, Gordon Brown would like to get composites in the hands of high school athletes, college athletes, the pros, maybe even Olympians. He wants to tell them about how he has worked his own 65-year-old muscles with oscillating exercises thanks to an extruded thermoplastic tube such and a rectangular pultruded composite. Brown...
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