Every composites manufacturer conducts product development if it wants to avoid stagnation, but the process differs depending on the size and type of company. Mike Lopez, director of composite development & manufacturing for Serrotta, a high-end bicycle-parts manufacturer, says his company’s process is evolving. The company recently introduced a new composite fork.
Matthew Vacek received a composite materials engineering degree from Winona State University in 1995. He has worked with composites in the sporting goods industry since 1995. He began working for Miken, a composites sporting goods manufacturer and subsidiary of Jarden Corporation, in 1999.
Mike Lopez has more than 25 years experience in composite design and manufacturing, with an emphasis on the sporting goods industry. He takes new product concepts through the design and prototype stages and production. He previously worked in different capacities at Reynolds Composites, Unifiber USA, Competition Composites and Cape Composites.
Composites making news last week: Innovative Composites is raising money through equity financing to increase its manufacturing capabilities. Straight Flight Inc. earned a Class I Composite Airframe rating from the FAA, allowing it to repair carbon fiber, fiberglass and Kevlar components.
Failure analysts are like the Ghost Busters of the composites industry. When there’s something strange, you give them a call. Joe Rakow, an expert in composite failure analysis, is asked to help companies figure out how and why product failures occur. Rakow investigates airplane accidents to broken pipelines and fire-damaged wind turbines. However, the...
BMC and thermoset part supplier Mar-Bal has initiated a sales and export strategy to China. Valley Forge Composites Technologies entered a distribution partnership with Intellidome ALSS to promote each other’s counter-terrorism and homeland security products. Vector Composites signed an agreement to promote Quickstep Composites’ out-of-autoclave process.
Top composites news this week included the following: Armored Chariots LLC, a joint venture between TPI and Plasan, will produce lightweight crew compartments for military vehicles. SAMPE and SME reported record attendance at their co-located conferences. Marine Products Corp. a manufacturer of fiberglass boats, reported third-quarter profits.
After receiving a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University and pursuing an MBA in marketing, Howard Lindsay spent more than 10 years creating effective aerospace and military composite-based products and technologies. Lindsay founded ViaTech to apply aerospace composite technology to consumer products. After three years, he became VP of Engineering at True...
Ranger Boats’ new owners will invest $13 million to retool and expand, which will create more than 115 new jobs. Met-Pro won a $3.7 million contract to supply fiberglass centrifugal pumps to a marine life park in Southeast Asia. Maine Marine Composites is using a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy...
LCOA Composites developed a lightweight composite police shield, which the company says can stop a bullet at 15 feet. Automated Dynamics introduced a carbon-fiber hydraulic pump at the Offshore Technology Conference. The DOT gave the Center for Transportation and Materials Engineering at Youngstown State University a $463,400 grant to investigate light-weight materials for...
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