NetComposites news archive: March 2012

The “Composite Innovations Award” for developments with a particularly high degree of innovation in CFRP lightweight construction will be bestowed for the sixth time at the CFK-Valley Stade Convention.

The Automotive Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers' (SPE) 42^nd annual Automotive Innovation Awards Gala will be held on the 7^th November at Burton Manor in Livonia, Michigan.

The Brazilian composites industryreported USD 1.657 earnings in 2011, which corresponds to a 10.4% increase in comparison with the previous year according to the Latin American Composite Materials Association (ALMACO).

Steve Rodgers, the International President (2009-2010) of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) and founding principal of EmergeTek was awarded the Utah “Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology” at a special ceremony held in the Gateway Centre on the 10th January 2012.

AOC will increase prices US$0.06/lb in the US and CN$0.135 per kilo in Canada for all products, effective for shipments on and after March 16, 2012. 

Dymax’s manually controlled dispensing systems facilitate dispensing through the use of a normally closed, hand-held Model 200 diaphragm valve designed for a variety of applications including dot, bead, and potting applications.

SHD Composite Materials and North Thin Ply Technology (NTPT) have formed a collaboration to enable the two companies to provide a unique package of compatible woven and UD prepregs.

3A Composites and Bcomp have entered into a cooperation for the development, production and marketing of innovative, engineered core material solutions.

Interplastic Corporation’s Thermoset Resins Division is raising the price of CoREZYN and Silmar brand polyester and vinyl ester resins, gel coats, colorants and putties $0.06 per pound, taking effect on all shipments on or after March 17, 2012.

Independent Boat Builders (IBBI) is the recipient of the 2012 Syrging Ahead Award for its use of chemistry to advance innovation in boat manufacturing.

The Carbon Fibre Industry Worldwide 2011-2020: An Evaluation of Current Markets and Future Supply and Demand, written by Tony Roberts, a leading expert on the carbon fibre industry, is a new market report on the rapidly growing carbon fibre industry and its global markets.

Mansory have customised the McLaren MP4-12C making it more light weight, improving its agility and handling providing scope for increased performance.

Formax has formed a research collaboration with the Polymer and Composite Engineering (PaCE) group based at Imperial College in London to focus on developing the technology of short and long fibre composites in the form of a novel binding chemistry.

Premier Composite Technologies (PCT)has signed a contract to supply the roofing and inner ceiling for one of the Haramain High Speed Railway stations, the Medinah Station.

Prepreg with fabric made from sustainably-sourced woven flax, made by Composites Evolution, is now available from Amber Composites providing the high performance and easy processing normally associated with glass fibre composites but with lower weight and environmental impact.

The Koenigsegg Agera R Hypercar, using Umeco’s lightweight prepregs to minimise overall vehicle weight, has broke the existing Guinness Book of World Records title for ‘The fastest time for a two-seater production car to travel from 0-300-0 km/h’, which it achieved in just 21.19 seconds.

AOC has increased the price for all products, including polyester resins, vinyl ester resins, gel coats and pigments in the amount of US$0.06 per pound for all shipments to the Caribbean, Central and South America.

SP-High Modulus is sponsoring the High Performance Yacht Design (HPYD) Conference being held in Auckland, New Zealand from this week.

Michelman has released Hydrosize PA845, a polyamide based fibre sizing formulated for high temperature resin applications where a greater degree of thermal stability is required. 

Composite Scandinavia, a subsidiary of Hexagon Composites, has decided to initiate a process with the employee representatives in Composite Scandinavia, with the intention to discontinue the production of composite LPG cylinders in Piteå, Sweden.

Ticona and Kureha Corporation are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Fortron Industries, a joint venture that they say continues to meet the increased global demand for Fortron high-performance polyphenylene sulphide (PPS).

Entries in the second International Plastics Design Competition (IPDC) can now be viewed online and the “People’s Choice” category is now open for voters.

A new report by Hackwell Group forecasts continuing growth of the European wood plastic composites industry to almost 360,000 tonnes by 2015, which represents an average annual growth of 13%, but nevertheless a slowing in growth compared with the 2005-10 period, as a result of the continuing difficulties in European economies.

AnalySwift has released the newest version of the dramatically different general‐purpose micromechanics code, SwiftComp Micromechanics 3.0, also known as VAMUCH, which is designed to be a versatile micromechanics tool capable of saving users orders of magnitude in engineering time for heterogeneous structures and materials, particularly composites.

As part of the ongoing development of its double-coated product line, Intertape Polymer Group (IPG) has launched a new 8 mil double-coated polyester tape with a high bond acrylic adhesive and a 2 mil white polyester liner designed to promote excellent processing and die cutting characteristics.

Quickstep has been awarded the tender to manufacture wing flaps for the C-130J Hercules military transport aircraft.

Officials from MuCell Extrusion and Dow Chemical recently concluded an agreement for MuCell Extrusion to acquire Dow Chemical’s patent portfolio for flat sheet extrusion of polyolefin resins, and gives MuCell Extrusion and its customer's exclusive rights to the Dow patents related to flat sheet technology for a wide variety of applications.

Manuplas has formed a new partnership with Scabro Composieten to represent them in the Benelux region by promoting and selling their seamless/close-contour polyurethane mass-casting system for pattern and plug making.

The 1^st Information Event of the ESPRIT Project took place on 18^th January 2012
in Kaiserslautern outlining new materials and processing methods developed during the project.

Dymax Corporation’s See-Cure GA-140-SC is a UV/Visible light-curable, Form-In-Place (FIP), Cure-In-Place (CIP) gasketing resin that they say is ideal for applications requiring soft, tack-free, flexible gaskets for sealing fuel cells, critical electronic assemblies such as LCD frame assemblies, and plastic assemblies, offering advantages over traditional gasketing materials.

Gastank Sweden is now able to produce zero permeation cylinders that meet the very stringent ECE R110 regulation governing the use of Type IV high pressure CNG cylinders for motor vehicles because of the combination of an inner liner made with Akulon Fuel Lock from DSM and the mechanical characteristics of HiPer-tex glass fibre from 3B.

Laurel BioComposite has purchased an ENTEK E-Max 53mm twin screw extruder as the next step in its multi-tiered strategy to provide injection moulders with its new patent-pending Bio-Res.

The UK’s National Composites Centre (NCC) has used its multi-million pound, twin headed, robotic, Automatic Fibre Placement (AFP) machine for the first time.

Atlas Composites have won a contract with British Cycling to supply composite components manufactured at its 25,000 square foot production facility.

New World has invested time and engineering resources to trial Crystic Crestabond which has resulted in performance improvements and cost savings whilst offering commercial benefits.

After a long working relationship, Sigmatex and Innegra Technologies are forming a strategic alliance to develop applications utilising Innegra S fibre.
 

RTP Company has acquired the conductive compound product line from Clariant of Switzerland, to strengthen its product offering of conductive compounds in Europe and globally. 

Metyx has made a major, multi-phased investment in the core material and fabric kitting business which will form part of Metyx Composites Kitting Centre (MCKC), a new business unit at the company’s manufacturing centre in Manisa, Turkey.
 

AOC has opened “AOC House,” the new and expanded office and warehouse centre for AOC (UK) Ltd. and AOC Europe operations designed to strengthen AOC's commitment to the composites industry growth.   
 

ITW Plexus has begun to manufacture its range of methyl methacrylate structural adhesives in its European facility based in Shannon, Ireland.

DSM Composite Resins has increased the prices of its Unsaturated Polyester Resins & Vinyl Ester Resins by €110 per ton for its complete resins portfolio in Europe, with effectiveness as of April 2nd, 2012.

Ticona is raising prices globally on all GUR ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) and GHR very high molecular weight polyethylene (VHMW-PE) products for shipments effective April 1, 2012, or as contracts allow.

Dow Automotive Systems will present its latest’s solutions and offerings to achieve light weighting with innovative composite technology comprising both resins and adhesives at JEC Europe next week.. Dow say that with this combined portfolio they are a relevant market player in providing the industry with a comprehensive and synergistic composite portfolio.

Victrex Polymer Solutions will showcase its latest product and technology innovations at this year’s JEC Composites Show in Paris, France - Pavilion 1 Booth J16.

Chomarat will give the JEC Europe a preview of the latest technical advances and the first parts obtained with C-PLY Bi-Angle, which makes use of innovative fibre orientations within the composite.

For this year’s JEC, Dieffenbacher will focus on progressive line concepts for the production of lightweight car body parts for the automotive industry, presenting the PreformCenter for fully-automated production of 3D preforms made of carbon fibres.

Chem-Trend will present its portfolio of Chemlease branded release agents for the processing of composite materials at booth P83 at JEC Europe next week.

At JEC Europe Huntsman will focus on the growing importance of high performance chemistries as enablers for new, cost-competitive manufacturing techniques and the further penetration of composites across a number of industry sectors.

Axson Technologies is exhibiting a preview of their independent heating tool regulated for prepregs outside the autoclave on its booth, F17, at JEC Europe next week.

DIAB will introduce new additions to its range of core materials and sandwich composite solutions at booth K26 at the JEC Show in Paris.

Synthesites is launching their Optiflow system, LightRTM and vacuum infusion processes for sensing resin arrival and temperature at JEC Europe next week.

This year, 13 companies and their partners will receive awards at JEC Europe next week.

Century Design (CDI) will be launching the new addition to their range of Prepreg machines, the CDI small production prepreg machine JEC Europe next week.

Formax will launch two new materials at JEC Europe at Booth N52 next week.

Umeco’s current businesses, known as Advanced Composites Group, GRPMS, JD Lincoln and Richmond Aerovac, are all being rebranded under one name, Umeco.

SP-High Modulus has supplied Corecell M-Foam and engineering services to the newly launched Gulf Craft Majesty 135 superyacht.

NetComposites will be hosting presentations outlining their latest innovations and commercialisations in naturally derived resins and fibres, nano-additives for composites, self-reinforced plastics, and recycled carbon fibre composites from their booth C19 at JEC Europe next week.

Magine Snowboards and Skis have developed a biocomposite snowboard using Composites Evolution's Biotex flax fabric. The novel construction includes a wooden laminate core, sandwiched between two layers of Biotex flax fabric, and a top and bottom plastic layer, all bonded together using an eco-epoxy resin system.

Waldomiro Moreira, Executive of the resins manufacturer Elekeiroz and one of the Directors of the Latin American Composite Materials Association (ALMACO) will present "Lightweight flame retardant thermoset composites with low smoke generation” at the JEC Europe Innovative Composites Summit (ICS), scheduled to take place in the afternoon of March 28th.

Telene DCPD is giving manufacturers worldwide a way to develop small- to medium-sized series of parts requiring high level properties.

Createc has devised a revolutionary set of Creacomp PT (Pump Type) composite materials that combine Victrex PEEK polymer with carbon fibre.

Teijin will open the Teijin Composites Application Center (TCAC), a technical center to develop automotive and other industrial applications of carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) composite products, in Auburn Hills, Michigan, on April 1st.

Norplex-Micarta hqs introduced RT571 tubing composed of a heavy weave glass fabric with an epoxy resin system.

Toho Tenax Europe has been developing Tenax Net Shape Preform technology and their latest developments enhance new possibilities for thermoset matrix composites with the combination of aligned fibres and random oriented material.

SCIGRIP, a merger of IPS Weld-On (US) and Holdtite (UK) are demonstrating the latest advancements in bonding systems and adhesive chemistries at JEC Europe this week.

Rhodia Engineering Plastics is showcasing Evolite by Technyl at JEC Europe this week, which they say has been recently endorsed through partnerships and co-innovation projects to develop automotive and marine applications.

Poliya has signed a strategic partnership and manufacturing agreement with Novaresine, a Tenax group company.

Hexcel Corporation and Web Industries have signed a long-term Supply Agreement under which Web Industries will convert Hexcel’s HexPly carbon fibre prepreg into slit tape for Aerospace programs, including the Airbus A350 XWB.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM), Germany, will present its work at JEC Europe at booth H64 this week.

Boeing has received an amended type certificate from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the 787-8 Dreamliner.

AkzoNobel and DSM have officially launched the BluCure umbrella brand covering innovative Cobalt-free resin curing technologies and products at JEC Europe this week.

Thanks to the combination of an inner liner made with Akulon Fuel Lock from DSM and the mechanical characteristics of HiPer-tex glass fibre from 3B, GASTANK Sweden, is now able to produce zero permeation cylinders that meet the very stringent ECE R110 regulation governing the use of Type IV high pressure CNG cylinders for motor vehicles.

Owens Corning has pioneered a new solution to help kitchen appliance and food processing equipment manufacturers comply with impending European regulations on glass fibre used in materials for food and drinking water contact.

A new lighter variant of TeXtreme Spread Tow carbon fabrics are to being presented at the JEC show in Paris this week.

Alan Harper Composites have released the SilCon V, a new silicone spray machine designed for the professional mould builder.