Compositesmanufacturing May/June 2019 the Official Magazine of the American Composites Manufacturers Association
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CompositesManufacturing May/June 2019 The Official Magazine of the American Composites Manufacturers Association Ramping Up Aerospace Production Composites Simulation Growing Your Company 20 8 High Performance 5 Axis CNC Machining Centers & Large Scale Additive Manufacturing thermwood www.thermwood.com • 800-533-6901 May/June 2019 CompositesManufacturing The Official Magazine of the American Composites Manufacturers Association 5 8 Features 10 Making Simulation Accessible to the Masses ................... 10 It’s a common misconception that composites simulation tools are so sophisticated and costly that only large companies can use them. But small and mid-sized companies can benefit from simulation technologies, too, without exhausting their resources. By Susan Keen Flynn Market Segments From Startup to Industry Leader .........................................16 Automotive .......................................5 Entrepreneurs often start with a great idea, but how do you Volvo’s Polestar 1 successfully turn that idea into a thriving company? Three experienced Culture ............................................. 8 composites professionals share their insight gleaned from decades of Composites Art Exhibit achievements – and mistakes. By Megan Headley Departments & Columns From the ACMA Chair .................... 2 Aircraft Manufacturers Looking for Speed ........................ 20 Tech Talk .......................................... 3 As record-setting numbers of passengers continue to fly, aircraft manufacturers seek to build more planes to meet the demand. That Legislative & Regulatory ................. 26 puts pressure on the composites industry for new technologies and Inside ACMA .................................. 27 faster production rates. By Mary Lou Jay About the Cover: Spirit AeroSystems manufactures the frame for the Boeing 787, which contains 50 percent advanced composite materials. Photo Courtesy of Spirit AeroSystems From the ACMA Chair Composites Manufacturing Volume 35 | Number 3 | May/June 2019 Official Magazine of the Embracing the ‘What Ifs?’ American Composites Manufacturers Association Publisher Tom Dobbins [email protected] s a business executive, you are faced with a lot of “what Editorial if?” scenarios. What are the opportunities – and risks – if Managing Editor I pursue this market segment? What will happen if I add Susan Keen Flynn A [email protected] a new piece of equipment or manufacturing process? Senior Vice President of Events and Information Heather Rhoderick, CAE, CMP In this month’s feature article “From Startup to Industry Leader” [email protected] on page 16, several composites professionals share stories of Editorial Design & Production moving from entrepreneurs with great ideas to executives running Keane Design, Inc. thriving businesses. They provide glimpses into moments when [email protected] keanedesign.com they weighed the “what if” questions, sometimes making good choices – and sometimes not. Through my experience, I can add two pieces of advice to their insight. The first is the importance of having a plan. Sustainable growth requires purposeful planning. When I think back to the humble beginnings of Core Molding Technologies, we started with one customer. We wanted to get all the customers in that same niche, and we developed a step-by-step plan on how we were going to do that. American Composites Manufacturers Association 2000 N. 15th Street, Ste. 250 Arlington, VA 22201 My second piece of advice seems counterintuitive to the first: Even though you have Phone: 703-525-0511 a plan, you need to recognize opportunities when they arise – even if they aren’t part Fax: 703-525-0743 [email protected] of that plan. Then you need to ask, “What if?” You have to be willing to pursue some www.acmanet.org unexpected opportunities to reap the rewards they may provide. Composites Manufacturing (ISSN 1084-841X) is Several years ago, I took a professional leap and joined the ACMA Board of Directors. I published bi-monthly by the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA), ACMA certainly have been rewarded in ways I couldn’t have imagined. As I wrap up my term as Headquarters, 2000 N. 15th Street, Ste. 250, ACMA Chair, I am most thankful for the relationships I’ve built with both ACMA staff Arlington, VA 22201 USA. Subscription rates: Free for and my peers in the association. The dedication, drive and passion of the staff help us members and non-members in the U.S., Canada and Mexico; $55 for international non-members. A free focus on our main initiatives. Together with ACMA members who volunteer their time, online subscription is available at cmmagazineonline. we are moving the industry forward. org. Periodical postage paid at Arlington, VA and additional mail offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Composites As I draft my last message as ACMA Chair, I encourage you all to ask “what if?” not just Manufacturing, ACMA Headquarters, 2000 N. to benefit your company, but to advance the industry as a whole. The future is bright: 15th Street, Ste. 250, Arlington, VA 22201. The What if you committed more time and energy to ACMA? I can attest to the fact that magazine is mailed to ACMA members and is also you will be glad you did. available by subscription. Canada Agreement number: PM40063731 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Station Sincerely, A, PO Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5, Email: [email protected]. Copyright© 2019 by ACMA. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted without permission from the publisher. ACMA, a nonprofit organization representing the composites industry worldwide, publishes Composites Kevin Barnett Manufacturing, circulation 9,000, as a service to its Core Molding Technologies members and other subscribers. Opinions or statements ACMA Chairman of the Board of authors and advertisers appearing in Composites [email protected] Manufacturing are their own and don’t necessarily represent that of ACMA, its Board of Directors or its staff. Information is considered accurate at the time of publication, however accuracy is not warranted. 2 CompositesManufacturing Tech Talk New Life for Recycled Fibers in Laminated Thermoplastic Composites By David R. Salem here are three main components to Teconomically viable fiber recycling: low cost recovery of the fibers, aggregating the fibers in one or more formats that can be used in composites processing and designing composites processes that can utilize the recycled fibers in the manufacture of commercially valuable end products. In all these stages, it is of key importance that the fibers incur minimal damage and attrition of mechanical properties. Various fiber recycling technologies have been developed and adopted by several companies over the last few years, including re-sizing and chopping scrapped virgin tow (Barnet, ELG); reclaiming fiber from uncured DiFTS lamination trial at PolyOne Advanced Composites. thermoset prepregs by pyrolysis (Carbon Conversions, ELG) or by solvolysis rates can be challenging, if fiber damage sheet stamping, widely used to produce (Vartega, R&M International, Shocker and the addition of excessive sizing is to be automotive parts at high volumes. Composites); and recovery of fibers avoided, but technical developments over However, methods which attempt from cured end-of-life composite the past two to three years have largely to impregnate molten thermoplastic parts by pyrolytic methods (Carbon resolved this issue. polymers in nonwoven fiber mats Conversions, ELG, CHZ Technologies) An important route to lowering the generally result in poor fiber wet out, or wet-chemistry approaches (Adherent costs of composites – and increasing which cannot be remedied in short Technologies). their competitiveness against metals – cycle-time molding processes, and Immediately after the recovery process, involves the utilization of recycled fibers in sheet casting processes using traditional the fibers will usually be in the form of thermoplastic matrices. Whereas injection extrusion methods lead to considerable fluffy, entangled bundles, which cannot be molding is a valuable option, limitations attrition of fiber length (with fibers directly fed to a composite manufacturing of part size and control of properties typically below 1mm) and/or non- process. Typically, the fibers are chopped mean that there is a range of high-value uniform fiber dispersion. (to lengths ranging from 4 mm to 12 applications for which this technology The Composite and Nanocomposite mm) and either processed into fiber webs, is not suited. Fiber-reinforced additive Advanced Manufacturing Center which can be infused or impregnated manufacturing has great potential, but is (CNAM Center) at the South Dakota with a resin, or aggregated into pellet- currently a low throughput technology, School of Mines and Technology like bundles in which the fibers are held not yet well-adapted to high-volume (SD Mines) has developed a patent- together by a few weight percent of commercial manufacturing. pending extrusion-based process which binder and/or sizing. The “pellets” can An attractive alternative is the incorporates discontinuous recycled then be fed by hopper to an injection incorporation of recycled fibers in fibers in continuous thermoplastic molding machine or other thermoplastic thermoplastic sheets, which can then be sheets (called DiFTS - Discontinuous compounding process. In practice, the laminated to different thicknesses and Fiber Thermoplastic Sheets). In the formation of a