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Aerospace first for Canada
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In brief Saertex GmbH & Co KG (www.saertex.com), a manufacturer of non-crimp fabrics, has opened an office in Bangkok, Thailand. It is being run by Dr Helge Haberkern, who is responsible for all Saertex technical marketing activities in South East Asia. Contact: Dr Helge Haberkern, Saertex GmbH & Co KG (Bangkok Office); tel: +66-2744-1502; fax: +66-2-7441278. A new core materials manufacturer has been established in Cullman, Alabama, USA. ICore Composites LLC (www. icore-composites.com) designs and manufactures end-grain balsa structural core panels. The company will exhibit at the IBEX boatbuilding tradeshow in Miami in November. IDI Composites International (www.idicomposites. com), a manufacturer of thermoset moulding compounds, has established plant locations in Shanghai and Shenzhen, China. The company has also opened a new manufacturing facility in Birmingham, UK, which will produce both BMC and SMC. Airbus SAS (www.airbus.com) and QinetiQ (www.qinetiq. com) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the Farnborough International airshow in July. The two companies have worked together for several years, in areas such as composite material based structural design and development, advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and the development of a creep age forming process.
Aerospace first for Canada A PROCESS for manufacturing composite aerospace structures developed by Canadian organisations the National Research Council Institute for Aerospace Research (NRC Aerospace) and Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd (BHTCL) has been transferred to Delastek Inc, GrandMère, Québec. NRC Aerospace first developed expertise in manufacturing composite rib chords using resin transfer moulding (RTM), as well as an adhesive process to bond the rib chords to BHTCLmanufactured wing skins. It then produced an all-composite wingbox for a next-generation tilt rotor aircraft, which is believed to be the most complex composite aerospace structure ever built in Canada. The wing skins were delivered to BHTCL in 2005 and the RTM technology transferred to Delastek. The project grew out of BHTCL’s desire to obtain the composite parts for its products from Canadian suppliers. Two teams at NRC Aerospace worked together to develop the technology. One team manufactured composite rib chords for the wingbox using RTM. The process used a modular mould concept to fabricate two different ribs using removable inserts within the same pressure cavity. The other team constructed a bonding fixture and developed a process to bond the ribs to the wing skins. Delastek has obtained a new contract with Bell to make another RTM part using the modular mould. NRC Aerospace; nrc-cnrc.gc.ca September 2006
REINFORCEDplastics
15
In brief Saertex GmbH & Co KG (www.saertex.com), a manufacturer of non-crimp fabrics, has opened an office in Bangkok, Thailand. It is being run by Dr Helge Haberkern, who is responsible for all Saertex technical marketing activities in South East Asia. Contact: Dr Helge Haberkern, Saertex GmbH & Co KG (Bangkok Office); tel: +66-2744-1502; fax: +66-2-7441278. A new core materials manufacturer has been established in Cullman, Alabama, USA. ICore Composites LLC (www. icore-composites.com) designs and manufactures end-grain balsa structural core panels. The company will exhibit at the IBEX boatbuilding tradeshow in Miami in November. IDI Composites International (www.idicomposites. com), a manufacturer of thermoset moulding compounds, has established plant locations in Shanghai and Shenzhen, China. The company has also opened a new manufacturing facility in Birmingham, UK, which will produce both BMC and SMC. Airbus SAS (www.airbus.com) and QinetiQ (www.qinetiq. com) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the Farnborough International airshow in July. The two companies have worked together for several years, in areas such as composite material based structural design and development, advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and the development of a creep age forming process.
Aerospace first for Canada A PROCESS for manufacturing composite aerospace structures developed by Canadian organisations the National Research Council Institute for Aerospace Research (NRC Aerospace) and Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd (BHTCL) has been transferred to Delastek Inc, GrandMère, Québec. NRC Aerospace first developed expertise in manufacturing composite rib chords using resin transfer moulding (RTM), as well as an adhesive process to bond the rib chords to BHTCLmanufactured wing skins. It then produced an all-composite wingbox for a next-generation tilt rotor aircraft, which is believed to be the most complex composite aerospace structure ever built in Canada. The wing skins were delivered to BHTCL in 2005 and the RTM technology transferred to Delastek. The project grew out of BHTCL’s desire to obtain the composite parts for its products from Canadian suppliers. Two teams at NRC Aerospace worked together to develop the technology. One team manufactured composite rib chords for the wingbox using RTM. The process used a modular mould concept to fabricate two different ribs using removable inserts within the same pressure cavity. The other team constructed a bonding fixture and developed a process to bond the ribs to the wing skins. Delastek has obtained a new contract with Bell to make another RTM part using the modular mould. NRC Aerospace; nrc-cnrc.gc.ca September 2006
REINFORCEDplastics
15