JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #68 Special JEC Asia - October 2011 - 10

Companies & Business

- In brief ............................ p10

- Melbourne establishes its position in the carbon fibre sector ............................... p11

- Amiantit Technology, next-level GRP pipe technology ....................... p12 - Beachcomber, the marine product specialist .......... p14
Innovative excellence

jec composites magazine / No68 October 2011

Polypropylene honeycombs core for structural sandwich panels

in brief
Opening ATK opens new facility to handle $1 billion+ commercial aircraft orders
kets, such as a recent order in the defence land vehicles sector. The final element of a one million pound composite upgrade investment has come to fruition at Beagle Technology Group’s facility in Dorset. Equipment purchases and upgrades include a prepreg cutter, a laser projection system, CATIA software, autoclave refurbishment, clean room facilities and security installations. The Group has also added Nadcap Accreditation for Composites to its portfolio of approvals.
www.beagletg.com

On 29 August 2011, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) celebrated the grand opening of its new Aircraft Commercial Centre of Excellence (ACCE) facility in Clearfield, Utah – less than one year after the announcement of the expansion. ATK has received commercial aircraft component orders exceeding $1 billion over the last several years. The facility serves as the headquarters for ATK’s commercial aircraft programmes and supports the manufacturing of composite airframe and engine components for the Airbus A350 XWB, and General Electric and Rolls-Royce engine programmes. Over 57,000 m2, the building is dedicated to high-rate composite manufacturing. ATK has approximately 9,300 m2 committed to clean rooms which accommodate its patented automated stiffener forming technology and engine wrap machines. Initial production of 700 parts per month will accelerate with customer needs and market expansion. At the optimum rate of production, the ACCE facility will be able to produce 10,000 parts per month.
www.atk.com

Airbus delivers first A350 XWB centre wing box and keel beam to Saint-Nazaire
Two significant milestones in the A350 XWB programme occurred during the past summer. On 8 August, Airbus delivered the first A350 XWB centre wing box from its site in Nantes, France to the Saint-Nazaire facility for assembly into the first A350 XWB fuselage central section. This was followed on 12 August by the delivery of the first A350 XWB keel beam, again from Nantes to Saint-Nazaire. Both of these huge composite structures were built with HexPly® M21E/IMA carbon fibre and prepreg from Hexcel. Hexcel was awarded a contract by Airbus to supply HexPly® M21E/IMA for all of the A350 XWB primary structures.
www.hexcel.com & www.airbus.com

Iran inaugurates first carbon fibre production line
According to Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who attended the inauguration ceremony of the first production line for carbon fibre at the aerospace department of the Defence Ministry, all of the machinery and equipment needed for producing carbon fibre has been manufactured by Iranian engineers. The resulting carbon fibre can be used in the manufacture of military and non-military equipment.
www.ircomas.org

Development

Beagle Technology Group spends £1m on upgrade investment

Over the past year, Beagle has been investing heavily in upgrading its facilities as part of an expansion and restructuring strategy, which has enabled the company to win business in new mar-

There is an error in Table 2 on page 17 of JEC Composites Magazine no. 66. Only Owens Corning and 3B-Fiberglass produce boron-free E glass, as mentioned in the paper entitled “Owens Corning invented a boron-free E-glass that is marketed under the name Advantex. The only company with a license from Owens Corning to market its boron-free products under that name is 3B Fiberglass” (1st column, page 16).
www.ocvreinforcement.com

Erratum

Boron-free E Glass

http://www.beagletg.com http://www.atk.com http://www.hexcel.com http://www.airbus.com http://www.ircomas.org http://www.nidaplast.com http://www.ocvreinforcement.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #68 Special JEC Asia - October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #68 Special JEC Asia - October 2011