SAMPE Journal - May/June 2012 - (Page 5)

A Note from the Technical Director Dr. Scott W. Beckwith Designing Composites – Optimizing Composites for Design vs. the “Black Aluminum” Approach SAMPE Journal Technical Editor swbeckwith@aol.com After World War II we saw the advance of “plastics” usage into a marketplace that grew leaps and bounds. As the unfilled, unreinforced plastics market changed over to incorporating fiber and particulate reinforcement materials, our concept regarding ‘those cheap, weak plastics’ changed as we realized that the designers were now starting to optimize plastics into something that did not always break. Plastics engineers and manufacturers started to use concepts that built upon the advantages of adding reinforcement materials and actually “designing” the plastics to perform to higher expectations. As composite materials came on board with the more extensive use first, E-glass fibers and, later on, carbon and graphite fibers the technology moved to a higher level with continuous fiber reinforcements. The 1960s was a serious development period. A considerable amount of analytical development in areas modeling composite behavior trying to understand the various benefits of lamination technology. Many of these models concentrated on aspects related to fiber stiffness, fiber volume fraction and lamination sequence and orientation aspects. The technology was well documented educating the industry and marketplace about the benefits of composites using continuous fiber reinforcement technology. Along with all of these extensive results was the strong indication that designers had a very wide range of options in terms of choosing composites that could be highly optimized. At the same time, many of the experiments and manufacturing consisted of selecting fairly simple fiber angles more common to our understanding of basic trigonometry. As a result, much work has been done – analytically and in fabrication – using angles like 0, 90, ±30, ±45 and ±60 degrees. In fact, a very large portion of designs use two more distinct lamination angular sets in order to achieve composite materials that behave much more closely to their isotropic metal compatriots. These angle sets typically form families of what are termed “quasi-isotropic composites” (see the Tech Tidbits column on page 48). The angle sets, therefore, typically include combinations of either [0, 90, ±45] or [0, ±60] to fabricate many composites. It does very often make life easier for the designer. However, for a large number of applications in which the designer is asked to replace a metal component with a composite material, the philosophy of designing the new composite part becomes one of designing the “black Aluminum” replacement instead. Aluminum is metallic. It is also isotropic in nature. Hence in many cases a designer will often choose to just “replace” the Aluminum component with composite materials by selecting a “quasi-isotropic” lamination sequence – rather than to actually build upon composite materials strong performance attributes which suggest other design option. Consequently, we do not often truly “optimize” a component that takes into account composites wonderful advantages. A quasi-isotropic approach is certainly a good first step. However, in many cases that approach never places the fibers in the primary load direction(s) induced within the part. For example, the leading edge of carbon fiber forks on high performance road bikes are constantly under compression loading during riding. Yet the design approach is one of “quasi-isotropic” material selection rather than adding more fibers axially along the leading edge. This approach is not unique, as there are numerous other industry examples. The industry certainly has the ability to more efficiently “optimize composites design” rather than just select a “quasi-isotropic” methodology. In fact, the use of more automation in manufacturing, such as automated fiber placement (AFP) and robotic fiber placement technology which “steer” fibers along various angular paths continues to provide such opportunities. Composites design optimization is strongly encouraged to take full advantage of composite performance attributes. SAMPE: Connecting the Advanced Materials and Processes Community Worldwide AMERICA Charleston, sC Usa October 22-25, 2012 long BeaCh, Ca Usa May 6-9, 2013 WiChita, Ks Usa October 21-24, 2013 EUROPE lUCerne, sWitzerland 19-20 September 2012 ASIA Beijing, China 15-17 October 2012 Visit www.sampe.org for more details on upcoming conferences and exhibitions. SAMPE Journal, Volume 48, No. 3, May/June 2012 5 http://www.PCComposites.com http://www.sampe.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAMPE Journal - May/June 2012

SAMPE Journal - May/June 2012
Contents
President’s Message
Technical Director’s Corner
Improving mechanical Performance of Automotive Underbody Shield with Unidirectional Tapes in Compression-Molded Direct-Long Fiber Thermoplastics (D-LFT)
2012 SAMPE Lubin Award
SAMPE Europe’s SETEC 2012, Lucerne
2012 SAMPE Fellows
Europe News & Views
SAMPE Europe’s SEMAT 2012, Munich
The SAMPE Foundation
SAMPE Journal Editorial Calender
SAMPE Proceedings
Co-molded, Metallic components for Thermal Barrier Protection in TRM Composite Valves for Internal Combustion Engines
Corporate Partners
Welcome SAMPE’s Newest Members
Materials & Products
SAMPE LinkedIn Communities
SAMPE Tech 2012|Charleston, SC
Perspectives
Industry News
Tech Tidbits
SAMPE 2013|Long Beach Call for Papers
SAMPE 2012|Baltimore
SAMPE 2012 Exhibition
SAMPE Asia 2012 Review and Photos
SAMPE Books & CD’s Order Form
SAMPE 2012 Exhibitors
SAMPE 2012 Exhibitor Listings
Advertiser’s Index
Resource Center
Membership Application
Industry Events Calendar
Chapter Meetings Dates and Contacts

SAMPE Journal - May/June 2012

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