JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #56 - April 2010 - 55

PAVILION USA
Innovations

> Stand F43C The NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans provides vital support to its exploration and discovery missions. Since the early 1960s, MAF has been at the centre of NASA’s human space flight programme, serving as a final assembly facility for the design, development and manufacture of large space launch vehicles requiring water transportation to launch sites. Today, Michoud is responsible for building the external tank, which provides some 1.6M pounds of propellants for the space shuttle’s three main engines. Workers at MAF are also working on the next generation of space flight. Boeing is the production and design partner for the Ares I upper stage and instrument unit avionics. Lockheed Martin is building components for the Orion crew capsule. MAF is managed by Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and operated by Jacobs Technology. It houses a variety of occupants from both the commercial and government sectors. These tenants have access to state-of-the-art shared services such as labs, machines shops and a deep water port. MAF is home to the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM), a partnership NCAM fibre placement machine between NASA and the state of Louisiana. NCAM provides advanced manufacturing technology at NASA’s Michoud assembly facility such as the Friction Stir Welding process and Fibre Placement, vital requirements of next in New Orleans generation launch vehicles and hardware. MAF has a long, successful history and proven expertise in the manufacture and assembly of large aerospace systems and structures supporting NASA programmes and projects. Located on 337 hectares, MAF has one of the largest indoor manufacturing facilities – 17.5 hectares under one roof. http://maf.msfc.nasa.gov
Aerospace

NASA’s Michoud assembly facility

ASC Process Systems, the largest manufacturer of autoclaves in North America, is now certified to construct autoclave pressure vessels for operation within the People’s Republic of China. With this certification, the ASC Econoclave™ is now available in every country in the world. After numerous requests from customers in China already using the industry standard CPC™ control package, this was a natural step to enhance ASC’s worldwide capabilities. Each Econoclave™ system is fully qualitytested in the factory prior to shipment to the customer. The system arrives as close to “plug & play” as possible. Thus, installation time and costs are greatly reduced to provide the customer with a smooth ramp up to production. Complete packages are offered at affordable pricing. www.aschome.com

Aeronautics

Carbon fibre oxidation systems
C. A. Litzler Co., Inc. is presenting oxidation oven systems using an exclusive cross-flow oven technology that incorporates the patented EndSeal system. Their alternating cross-flow design provides uniform airflow across the entire tow band at up to 4 metres wide. These ovens have successfully processed 1k tow up to 350k tow.
Carbo fibre

> Stand G43D

The End-Seals seal the ends of the oxidation oven, preventing cold air from infiltrating the oven and providing consistent airflow and temperature uniformity while minimizing fugitive emissions. Only Litzler ovens have this exclusive patented system. Litzler has more than 65 oxidation ovens installed in the United States, Taiwan, China, and Europe. www.calitzler.com

Wabash MPI is a leading manufacturer of standard and custom compression moulding presses for composite moulding, laminating, rubber moulding and other processing applications. The presses can be configured to meet the customer's specific processing needs, including precise control of pressure and temperature parameters. Heating configurations include electric, steam or hot oil, depending on the process demands. In addition, the presses can be configured with air bladder management, core pull, part ejection, automation, etc. Wabash MPI also has a line of standard presses with a wide variety of platen sizes available. www.wabashmpi.com

Multi-Sector

“Plug & play” autoclaves

> Stand F43H

Compression > Stand G43C moulding presses

No56 April 2010 / jec composites magazine

55
http://maf.msfc.nasa.gov http://www.aschome.com http://www.wabashmpi.com http://www.calitzler.com
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #56 - April 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #56 - April 2010
