JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013 - 63

a microscope, one can see it is made
from tube-shaped carbon molecules
50,000 times thinner than human
hair. When sheets of buckypaper are
stacked together to become part of a
composite structure, it can transform
into one of the strongest materials
known to man.

State-of-the-art equipment
Situated inside a new $20 million,
4,200 m² building that houses 13
laboratories, the High-Performance
Materials Institute brings together
highly technical researchers and stateof-the-art equipment to continually
explore and realize the astounding
potential of NOLES, or nanotubes
optimized for lightweight exceptional
strength. Researchers go from idea
to concept to prototype and beyond,
working one-on-one with private
businesses and the government with
complete confidentiality to meet the
specific needs of each partner.
Both researchers and students have
access to the facility’s equipment that
is valued at more than $10 million.
They can watch the tiniest particles
come alive under a scanning electronic microscope that has 100,000

Fig. 2: The High-Performance Materials Institute relies on an OMAX® 55100 JetMachining®
Center to quickly and accurately cut a wide
variety of components, including carbon fiber
composites.

Fig. 3: Composite materials generate a lot of dust when dry cut on a CNC machine, which can be
harmful if breathed in. Therefore, the High-Performance Materials Institute relies on the OMAX® 55100
JetMachining® Center to create a cleaner, safer working environment for cutting strong composite
materials.

times more magnification than what is
found in a high school laboratory. And
what once seemed impossible to cut,
researchers and students can easily
slice away strong composite materials
thanks to a powerful abrasive waterjet
machine. In fact, the Institute has
been successfully using an OMAX
55100 JetMachining® centre for the
past six years to quickly and accurately cut a wide variety of components,
some less than 6 mm in size.

A cantilever-style machine
The composite materials the Institute
works with are really strong, and they
can’t think of a material they haven’t
cut on the OMAX centre. It doesn’t
matter how strong the material is
because the waterjet machine will cut
through anything.
The 55100 is the largest cantileverstyle machine within OMAX’s diverse
product portfolio. It is designed to
accommodate the cutting of large,
complex parts and can handle sheet
materials of up to 1.5 x 3 m in dimension. Furthermore, the 55100’s
user-friendly controls simplify the
programming of traditionally complex
techniques. In fact, students’ components can be machined directly from a
CAD drawing or DXF file.
This machine is versatile and intuitive with software that’s easy to
use. It features OMAX’s innovative

Intelli-MAX® Software Suite, which
runs on the Windows® 7 Ultimate
operating system. The software, for
which OMAX provides free upgrades
for the life of the machine, automates programming and tool setup
work, virtually eliminates the need
for extensive operator training and
offers quick turnaround of short-run
projects and large-volume, mass-production projects. Furthermore, the
software enables the 55100 to offer
higher average cutting speeds and
greater precision than competitive
designs.
The machine is very useful because it
adds to the overall specimen quality,
particularly in terms of the cut.

Waterjet machining
The OMAX 55100 is also highly
important to the High-Performance
Materials Institute because waterjet
machining is cleaner and safer than
CNC machining. After all, when
composite materials are dry cut, dust
gets all over the place and can prove
harmful if inhaled.
Right now, the Institute is producing
buckypaper at only a fraction of its
potential strength, in small quantities
and at a high price. Nobel Laureate
Dr. Richard Smalley first produced
buckypaper during the 1990s by filtering a nanotube suspension in order
to prepare samples for various tests.

No80 April 2013

/ jec composites magazine 63

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013