JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #146 - June/July 2022 - 64

May 3-5, 2022
gineers to evaluate designs, lighten their end products
and ultimately create products faster and less
expensively, " he said. The solution draws on an
extensive database of materials and stress and
strain allowances.
Johns Manville (JM) was present at JEC
World with its fibreglass and organosheet
portfolios and focused on " enabling performance. "
Martin Kleinebrecht, head of
marketing communications, JM engineered
products, explained that the company's customers
are at the forefront of lightweighting
for applications such as automotive, construction,
sports equipment, energy generation and
other innovative markets, and Johns Manville
is focused on supporting, or enabling, their
objectives. The company has invested in a
new line for patented organosheets with a water-like
impregnation and in-situ polymerisation
" in one shot, " he said. The glass fibre sizing
is reactive, and there is no lamination required
to achieve up to 3-mm-thick composite sheets.
In general, Johns Manville is continually making
" tweaks " across its portfolio. For instance,
the firm uses its knowledge on sizing developments
to enable fibres to fit with different
matrix polymers and downstream processing
steps. On the sustainability front, Johns Manville
recently installed a thermal recycling line
in Slovakia where it recycles 97 percent of its
own production waste material. The company
is committed to using a minimum of 6 percent
recycled content on average across its Slovakia
portfolio. The company also is investing
in more efficient furnaces as it rebuilds or replaces
this machinery every eight to 10 years.
Availability and inflation are concerns for the
composites industry. " It's a very challenging
environment, " he said. Still, since demand returned
as economies re-opened, Johns Manville
has been selling out of supplies, despite
running at full capacity and speed.
In another U.S. conference presentation at JEC
World, Stephan Zweidler, partner and director
of technical sales and marketing, Accudyne
Systems, discussed how his firm develops integrated
robot cells and machinery solutions
for many composite processing steps prior to
consolidation, including automated fibre and
tape placement, ply-by-ply laminate forming,
cutting, picking, inspecting and placement.
Zweidler said with every project, " Accudyne
is focused on delivering three things to customers:
improved efficiency, reduced waste and happy
workers. " The company has developed several
unique equipment solutions over the years,
including automation-assisted manufacturing
cells such as Stringer Former and Ultrasonic
64
Trim Cells that can lay up two parts simultaneously.
Accudyne is also a technology industrialisation
partner to Rolls-Royce PLC to
create a Multi-Module Turbofan Blade Cell, in
which several manufacturing modules are coordinated
by a single Accudyne Cell Controller,
requiring minimal operator intervention.
Robot and CNC integration is a major focus
for Accudyne going forward to drive efficiency
up, waste down, and improve worker morale
- all in the name of sustainable composite
manufacturing, Zweidler said.
Web Industries Inc. featured new capabilities
for high-speed automated formatting of TPC
materials. Web's Precision BiasPly™ solution
uses a proprietary continuous seam welding
method. This approach is faster and more
efficient than manual tack welding. The new
offering enables customers to get higher yields
from expensive TPC material, which typically
is supplied by raw materials providers in
12-inch-wide rolls. BiasPly gives customers
greater flexibility to customise material widths
for their applications, including continuous
compression moulding processes. For example,
Web can format TPC into rolls as wide as
50 inches. " Companies are dealing with significant
yield loss now, sometimes loss as greater than
20 percent, " said Jason Surman, vice president
of aerospace. " That's not good for total cost of
ownership (TCO) or the environment, even if
you recycle 100 percent of the waste. Our solution
helps customers achieve lightweighting goals
while lowering TCO and reducing waste. "
Web Industries also sees growth in additive
manufacturing, for which it formats composite
materials to widths as narrow as 1 mm.
Consistent edge quality, with no fraying, is
essential for smooth operation of 3D printers,
Surman said. " Precision is important, " he said.
" It keeps the machine running continuously. "
Alpine Advanced Materials highlighted its
HX5® nanocomposite material, which delivers
high-temperature performance, strength and
low weight. The material has 93 percent the
strength of 6061-T6 aluminium and half the
weight. Alpine acquired the technology from
Lockheed Martin and is commercialising it.
Lockheed invested $50 million in the nanomaterial,
including characterisation and qualification
for the allowables database. Roger Raley,
president, said HX5 composite parts can be
metal plated for a high-end look, such as that
desired for luxury jets. " There's nothing like this, "
Raley said. The company has used the technology
in applications such as arm rests, seat latches
and fasteners, overhead bin fasteners, electronic
enclosures, satellite clips and brackets
jec composites magazine / N°146 June - July 2022
These are examples of products made of Alpine
Advanced Materials' HX5®
nanocomposite.
Included are various brackets and a 38999
connector made of HX5.
between the cabin divider and fuselage. Raley
said he foresees the material's use for eVTOL
and " other rapidly developing markets. "
Virtek Vision, a Canada-based provider of
laser projection systems for over 35 years,
featured the new Iris™ ActiveTrack system. It
is designed to help manufacturers perform inspection
and assembly tasks on moving parts.
Like Virtek's other solutions, Iris ActiveTrack
projects laser templates and work instructions
to help guide operators to know precisely
where to lay up composite tapes and plies.
However, the new system can display the laser
template on rotating and moving work surfaces,
such as mandrels and assembly lines, automatically
and continuously providing a laser
outline as the tool turns or line advances.
In other news, Virtek's new CEO Dietmar
Wennemer said the company can provide
digital inspection process flow data to customers
to help them comply to Industry 4.0
digitisation requirements. This provides them
with comprehensive quality control documentation
and accurate production reporting.
For example, thanks to Virtek's application
programming interfaces (API) and the partnerships
with Hexagon and CreaForm can
be used as build compensation. Laser trackers
can be used to " Scan the object " - " Analyze the
object " against engineering CAD data - the laser
projection system will " Project a laser line
template " onto the object. In this way, Virtek's
technology can be used to create digital data
and compare it with CAD data and specifications
to project precise laser templates instead
of mylar templates directly on the plane for
applications such as paint masking. He also
described a composites maintenance, repair
and operations (MRO) application for Virtek
Vision software. The solution can be used to
show where patches should be installed to
repair damaged composite panels or parts. In
overall industry trends, Wennemer said electronic
component price inflation is a supply
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #146 - June/July 2022

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