SAMPE Journal - January/February 2011 - 4

Technical Director’s Corner
Dr. Scott W. Beckwith SAMPE Technical Director SAMPE Journal Technical Editor swbeckwith@aol.com

Out-of-Autoclave (OOA) Technology – A Rapidly Emerging Market and Technology If you have not noticed over the past 4-6 SAMPE conferences and symposia, the technologies associated with a technology often referred to as “out-of-autoclave”, OOA, or in some other referrals as “vacuum-bag-only”, VBO, this technology area has been receiving a lot of attention. Why? Composite structures have been getting larger. In fact, larger structures will be requiring more processing automation in the near term. Current processing technology in terms of material lay-down rates, structural sizes greater than 15-ft (5-m) in diameter, autoclave size and economy limits, processing equipment limitations, and overall economics are starting to become limiting factors for concepts still on the drawing boards. Fortunately, those working in the composites M&P areas have been hard at work developing new technologies to address future concepts that are becoming both “large” and “larger.” “Out-of-autoclave” technology is one of those areas being addressed by a number of manufacturing companies, government agencies and material suppliers. They recognize autoclaves currently have geometric, and possibly economic limitations for the near term. This SAMPE Journal issue presents some of the recent work conducted be companies into the OOA areas in an effort to mover this technology forward at a more rapid pace. Recent SAMPE symposia and conferences have been covering the rapid expansion of the OOA and VBO technology as we noted above. As such, recent SAMPE Proceedings provide a wealth of current information on these areas and the interested reader and researcher should certainly explore these in coming up to speed. The SAMPE 2010 Fall Technical Conference, held in Salt Lake City, covered the OOA/VBO technology advances with its second educational tutorial with over 50 in attendance. At the same time, this conference held a technical program review of many of the US programs being conducted in this area of technology (not included in the Proceedings because of ITAR restrictions). However, a number of technical sessions were provided that the papers are provided within the Proceedings. Past conference Proceedings also include a large number of the OOA and VBO technical papers. (Note: SAMPE members can get copies of technical papers for free). While much of the effort has been focused more toward commercial and military applications of large structures such as aircraft, it has been interesting to note that a number of new applications starting to emerge. The wind energy area (blade lengths of greater than 50-60 meters not being uncommon), large tower structures and nacelles/hubs, and marine structures. The recent US Program Review covered applications for heavy lift launch vehicles (NASA), marine structures, and transportation structures not previously discussed. Yes – there are still a number of challenges in terms of adapting these materials to critical structures. However, at the same time there is significant progress on the part of designers, manufacturers, and, particularly material suppliers to develop some very unique materials and resultant processes in “short” term. The upcoming SAMPE 2011 conference to be held in Long Beach this coming May is already focusing a number of activities in the OOA and VBO technology area. Consequently, based upon past technology advances, one expects to see more leading edge technology presented in this event as well.

SAMPE Journal, Volume 47, No. 1, January/February 2011

SAMPE Journal - January/February 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAMPE Journal - January/February 2011