july/august 2019 the official magazine of the american...

CompositesManufacturingThe Official Magazine of the American Composites Manufacturers AssociationJuly/August 2019

Will Offshore Wind Take Off in the US?

3D Tooling in the Automotive Market

University R&D

COMBINED STRENGTH. UNSURPASSED INNOVATION.

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The Official Magazine of the American Composites Manufacturers Association

July/August 2019

CompositesManufacturing

Market SegmentsConstruction ...................................... 5Zoo Exhibit

Sports & Recreation ........................... 7CFRP Camper

Departments & ColumnsFrom the ACMA Chair ...................... 2

Tech Talk ............................................ 3

Inside ACMA ................................... 27

5

Features

27

Will Offshore Wind Take Off in the US? ............................ 10Offshore wind turbines have made greater strides in Europe than in the U.S., but researchers at the University of Maine hope to change that with a project combining floating foundations and stronger, stiffer blades.By Megan Headley

Printing Tools for Vehicle Production ............................... 15General Motors’ manufacturing engineering group has teamed with Stratasys to create and test 3D-printed composite tooling for pre-production operations. If successful, future assembly lines could include both printed composite and metal tooling.By Mary Lou Jay

Curiosity Fuels Research ................................................... 18Universities around the world are taking on innovative research projects to advance composite technologies, materials and processes. These five projects aim to provide solutions for recycling, fast cure times, complex composite geometries and more.By Patrice Aylward and Melissa O’Leary

A Visionary Leader ............................................................. 24Meet Scott Balogh, president and CEO of Mar-Bal Inc. and the incoming chair of ACMA. He’s ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work ensuring that the composites industry continues to thrive and make strides as the material of choice.By Susan Keen Flynn

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2 CompositesManufacturing

Official Magazine of the American Composites Manufacturers Association

PublisherTom Dobbins

[email protected]

EditorialManaging EditorSusan Keen Flynn

[email protected]

Senior Vice President of Events and InformationHeather Rhoderick, CAE, CMP

[email protected]

Editorial Design & ProductionKeane Design, Inc.

[email protected]

Volume 35 | Number 4 | July/August 2019

Innovation Is Everything

American Composites Manufacturers Association2000 N. 15th Street, Ste. 250

Arlington, VA 22201Phone: 703-525-0511 Fax: 703-525-0743

[email protected] www.acmanet.org

CompositesManufacturing

From the ACMA Chair

Composites Manufacturing (ISSN 1084-841X) is published bi-monthly by the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA), ACMA Headquarters, 2000 N. 15th Street, Ste. 250, Arlington, VA 22201 USA. Subscription rates: Free for members and non-members in the U.S., Canada and Mexico; $55 for international non-members. A free online subscription is available at cmmagazineonline.org. Periodical postage paid at Arlington, VA and additional mail offices.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Composites Manufacturing, ACMA Headquarters, 2000 N. 15th Street, Ste. 250, Arlington, VA 22201. The magazine is mailed to ACMA members and is also available by subscription. Canada Agreement number: PM40063731Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5, Email: [email protected]. Copyright© 2019 by ACMA. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted without permission from the publisher. ACMA, a nonprofit organization representing the composites industry worldwide, publishes Composites Manufacturing, circulation 9,000, as a service to its members and other subscribers. Opinions or statements of authors and advertisers appearing in Composites Manufacturing are their own and don’t necessarily represent that of ACMA, its Board of Directors or its staff. Information is considered accurate at the time of publication, however accuracy is not warranted.

I am privileged to begin my two-year tenure as ACMA’s chairman of the board. I have spent most of my professional life in the composites industry, starting as a teenager working in the company my parents founded

and returning to Mar-Bal Inc. again at age 30. One thing I learned early on is that the composites industry would not thrive without a commitment to research and development.

In any business – no matter the industry – you have to innovate. If you don’t, you will become obsolete. At Mar-Bal, our dedication to innovation is evident in our 20,000-square-foot R&D center in Chagrin Falls, Ohio,

about 20 miles east of Cleveland. At the heart of the center is a materials lab, where our engineers and designers develop new materials, mix batches, mold samples and conduct electromechanical testing. The collaboration between material development, product design and equipment engineering happens every day and is a joy to witness. We innovate at every step in the development process.

Without an R&D center, we wouldn’t be able to develop innovations for our customers, many of which are significantly larger than Mar-Bal. More than a decade ago, when the home appliance industry we serve moved toward a preference for stainless steel finishes, our engineers created THERMITAL™, a thermoset composite with a physical vapor deposition (PVD) finish that resembles metal. When our industrial customers required performance specifications in temperature and “track resistance” close to ceramics, our materials engineers answered the call with new formulations.

While innovations at the corporate level are critical, so too is the R&D work being done at universities. Research on college campuses runs the gamut from ground-breaking basic research to answer the ‘what if?’ and ‘why?’ questions to commercialization projects that allow for technology transfer to the marketplace. This issue of Composites Manufacturing magazine covers five fascinating projects beginning on page 18.

Innovation is everything – for our individual companies and the industry as a whole. As the new ACMA chair, my goal is to continue advancing composites technology and spreading the word about its benefits. To learn more about me and my plans, read the article on page 24. I hope you will join me as an active member of ACMA, ensuring that our industry thrives well into the future.

Sincerely,

Scott BaloghMar-Bal Inc.ACMA Chairman of the [email protected]

3www.acmanet.org

Tech Talk

Styrene Emissions Reduction Strategies

By Robert Lacovara

A s composites manufacturers keep pace with market opportunities,

there is an ongoing shift toward advanced process methodology to meet product demands. Composites industry news and market reports orbit around the technological advancements that drive product-related interest. However, in the broad scope of composites manufacturing, the traditional open molding process continues to represent the largest segment of composites-related thermoset resin consumption.

The predominate use of styrenated polyester and vinyl ester resin systems in open molding also carries styrene emissions issues in its wake. In the pre-recession era, many molding operations were approaching their emissions permit caps. However, the impact of the economic recession on composites production took emissions out of the spotlight temporarily. Fast forward to today: Production volumes are back in the booming pre-recession range, and styrene emissions are once again a regulatory compliance issue for many companies.

Examining the Open Molding Emissions Profile

In open molding and vacuum infusion processes, gel coat is typically sprayed as an in-mold coating. With the hand lay-up laminating process, resin is often applied using atomized or non-atomized spray equipment. In the spray-up (chopping) laminating technique, resin and glass fiber are deposited on the mold through a specialized spray gun. Each of these application methods produces emissions during application and resin curing.

During the traditional gel coat

application process about 50% of emissions are produced during the spraying stage of process and 50% during the curing phase. (See figure 1 above.) With the laminating process, 50% are produced during the resin application phase, 25% during roll-out and 25% during curing, according to industry test data. (See figure 2 on page 4.)

These emissions profiles demonstrate the opportunities for emissions reduction during the different stages of the open molding process.

A Strategic Approach to Styrene Emissions Reduction

Considerations for the development of an emissions reduction strategy revolve around resin formulations, application methodology and the use of additives. The optimized combination of these factors can result in significant reductions in open molding operations.

Reducing Resin Monomer Content There are significant effects on

emissions by reducing monomer content.

Unified Emission Factors (UEF) for Open Molding Composites, which were developed by ACMA, illustrate the effects of monomer content on resin and gel coat emissions. On the broad scale, these factors specifically address styrene and methyl methacrylate monomer levels in these products. As the UEF factors show, small reductions in resin monomer content can result in significant reductions of overall emissions generation.

There are alternatives to styrene and methyl methacrylate (MMA), however each of these replacement monomers are accompanied with a unique set of performance, regulatory and health issues that have inhibited wide-spread adoption across the industry. The result is that styrene and MMA remain the predominate constituents in open molding resins.

Optimizing Application TechniquesAddressing the emissions issues with

spray application is a primary strategy in emissions reduction. This involves three elements:

Gel Coat Application Emissions

Spray Application Phase - 50% of emissions

Curing Phase - 50% of emissions

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Tech Talk

• Controlling spray gun pressure to maximize transfer efficiency and minimize overspray;

• Training operators in optimized spraying techniques;

• Using containment flanges to capture overspray.

These optimization techniques are detailed in ACMA’s Controlled Spraying Handbook.

Spraying emissions are based on the evaporative surface area of the resin spray pattern. When atomizing a fluid stream the particle size distribution has a major effect on the evaporation of volatile components. As fluid tip pressures increase, the exiting resin stream is transformed into smaller droplet sizes. As the particle size decreases (more atomization) the spray pattern surface area increases in a non-linear fashion, resulting in a dramatic increase in volatile surface area. As described in the handbook, spray equipment should always be set up to operate at the lowest pressure that produces an acceptable spray pattern. Minimizing atomization is a primary factor in reducing spray application emissions.

Taking this concept one step further,

the use of non-atomized application equipment develops the reduction in volatile surface area to the next level. A properly configured non-atomized spray gun produces a coherent flow stream or larger ligaments (extended droplets) that minimize resin surface area.

Operator training is another key component with the controlled spraying application technique. The position of the spray gun, bounding the mold perimeter and spray pattern angle relative to the mold surface are contributing factors to optimizing the process.

The third element of controlled spraying is the use of containment flanges around the mold perimeter. Eliminating the spread of off-mold overspray reduces the volatile surface area of the applied resin, yielding substantial emissions reductions.

The advent of robotic application for spraying operations adds another element of optimization to the process. Once a robot is set up within the parameters of controlled spraying and “taught” the proper spray path sequence, the application consistency yields benefits. Over time, the accuracy of transfer efficiency can accumulate into measurable emissions reductions.

Resin Additives

The use of styrene suppressant additives is another significant strategic option for optimizing emissions reduction. While suppressants have little effect during the spraying or roll-out phases of the process, they are very effective during the quiescent (static) phase of curing. Suppressant additives must be carefully matched to specific resin formulations and testing conducted to arrive at a supportable emissions factor.

As composites molders approach operating permit and Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) Standard compliance, these fundamental emissions reduction techniques serve as the basis for optimizing open molding production. Additionally, gains in cost savings, efficiency and quality are beneficial by-products of emissions reduction methodology.

Robert Lacovara is the principal consultant at Convergent Composites, an industry consultancy in the Philadelphia area. Email comments to [email protected].

Disclaimer: Opinions, statements and technical information within the Tech Talk column are that of the authors. ACMA makes no warranty of any kinds, expressed or implied, with respect to information in the column, including fitness for a particular purpose. Persons using the information within the column assume all risk and liability for any losses, damages, claims or expenses resulting from such use.

Laminating Resin Process Emissions(Spray application)

Spray Application Phase - 50% of emissions

Curing Phase - 25% of emissions

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GFRP Stands Up to Gorilla Strength

The gorillas at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo needed more room

to roam. Two gorillas joined the resident male in 2017, and another was welcomed last year. So the zoo modified its gorilla habitat to support the growth, dividing the space into two main sections that are joined by an elevated GFRP bridge at the rear of the exhibit.

The enclosed passageway is approximately 40 feet long, 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide. The bridge’s GFRP skeletal structure and flooring are connected to stainless steel wire mesh, which allows the gorillas a view of their entire habitat as they roam the area and permits visitors to see the animals as they move from place to place.

Though the initial design called for the bridge to be constructed entirely from stainless steel, the zoo’s designers soon began considering composite materials. They asked Advantic LLC, a design/build structural solutions firm in Dayton, Ohio, to compare the cost and benefits of a steel structure to that of an enclosure made from pultruded GFRP.

“The zoo’s design team had read about composites as an alternate material,” says Brad Doudican, a managing partner with Advantic. “Zoos and aquariums tend to be pretty aggressive on steel. Because water and urine can degrade the material, it has a high cost of maintenance. If steel is used it’s often an alloy, like stainless steel, which is better for corrosion than traditional carbon steel but often significantly more expensive and difficult to install.”

Once the designers learned about composites, they were won over for several reasons: It met all structural requirements, was corrosion resistant and the lightweight composite bridge components could be

carried by hand to the gorilla area and constructed onsite. This reduced the need for rigging, lifts and cranes to install heavy steel components. Space was tight at the gorilla enclosure, and designers and builders weren’t able to determine how cranes could access the area. The only access was through two personnel doors where zookeepers enter the habitat.

The bridge was constructed with Strongwell’s EXTREN® structural shapes, including wide-flange beams, angles, plates, I-beams and channels. EXTREN features polyester or vinyl ester resin reinforced with either continuous strand mat fiberglass or continuous strand roving, depending

Installation of the new GFRP and stainless steel passageway in the gorilla exhibit at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

Two gorillas at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo relax in a passageway made from a combination of GFRP structural components and flooring and stainless steel mesh.

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on the application. The shapes include a surface veil that protects against corrosion and deterioration from ultraviolet light. The GFRP structural shapes are stronger


than structural steel on a pound-for-pound basis and weigh 80 percent less than steel, according to Strongwell.

However, the bridge wasn’t comprised completely of GFRP. Composite components serve as the primary structural skeleton, while a stainless steel mesh acts as the cage material that connects to GFRP. The 2 x 2-inch woven stainless-steel grid used for the gorilla habitat is a conventional material for zoo enclosures, Doudican says.

The floor and two mechanical doors

also are made from GFRP. The floor needed to support the weight of a typical male gorilla. Mokolo, the only male at the zoo, is a silverback gorilla weighing in at about 400 pounds. Advantic and the zookeepers chose 1½-inch DURAGRID® HD-7000 grating from Strongwell, featuring glass-roving and glass-mat reinforcements and a synthetic surface veil for strength and corrosion resistance. The densely packed core of continuous glass rovings gives the bar strength and stiffness longitudinally, and the continuous glass

mat provides strength in the transverse direction and helps prevent chipping, cracking and lineal fracturing, according to Strongwell.

Constructing the habitat with composite materials also had an added benefit for the zoo: It contributed to the welfare of the gorillas. For instance, installation time was about half the time it would take to install a comparable steel structure. “That’s less time the animals in the enclosure had to be removed to another space,” says Doudican. “That does a lot for animal stress and welfare.”

It also meant installers spent less time at the installation site than they would have building a stainless steel structure. This is helpful because their presence can sometimes distress the animals.

Advantic designed and fabricated the enclosure in its own shop using the stock components it received from Strongwell. “We professionally engineered, fabricated and pre-assembled the FRP and steel components of the structure and mechanical systems,” says Doudican. “Construction speed and efficiency greatly improve total installed cost, so we worked with the install team to kit the structure in modules like packaging an Ikea set. Then we loaded it in the truck and re-erected it at the zoo.”

The bridge is now in place and used daily by the gorillas to move from one part of their enclosure to the other. And, of course, they often stop at some point along the way to interact with viewers and gaze out at the zoo from their elevated position.

Jean Thilmany is a freelance writer based in St. Paul, Minn. Email comments to [email protected].

Join In on Tech Days

ACMA Composites Technology Days offer member manufacturers a way to connect with OEMs and offer solutions to design challenges. A construction-focused Composites Technology Day is being planned for 2020. To learn more, contact [email protected].

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Airstream travel trailers are easily recognized by their signature style:

a shiny, aluminum exterior with rounded roof lines. But the company has varied this look with its newest model, Nest by Airstream. Although Nest retains Airstream’s curving lines and has a gray exterior reminiscent of aluminum, it’s created from a very different material – glass fiber reinforced polymer.

The NEST, launched in April 2018, isn’t Airstream’s first experience with composite materials. In 1955, company founder Wally Byum, recognizing composites’ versatility, designed a fiberglass trailer called the Wally Bee. Although a prototype of this trailer traveled through Central America in 1962, the model never made it to production.

Other trailer manufacturers did embrace GFRP, however, and there have been many different styles and sizes of fiberglass trailers produced over the past 50 years.

Airstream got interested in the material again in 2016, when it saw Robert Johans’ design for a small GFRP trailer. “Robert had been restoring small fiberglass travel trailers and has a passion and a love for them,” says McKay Featherstone, Airstream’s vice president of product development and engineering. Johans designed an updated version of these fiberglass trailers and started his own company, NEST Caravans, to build them. He eventually connected with Bryan Thompson, an automotive designer who works with Airstream.

Thompson introduced Johans to Airstream executives, and the company liked his design so much that they bought NEST Caravans. Johans joined Airstream as NEST project manager, and Thompson helped Airstream re-engineer and refine its design.

The NEST’s modern interpretation of the classic Airstream shape takes advantage of the versatility of fiberglass material,

Airstream Builds a New NESTFeatherstone says. “This is a luxury, very design-centric little trailer,” he says. “You can do things with fiberglass that you can’t do with formed aluminum.”

Like traditional Airstreams, the NEST has a semi-monocoque structure. “The fiberglass shell caries the load, which is a pretty significant structural challenge as you’re going over potholes,” says Featherstone.

Goldshield Fiberglass of Indiana is constructing NEST’s fiberglass shells. They’re made from an E-glass roving with 5 mm thick core material and an Aropol™ unsaturated polyester resin from Ashland. The trailer’s three large sections – top, bottom and back – are manufactured in an open-spray mold coated with a premium rain-gauge gel coat. The parts cure in the open mold for 24 hours to ensure a smooth, high-quality finish.

Goldshield built a special fixture to precisely position and hold the three

Sports & Recreation

Although the gray color and curved lines recall

the classic Airstream trailer designs, NEST by Airstream is made

from GFRP rather than aluminum.

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sections of the trailer in place before joining them with an adhesive and a fiberglass layer. While that makes the shell stronger, it means that all of the trailers’

Before any interior finishes are installed, the three pieces of the NEST’s shell are bonded together with adhesives. Consequently, all interior furnishings, including the bed, must be broken down to get through the door before installation.

Photo C

redit: Airstream

interior furnishings have to go in through the small back door opening. Everything, including the bed, had to be broken down into subcomponents to fit through the door.

In its traditional trailers, Airstream uses aluminum as both the shell and interior and exterior finishes. “But with the NEST, we only had fiberglass,” says John Connolly, Airstream’s lead engineer for NEST. “We didn’t want to finish the interior in the traditional way, which is to stick carpet or fabric on it. Instead, we designed molded pieces that fit the shape.”

Airstream worked with a company that manufactures automobile headliners (the material adhered to the inside roof ) to develop the desired look, a fabric laminate that is compression molded to fiberglass-reinforced polypropylene. “It has the same look and feel as the fabric walls in high-end European hotels,” Connolly says.

There are two floor plans available for NEST’s interior space, which is 16 feet, 7 inches long and 6 feet, 6 inches high. “We tried to maximize the amount of space that we had to make it livable,” says Connolly. The trailer includes a two-burner stove, refrigerator, microwave and a wet bath, and has space for owners to relax, prepare meals, sleep and store gear.

The NEST is intended to appeal to upscale travelers who want a comfortable,

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Airstream worked with an automobile headliner company to create the high-end ceiling finish for the NEST. It’s made with a fabric laminate compression molded to fiberglass-reinforced polypropylene.

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self-contained trailer for a short getaway. Featherstone says that a NEST purchaser will be “someone who is design-savvy and who is going to understand and put value on all of the care and attention that’s gone into making everything perfect.”

Since its launch, the NEST has garnered a lot of positive attention on social media and at RV shows. Over the last year, the company has been building additional tools to increase production and meet the anticipated demand, which increased as the busiest travel season approached.

For now, NEST will remain the only composite trailer in Airstream’s lineup. “We call this product NEST by Airstream, and that’s very intentional,” says Featherstone. “We want to keep that differentiation because NEST is for a different target customer and a different usage than our other Airstream products. We would not plan on bringing [composites] into the core line.” Airstream has learned a lot while making NEST, however, and its next generation of trailers could include some interior composite components, such as window moldings.

Airstream is optimistic about the

future of NEST, Featherstone adds. “Hopefully we’ll be looking at other variants of it,” he says. “We would love the NEST to grow in the future.”

Mary Lou Jay is a freelance writer based in Timonium, Md. Email comments to [email protected].


Composites simulation tools aren’t just for mega corporations. Small and mid-sized companies can reap their benefits, too.

Ever since the Block Island wind farm began operation 3.8 miles off the coast of Rhode Island in 2016, innovators, manufacturers and developers have been abuzz with plans to harness the potential of offshore wind’s consistent power. Last summer, Massachusetts was awarded an 800 megawatt (MW) offshore

wind project, and it has just announced a solicitation for another 800 MW. New York has a goal of 9,000 MW by 2025 for offshore wind, while New Jersey is aiming for 3,500 MW by 2030 and most northeastern states are moving forward with major projects and plans. Today, there are 15 active proposals for wind farms along the East Coast, with more still in the works for California and Hawaii.

The possibility of all this new demand is driving manufacturers to think even bigger when it comes to wind. And that’s good news for composite suppliers. As turbines become bigger, manufacturers need new ways to create lighter, more durable components that can stand up to the power of the wind.

And when we say big, we mean big. Consider, in May 2015 an 8 MW offshore wind turbine prototype manufactured by Vestas broke world records by generating 192,000 kWh in 24 hours. Today, GE is developing the Haliade-X 12 MW, a mega-turbine expected to generate 67 GWh annually at its first site in Rotterdam, Holland, later this year. Its 350-foot blades feature thin layers of glass fiber, carbon fiber and wood fused with resin. While the industry was still wrapping its head around the power of this vision, researchers at the University of Virginia began working on plans for a 50 MW turbine they aim to develop by 2025. Those blades will extend over 650 feet.

“It’s a whole new game, but that’s where composites are critical,” says Habib Dagher, executive director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center at the University of Maine. “Without really high-performing composites, you can’t get there.”

Will Offshore Wind Take Off in the US?The University of Maine hopes its work on floating platforms will help advance the field.

By Megan Headley

11www.acmanet.org

The Water Depth IssueDagher is project leader on Maine Aqua Ventus, an ongoing project to develop a

floating foundation for offshore wind turbines. Before delving into the concept of floating foundations, it’s important to first

understand the potential held by offshore wind. Essentially, it comes down to the fact that offshore wind is much stronger and more consistent than onshore wind. There are other factors as well, such as the wind shadow phenomenon, where a turbine depletes the strength of winds downstream from it. But generating greater power is at the heart of the goal to move turbines off the coast. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) explains that the total offshore wind energy technical potential is equal to about twice the country’s entire demand for electricity. And with nearly 80 percent of U.S. electricity demand in coastal states, that potential is hard to ignore.

So, why floating turbines? “When you go over about 150 feet of water depth it becomes very costly to make a foundation,” Dagher explains. “You have to go to a floating system. About 60 percent of the U.S. offshore wind resources within six miles of our shores requires floating technology because of the water depth, both on the East and West Coasts.”

This water depth challenge is one of many reasons that Europe has such a strong lead in wind energy, with over 90 percent of the world’s offshore wind farms. Average distance from shore for those farms is around 25 miles.

“In Maine, where we have deep water, we can’t use fixed bottom foundations unless we put them within a mile of shore,” Dagher points out. Recreational and commercial boaters, fishermen and waterfront homeowners have had concerns with that option. So, floating foundations become a prime alternative for harnessing the more powerful offshore winds. “By getting 20 or 30 miles away from shore you reduce the interference with those other forms of ocean use,” Dagher says.

The Advanced Structures and Composites Center has been working toward floating

Will Offshore Wind Take Off in the US?

The Advanced Structures and Composites Center conducted extensive turbine tests to predict how the VolturnUS project would react to offshore wind loads.

Photo Credit: University of Maine


turbine technology since 2011, when researchers first traveled to the Netherlands to test several 1:5 scale designs. In 2013, the team launched VolturnUS, a 1:8 scale prototype floating hull and wind turbine.

The 65-foot-tall turbine was anchored off the coast of Castine, Maine, in 90 feet of water to test design feasibility and become the first grid-connected offshore wind turbine in the U.S. After an 18-month deployment, the team brought it back in and set to work analyzing the data the turbine had collected.

“We had 50 sensors onboard and through that we were able to prove that our floating turbine stayed within 7 degrees of vertical in a 500-year storm with 70-foot waves,” Dagher says. (Conditions in the winter of 2013-2014 were so harsh they had a 1 in 500 chance of occurring.)

The success of this feat led the DOE to invest $40 million into building a full-size demonstration turbine, a project currently underway. “If all goes well, we’ll have the first commercial-scale floating turbine [in the Americas],” Dagher says.

Developing Full-Scale Technology The UMaine team has had more than 10 patents approved for its work on floating

platforms. Now, the data gathered from earlier deployments is informing fresh innovation set to go live by 2022.

At the base of the design is the semi-submersible concrete hull, fabricated by Cianbro, a Maine-based construction and fabrication company. Next comes the tower. Wind towers have typically been tubular steel sections, but Dagher’s team is exploring the potential use of composite towers for floating turbines. This could reduce the overall weight by 250 to 300 tons, or about 40% of the weight compared to steel.

In a patent filed in 2013, Dagher describes the tower as a tube fabricated from two thin layers of FRP composite material around a foam core (although the patent allows for use of other suitable material, including concrete or steel).

“When you have a floating turbine, the topside weight is very important, just like on a boat. You don’t want a steel mast on a sailboat, as it’s going to be very top-heavy,”

Generating power is

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Dagher explains. “For the same reason you don’t want to see a 50-foot-tall steel tower on a floating foundation to hold up to the turbine.”

Reducing the tower weight also reduces the hull size, because it no longer has to support the weight of a steel tower. “For this reason, composite towers are more likely to be financially attractive for floating versus fixed-bottom turbines,” Dagher predicts.

There’s another factor that makes composite towers appealing. Because of the cost of maintaining offshore turbines, they must be corrosion resistant. This both extends the life of the turbines and reduces the need for costly ongoing maintenance. It’s a demand that gives composites a decided advantage over steel.

The next VolturnUS iteration is expected to support a 350-foot-tall tower, about 20 feet in diameter at the bottom. “It’s not a very standard composite part, so how we manufacture this tower is key to driving the cost down,” Dagher says. As with many of the players in this fast-evolving market segment, Dagher is close-lipped on details about the manufacturing process.

Stronger, Stiffer BladesEqually important to the floating platform and tower are the turbine blades, which,

together with the hub that connects the blades to the tower, form the rotor. The 6 MW tower deployed in 2013 featured a 450-foot-diameter rotor design but, as is the trend, the next version is planned to be much larger – 525 feet in rotor diameter, or nearly the length of two football fields.

Achieving this massive size and the strength necessary to withstand the significant offshore wind loads demands the use of composites. In fact, Dagher notes that the turbine blades represent the largest composite use on the Maine Aqua Ventus project.

“You’re concerned about the bending strength of the blade under the wind loads, but you’re also concerned about stiffness because if the blade flexes too much it will touch the tower,” Dagher points out. “So, you want a stiff design and a strong design. That puts a lot more demand on the materials you use.”

Land-based applications don’t have to be as big because the loads are less demanding.

When the three blades on the VolturnUS floating wind turbine were attached, they created a 450-foot-diameter rotor capable of generating 6 MW of electrical power.

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When you go to offshore applications, designers must meet an entirely different engineering requirement. “It turns out that in most of these larger blades using carbon [fiber] becomes a necessity,” Dagher says. “So, you’re looking at carbon materials and making sure you have high-quality materials and fiber systems. … Then you start looking at trade-offs: How much carbon? How much glass? Will I make it heavier if I put glass on, or do I make it lighter with more carbon?”

Once the tower is completed and connected to the grid in 2022, it will have over 100 sensors on board to monitor its performance over five years. “The results will be used to deploy optimized floating farms around the U.S. and the world,” Dagher says.

The Drive to Reduce Costs Reducing market prices for carbon fiber may be key to achieve the cost savings that

the industry seeks from these mega-turbines. The DOE grant behind Maine Aqua Ventus is part of a national competition to drive floating U.S. offshore wind costs below 10 cents per kWh. According to Dagher, independent estimates from the National Renewable Energy Lab project that the levelized cost of electricity will be below 8 cents per kWh for commercial farms and perhaps as low as 6 cents per kWh when 15 MW turbines are used.

The Maine Aqua Ventus’ promise to achieve these savings is already driving investors to UMaine. The Advanced Structures and Composites Center is in discussions with major offshore wind developers and investors who are ready to buy into the technology once it is deployed at full scale and de-risked.

As Dagher says, “The U.S. offshore wind market is heating up and we now have a real industry taking off.”

Megan Headley is a freelance writer based in Fredericksburg, Va. Email comments to [email protected].

The VolturnUS was launched in 2013 to collect data that would inform designs for the commercial-scale version currently in development.

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Additive manufacturing (AM), now used extensively for vehicle prototyping, is gaining

traction in other parts of the automotive production process as well. In a 2018 report, Additive Manufacturing Breaks Innovation Barriers, SmarTech Publishing says that the automotive industry is “racing toward full industrialization and integration of the AM process within their end-to-end production workflow.” It notes that 3D printing is well-positioned to expand its use as the primary technology for both automotive prototyping and tooling.

But automakers must overcome several obstacles before 3D-printed composite tooling gains widespread acceptance. They need to educate their tooling suppliers about the technology and develop design standards to ensure that the tooling can stand up to production line demands.

General Motors’ manufacturing engineering group started testing AM tooling for some manufacturing support applications a few years ago. The company has focused primarily on pre-production operations, which include the manufacture of a

small number of pre-launch vehicles to validate parts. Instead of the 100,000 to 500,000 vehicles a typical assembly plant might churn out, pre-production facilities may build just 50 vehicles over three or four months.

That makes pre-production a good testing ground for AM composite tools. “We have a lot of smaller, low-risk applications that are not carrying heavy loads and that don’t have any safety implications,” says Dominick Lentine,

team leader for GM’s manufacturing engineering group for AM technology.

“So much of the work in our assembly plants is high-volume, high-rate, high-risk automated equipment, whereas in the pre-production areas it’s more hand builds and hand tools.” If there’s a problem with a new tool in pre-production, there’s much less impact than there would be with a part failure that might bring a large assembly line to a halt.

3D Printing AdvantagesAutomakers are interested in printed composite tooling for three

main reasons: reduced weight, shortened lead times and lower costs.

Printing Tools for Vehicle ProductionBy Mary Lou Jay

3D-printed composite tooling could have many benefits, but automakers

have to make sure it’s ready for the assembly line.

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Assembly line operators use this

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Stratasys has partnered with auto racing teams like Penske, McLaren and Joe Gibbs Racing to print specialized layup tools. This printed tool is for a vehicle air scoop.

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Production line operators experience less ergonomic stress when they use a lightweight composite tool instead of a heavier metal one. “That ties into vehicle quality, because they are getting the job done better on the line with these 3D-printed tools,” says George Russell, automotive segment leader in the Americas for Stratasys, a 3D printing solutions provider.

Printed tooling can reduce robots’ payloads by 50 to 100 pounds, enabling automakers to save money by using smaller robots, adds Lentine. With the smaller payload, robots can move and decelerate more quickly, reducing the amount of floor space they require to operate and cutting cycle times.

AM also shortens tool production time. It takes eight to 16 weeks to build a tool in GM’s internal shops or at its Tier 1 suppliers. That’s due to limited shop capacity and to the manual labor required for metal tooling, which includes CNC setup, welding and component assembly. In contrast, 3D printing a tool may take anywhere from overnight to several days, depending on its size. Even if some assembly is required, AM cuts lead times by 50% or more.

Since AM tooling can incorporate several parts into one printed part, automakers enjoy some substantial cost savings. A Stratasys white paper, Assessing the Potential of Additive Manufacturing for Lower-Cost Tools in the Automotive Industry, reports that a conventionally manufactured lifter component costs around $1,920; a comparable 3D-printed tool can be made for just $400. Cost reductions add up quickly when the automaker requires multiple tools.

Changing MindsetsGM has been using Stratasys’ large fused deposition modeling

(FDM) printers to build its AM composite tooling. The Stratasys printers, designed to provide high accuracy and repeatability, use filaments made from new materials like ULTEM™ (amorphous thermoplastic polyetherimide) resin, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonates and Nylon 12 carbon fiber.

“These new materials have widened the application envelope inside of manufacturing because they are stronger and more durable,” says Russell.

During the printing process, the composite filament and a support material filament are extruded through dual heated nozzles, laying down the materials in a prescribed, accurate path. The tool is built inside an oven that controls temperature and humidity, which helps provide dimensional stability. Once printing is complete, the support material is broken away or dissolved to give the part its desired final shape.

While 3D printing offers advantages for certain types of tooling, it also presents a challenge for GM’s Tier 1 tool suppliers. They aren’t familiar with AM and usually have only limited experience with composites. Before AM composite tools can be widely used in production, Lentine says the suppliers must be confident they will provide the same quality and durability as

conventional metal tools. To help suppliers gain a better understanding of AM and

composites technologies, GM invited their key engineers to a training workshop with Stratasys in January 2019.

“It is definitely a change of mindset and a different design approach to get to your finished product and still meet the needs of your application,” says Greg Whitman, an automotive application engineer with Stratasys. People new to the technology often use a traditional metal tooling design for 3D composite tooling, but that part may fail because it’s not optimized for AM. Before suppliers can properly design a printed composite tool, they need to understand underlying design principles, such as using the geometry of a part to increase its stiffness.

There are a number of factors that determine whether or not a production tool should be 3D printed. “End-of-arm tooling, lift assist devices, measurement devices – a lot of those things are over-engineered and over-built in aluminum or steel. They’re heavy and not as functional as they could

be. Those are the kinds of applications that we are looking at when we meet with an OEM like General Motors or a supplier of theirs,” says Russell.

GM is currently working with its tooling suppliers on various AM projects. One supplier is studying whether a lighter weight, printed, end-of-arm tool design for a robot can reduce the cycle time in a certain sub-assembly cell. Another used AM to produce a small hand tool to check metal studs that were coming into a plant. “The studs needed to interface with another piece of metal, but they were coming in bent and [workers] never had anything to check them with,” explains Lentine. Using 3D printing, GM quickly produced multiple checking tools and distributed them to the plants as a fix for an ongoing problem.

“Once the designers have an idea of the design principles and the design guidelines, they are actually the best at creating new geometries,” says Lentine. “They really know how to look at a part and put it together a little differently. So there is a learning curve, but it’s not too steep a learning curve from what we’ve experienced.”

Issues RaisedLentine says suppliers’ questions about working with

AM composite tooling came from their knowledge and understanding of what is required to build a tool for a GM production assembly plant.

For example, they needed to figure out how the printed tooling and metal tooling differ in stress-strain curves, durability and fatigue properties. They wanted to learn about the tooling’s dimensional capability: Would it be accurate when printed, or would it need machining? Will thermal expansion be an issue? Can a tool that was designed in Michigan’s cold, dry winter work effectively in a production plant in the south?

Torque requirements were another concern. “All of our assembled components with steel and aluminum have torque

A sacrificial material (left) is used to produce a hollow part (right). The part is printed so that the sacrificial material fills the interior of the part and the composite material for the actual part forms the surface. Once printing is complete, the sacrificial material is broken out or dissolved, leaving the hollow shell.

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requirements to ensure that the bolt is actually being pulled and creating compressive forces on two plates being pulled together. But it’s different with plastics, because the same torque requirements will likely strip the plastic out,” says Lentine. (The solution is to insert Hewitt coils or install threaded metal inserts into the part.)

Suppliers had questions about using printed composite tooling in a shop environment. Will it melt and degrade over time if it gets hit with weld flash coming off of welding guns? What kind of adhesive should be used to join two pieces together? Should the 3D-printed part get a special coating if it has to go through the high-temperature ovens in a paint shop?

Repair procedures for printed tools presented another challenge. Unlike metal tools, composite tools can’t be fixed by welding on a replacement part.

“We’ve been working with GM and its supply base trying to figure out the optimal way to go,” says Whitman. Production facilities can print new parts as needed or pre-print replacements to have on hand. Stratasys has also been helping suppliers develop temporary solutions, such as using aluminum or metal strips epoxied or bolted in place on the broken tool until the permanent replacement is printed.

Although GM and its suppliers are finding most of the answers they need as they work through their projects, there is one remaining issue that will take more time to resolve.

“If we have certain critical large tools carrying heavy weights, we will do a finite element analysis (FEA) model,” says Lentine. The FEA predicts a tool’s properties, like deflection and reaction to stress. “The FEA with the Stratasys process is complicated and there’s less confidence in it, because [the printed tooling] isn’t an isotropic material or an injection molded plastic. It’s built up in layers and in tool paths, so it is actually not homogenous.”

Stratasys is developing solutions in conjunction with some software partners. “One of the things that we’re still working on as a company is getting to a full characterization of the materials so that we know their strength and stiffness, especially with fiber-loaded materials,” says Whitman. “There isn’t a simulation solution available right now to say that we know exactly how this material behaves and we know how it’s going to fail.”

Because of the uncertainty, engineers design the printed tools to be a little bulkier and stronger than might otherwise be necessary. Once more FEA information becomes available, that additional safety factor will probably be reduced.

3D’s Automotive FutureThere was some pushback when GM first engaged with suppliers

on AM tooling. Suppliers said they weren’t sure that they wanted to adopt it, and they didn’t have confidence that it could work.

“But even a week or two weeks after the workshop, when we started to break out into small groups, they started to become very, very enthused about it to the point where they are actually funding projects within their own companies to investigate other areas where they could do it for the GM program,” says Lentine. “It’s being organically adopted by the companies.”

As the tool suppliers become more experienced with AM, they are helping GM develop specifications for hand tools for manual assembly and eventually for tools for automated cells. “When the tool gets into an automated cell that’s unmanned, there are a lot of

requirements to make sure that it runs properly and doesn’t break down and stop the line,” explains Lentine. “How do we get this into automation, how do we lightweight robots, how do we speed up our automation cells? That’s what a lot of these requirements are really marching toward. A lot of the items that we’re getting through now will prove that we can do that in the long run.”

Lentine’s goal is to have some specifications for 3D-printed, nylon-carbon-fiber material tooling added to GM’s build specifications document by year’s end.

Future assembly lines are likely to include both printed composite and metal tooling. “There are certain areas that are either lower risk or not carrying the full vehicle body itself where we can implement and insert this technology to help lightweight and get toward either faster tool production or faster vehicle production by reducing cycle time,” says Lentine. “But we will never replace all of the steel and aluminum components that we use today.”

There are, however, more uses for 3D-printed tooling that haven’t yet been explored. “We believe in this technology and its ability to save time and cost,” says Russell. “We don’t know where the envelope is yet, and the envelope changes as we come out with better, stronger materials.”

Mary Lou Jay is a freelance writer based in Timonium, Md. Email comments to [email protected].

Tooling isn’t the only automotive manufacturing area where 3D printing can add value. Automakers are using

the technology for producing plant surrogates, also known as machine tryout parts.

A surrogate part gives automakers a chance to get their production line ready for new model vehicles, according to George Russell, Stratasys automotive segment leader in the Americas. If there’s no physical model available, and the plant operators only have CAD data, they can print a surrogate part – such as a new bumper design – to test the manufacturing processes and make recommendations to engineering on changes that might make production and installation easier.

The surrogate part can be full sized, a scale model or even a portion of a part to try out a specific assembly operation, such as joining a vehicle door to a B pillar. “You can cut out the area of the CAD drawing that you’re interested in and just print that to show the manufacturing people this is how we’re going to assemble these two things, or this how we’re going to need to fixture it,” Russell adds.

Getting physical models in the plant faster can help identify manufacturing problems in advance. “The earlier that you identify a manufacturing problem, the less expensive it is to fix it. If you don’t identify it until you launch, then you have a huge problem on your hands,” says Russell.

Printing Surrogates


CuriosityResearch

Fuels

By Patrice Aylward and Melissa O’Leary

The IComp team at the University of Limerick depicts the PET recycling process from plastic bottles to demonstrator tablet cover. From left: Walter Stanley, Subramani Pichandi and Rachel Kennedy.

Inquisitive researchers at universities worldwide are advancing composite materials, technologies, processes and applications.

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Auto Parts from Water Bottles

Project: Recycled PET tapes and fabrics School: University of LimerickLocation: Limerick, IrelandPrincipal Investigator: Walter Stanley

Researchers at the Irish Composites Centre (IComp), Bernal Institute, University of Limerick have developed a self-

reinforced polyethylene terephthalate (SerPET) composite that they hope will create a cradle-to-grave solution for the world’s abundance of discarded plastic bottles.

According to a 2018 Forbes magazine article, more than a million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, but only 9 percent are recycled. With total PET production at about 20 million tons last year, that’s a lot of wasted material, says Walter Stanley, a faculty member in science and engineering at the University of Limerick. He hopes that the new material will spur more recycling as industry begins using SerPET to manufacture auto parts, sporting goods and more.

Currently, recycled PET is used for low-end, non-structural applications, such as filling for diapers and pillows. Since it began a few years ago, the SerPET project has focused on creating more structural materials, including unidirectional tapes and 0°/90° woven fabrics.

SerPET is constructed of a PET core fiber that is sheathed in a lower-melting PET suitable for conventional heating or a fast-melting PET that can be used with radio-frequency heating. “It’s a fiber with a sheath around it, such that when we melt those fibers – whether they are collimated [unidirectional] or woven into fabrics – the outside sheath melts and the fiber remains intact,” says Stanley. “The result is a typical composite material, but both the fiber and the matrix are the same material.”

To create SerPET, Stanley’s team first procured recycled PET chips in 1mm-diameter, 3mm-long pellets. Modified recycled PET precursors were converted into similar pellets by Queen’s University of Belfast (QUB). These pellets formed the basis for both the modified lower-melting sheath materials and susceptor-modified fast-melting sheaths. QUB also manufactured the tri-layer tapes.

The pellets and tapes were sent to Fibre Extrusion Technology Ltd. in Leeds, England, where a range of fibers

less than 0.5 mm in diameter were extruded and sheathed in the lower-melting PET matrix and then stretched to smaller diameter fibers (30 micron/micrometers) to improve strength. The tapes were also stretched to achieve similar outcomes (about 120 micron/micrometers).

SerPET is 100% recyclable, something that Stanley believes could help auto manufacturers meet strict European Union auto recycling requirements. He asserts that the new SerPET material could also dramatically increase manufacturing throughput. The fiber sheath contains patent-pending susceptor particles that react to radiofrequencies, enabling the sheath to be heated in seconds, like in a microwave. Stanley cautions that industry would have to adopt radiofrequency presses first.

To date, Stanley and his team have used a 0°/90° fabric woven at Axis Composites Ltd. in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, to compression mold a SerPET cover for a mini-computer tablet. In the future, he believes that SerPET could be used to manufacture automotive parts, sports equipment and electronic components, for which, he says, “You don’t need the really, really expensive carbon fibers or the glass fibers and the associated thermoset matrix.”

Flush with a year of concurrent funding from Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, Stanley and his team are now working to push the technology closer to commercialization. This includes a cost-benefit analysis of radiofrequency presses, conversations with industry professionals and a technical data sheet that demonstrates material properties such as rigidity, strength, temperature performance, impact resistance and acoustic emissions.

Stanley says that his motivation is simple: “I just want to help fight the wastage of materials and the seepage of materials into our marine environment that is causing untold damage. If it is proven successful, I hope that countries around the world can embrace it and say, ‘Look we can make better plastics from this PET.’”

American folklorist and author Zora Neale Hurston once said, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” While she may have been talking about research related to writing, the sentiment is just as valid for

scientific endeavors.

At university campuses throughout the world, researchers are cultivating their curiosity and delving into unexplored areas to advance technologies and solve problems. In this issue of Composites Manufacturing magazine, our annual article on university R&D explores five potential game-changing projects related to hot industry topics, ranging from 3D printing to recycling.

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CFRP Plays Ball at March Madness Project: CFRP hand brace School: Michigan State UniversityLocation: East Lansing, Mich.Principal Investigators: Lawrence T. Drzal and Tamara Reid Bush

Shortly before this year’s NCAA tournament, Michigan State University (MSU) basketball player Nick Ward broke

his finger and underwent hand surgery. With Ward on the mend and the tournament looming, athletic trainer Nick Richey reached out to the university’s College of Engineering for help creating a lightweight brace that would protect Ward’s finger when he returned to play. In just one week, a team of MSU engineers designed and fabricated a customized CFRP brace that enabled Ward to safely play in the tournament.

“It seemed like a nice challenge,” recalls Lawrence T. Drzal, distinguished professor of chemical materials and materials science, who received the initial call. Drzal contacted Tamara Reid Bush, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who has expertise in hand function, injury and rehabilitation. One day after Richey’s call, Drzal, Reid Bush and colleagues met with Ward and Richey to strategize. By the end of the meeting, they had agreed on a CFRP brace.

“We looked at different materials, and obviously, carbon

fiber had the highest stiffness and strength-to-weight ratio,” Drzal explains. “And we wanted something that would be easy to use and to form, so we went with a carbon fiber epoxy prepreg.”

Initially, the engineers considered bracing the entire hand, but Richey suggested CRFP plates to cover the front and back of the palm instead. He would then sew the plates into a glove to give Ward some mobility while still protecting the injured finger. To help design the CFRP plates, Reid Bush and graduate students first made a 3D scan of Ward’s hand. Next, they measured the amount of loading that Ward’s hand would undergo during a game by asking Ward’s teammate, Xavier Tillman, to dribble and pass a basketball into force plates that were mounted on the floor and wall.

Drzal’s team used both sets of information to design the CFRP plates. First, they used the digital file from the 3D scan to create a mold of Ward’s hand. The initial mold was 3D-printed with polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), but it could not withstand the temperatures needed to cure carbon fiber epoxy prepreg. Consequently, the final mold was 3D-printed from polyether ether ketone (PEEK) by the university’s Fraunhofer USA Center. The final version of the brace was fabricated with four plies of Gurit’s SC 110(T2) carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg, which was chosen for its high elongation system, low temperature cure and good visual aesthetics.

Once completed, the two CFRP plates were padded with ¼-inch foam to protect other players who might come in contact with Ward and then sewn into the glove. The level of customization of Ward’s brace is unique. “There is some individualization that already occurs with brace design,” Reid Bush admits, pointing to plastic braces that can be heated and shaped. “But

this takes it to another level.” The project generated a lot of excitement as engineering

students followed Ward’s injury and the development of the brace. “Everyone felt a part of it,” Reid Bush notes. Drzal agrees and says that it was fun to collaborate and see the CFRP brace on Ward’s hand during the tournament. “The only thing that would have been better is if MSU had won the NCAAs,” he says.

Faster Curing of High-Performance FRP Project: Frontal polymerization curing processSchool: University of IllinoisLocation: Champaign, Ill.Principal Investigator: Nancy Sottos

Researchers at the University of Illinois have harnessed a polymer-curing process that reduces the energy, time and

cost needed to polymerize thermoset components for FRP parts. The team from the Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology in Champaign, with support from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, has advanced a frontal polymerization process to save over 10,000 times the energy required of current curing processes and take 100 times less time. Frontal polymerization is compatible with fabrication techniques such as molding, imprinting, 3D printing and resin infusion.

Above: The initial 3D print of MSU basketball player Nick Ward's hand. Right: Ward in action against Duke University, wearing the CFRP hand brace.

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“The materials used to create high-performance FRP parts have excellent thermal and mechanical performance, but the curing process – especially for large parts – is costly,” says Nancy Sottos, professor of material science and engineering. “Frontal polymerization is a self-propagating exothermic reaction wave that transforms liquid monomers to fully-cured polymers. It is a promising alternative that economizes the process by eliminating the need for autoclaves, ovens and heat-resistant molds.”

Aerospace composite parts made by lay-up of prepreg onto a mold surface followed by vacuum bagging and autoclave provide a good example. Typically, once the resin is infused, the mold would be placed in a large oven at approximately 180 degrees Celsius for several hours to cure and achieve the necessary properties such as stiffness, elastic modulus and glass transition temperature.

“We replace this curing process by using an energy source such as a small heater to trigger an exothermic reaction in the infused part,” says Sottos. “The heat input needs to last just a few seconds to launch the reaction locally. After that, the heat generated internally by the reaction moves quickly, continuing the polymerization throughout the rest of the part in a wave-like pattern. With a large part, the reaction can be initiated at multiple points such as corners or on various layers of thickness.” She adds that the result is an FRP part with similar mechanical properties to those cured conventionally.

Frontal polymerization rapidly converts a monomer to polymer by propagation of a localized reaction wave, dramatically reducing the energy, time and cost to produce FRP parts.

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The challenge lies in precise control of the polymerization kinetics. While the front of the wave can reach 180 C and plenty of energy is stored in the resin’s chemical bonds to fuel the process, the width of the front is only millimeters. “You need to keep the energy front moving so that the polymerization wave isn’t quenched,” notes Sottos. “Identifying the best balance of resin and inhibitor in the thermoset matrix to prevent premature curing without quenching the frontal polymerization wave is key.”

The team has identified several next steps for its research. “We want to optimize the fiber matrix interface to enhance part properties, especially where multiple polymerization fronts meet in the part,” says Sottos.

While their current research has used dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) as the monomer, the team is actively exploring the potential for other monomers, such as epoxy. “Down the road, we are interested in developing a prepreg-like material usable in a tape-laying process,” Sottos says.

TuFF to Transform Small Part ProductionProject: Composite material feedstock and process School: University of DelawareLocation: Newark, Del.Principal Investigator: Shridhar Yarlagadda

Complex geometries have always posed manufacturing challenges for continuous fiber composite materials.

Limitations in drapeability require the use of darts and splices, complex ply patterns and material scrap. The presence of splices complicates design, layout and ply placement accuracy, especially as the parts get smaller (less than 20 square feet). Because of these limitations, end users often turn to metal for small, complex parts.

Enter the University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials (CCM). It has teamed with researchers from Drexel University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Clemson University to develop a manufacturing process and pilot facility to produce discontinuous fiber composite feedstock as a cost-effective replacement of metal for intricate parts less than 2 square meters. The team’s work was made possible by a $14.9 million, three-year agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Tailorable Feedstock and Forming program.

TuFF (Tailored Universal Feedstock for Forming) is a highly-aligned discontinuous fiber, thin-ply preform that can be combined with thermoplastic or thermoset resins for prepreg formats and tailored blanks, or as a dry mat for infusion-based processes. The cost-effective material can be made to meet even aerospace performance requirements for the replacement of small metal parts. In addition, researchers say that metal forming infrastructure can be retrofitted for composite forming with this process.

“Our goal was a short-fiber microstructure with fiber alignment similar to continuous fiber prepreg and high fiber volume fractions [greater than 60%],” says Shridhar Yarlagadda, research professor and assistant director for research at CCM. “Millimeter-scale fibers are able to form small complex features while requiring lower pressures in forming. The discontinuous

fiber microstructures stretch in-plane and can conform to complex geometries, similar to metal forming.”

Yarlagadda says the TuFF process creates a near-ideal aligned short fiber microstructure and can achieve greater than 60 percent fiber volume fractions for aligned short fibers for the first time. “Tension properties show equivalence to continuous fiber for both modulus and strength. Compression and short beam shear properties have shown similar characteristics,” notes Yarlagadda. “Formability has been demonstrated with in-plane bi-axial stretch of greater than 40 percent, enabling us to form complex geometries that cannot be made with continuous fiber.”

CCM is currently building a pilot production facility and completing mechanical characterization for selected fiber and polymer combinations. It hopes to demonstrate full-scale complex geometry forming for selected parts by March 2020. “The pilot facility has the potential for five tons per year short fiber composite production volume, and we are in the process of building up production volume,” says Yarlagadda. “We are looking for commercialization partners and currently in discussions with interested parties.”

Additive Manufacturing in AerospaceProject: 3D printer, software and materialsSchool: University of South CarolinaLocation: Columbia, S.C.Principal Investigator: Michael Van Tooren

Researchers at the University of South Carolina (UofSC) have developed a 3D printer, as well as accompanying

software and carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic material, for the aerospace industry. The five-year project was conducted in partnership with TIGHITCO, a designer and fabricator of engineered components. Michael Van Tooren, professor and director of aerospace studies in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UofSC, says that the new printer is part of a chain of technologies that will facilitate printing of detailed parts and assembly of aircraft parts without mechanical fastening.

“Fasteners are always trouble,” explains Van Tooren.

This sample part contains 54% fiber volume fraction of the TuFF material with 3mm IM7 fibers in a polyetherimide resin.

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“Everywhere you have a fastener you have stress and fatigue.” He says that the million-plus fasteners in modern passenger jets also create logistical problems during assembly and increase aircraft weight and costs. “If you could reliably assemble using welding – and welding is nothing else but melting the polymer and pushing two parts together until they resolidify – it would be so much better!”

To accommodate double curves and other complex geometries on aircraft, the printer – now marketed by Ingersoll Machine Tools as the IMT MasterPrint – can print in any direction, not just along the x, y planes. “You can put the nozzle wherever you want,” asserts Van Tooren. Prototype machines use a KUKA or COMAU robot to guide the print nozzle, but purchasers can specify other robots.

As part of the project, the UofSC team developed a compatible thermoplastic CFRP material that utilizes ULTEM™ 1000 resin, a polyetherimide (PEI) by Sabic. The material is constructed by impregnating HexTow® dry 3K carbon fiber bundles and running them through a respooling machine, where additional resin is added. The bundles exit the respooling line through a heated die that shapes them into a circular filament. The printer co-extrudes this filament along with a second, resin-only filament. Van Tooren says that the amount of co-extruded polymer can be fine-tuned during printing. For example, more material can be added to print a tight curve.

Van Tooren believes that the MasterPrint’s initial sweet spot will be overprinting of CFRP reinforcements on larger thermoplastic aircraft parts, something his team is already experimenting with on behalf of two aerospace companies. He says, for example, the MasterPrint robot could be mounted on a rail system to overprint local reinforcements and brackets on a large fuselage shell. UofSC, Ingersoll Machine Tools and TIGHTCO will continue developing future generations of the printer, material and software.

These technologies are part of Van Tooren’s larger vision –

Sample parts 3D printed at the University of South Carolina.

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University R&D: Show Your Research at CAMX

Want your research to be seen by the composites and advanced materials community? Submit a poster for CAMX! Each year, the CAMX poster session gives researchers the opportunity to highlight their work, gain professional visibility as a subject matter expert and establish relationships within the industry. For more information, visit www.thecamx.org/awards.

aircraft that do not require mechanical fasteners but are instead assembled by autoclaving smaller parts, induction welding them together and then overprinting reinforcements and details on them. He admits that this vision will take some time. “It will take a while to get a part on the 787 or the next generation of aircraft,” he says. “There is still a lot of work to be done, but for sure we have the industry’s attention!”

Patrice Aylward and Melissa O’Leary are freelance writers based in Cleveland. Email comments to [email protected] and [email protected].


In the mid-1990s, Mar-Bal Inc., an integrated compounder and molder of BMC thermoset composite products,

had the opportunity to work on a large project with Whirlpool. There was one hitch: The Fortune 500 company wanted components to be white, the up-and-coming color preference for home appliances at that time. “We joked we could give Whirlpool a handle, door vent, or console panel for an oven range in black, black or Henry Ford black,” recalls Steve Balogh, executive vice president of Mar-Bal. “We had to take our technology and figure out a way to mold white components.”

Steve’s brother Scott, now president and CEO of Mar-Bal, took on the challenge. He turned to material suppliers for solutions, but was initially told that their high-temperature white paints could only be used on metal. “If you tell Scott something can’t be done, he’s going to ask why,” says Steve Balogh. “Then he’s going to figure out how you can do it instead of why you can’t.”

Scott worked tirelessly alongside material suppliers and Whirlpool to tweak an electrically-conductive paint made for steel to be compatible with composites. “We got it done, got approval from Whirlpool and painted millions of

A Visionary LeaderScott Balogh takes the helm as ACMA’s chairman of the board

with a lifetime of industry experience and a vision for the future.

By Susan Keen Flynn

Steve Balogh, left, and his brother Scott run Mar-Bal Inc., a company their parents founded in 1970.

Scott Balogh, left, talks to Larry Berry in Mar Bal's Advanced Manufacturing Group about a machine rebuild.

25www.acmanet.org

parts,” says Steve. “It was a game changer for us as a company, helping us dominate the thermoset segment of the appliance industry.”

The tenacity and vision that Scott has in relation to Mar-Bal will soon benefit the composites industry as a whole, when he begins his two-year term as ACMA’s chairman of the board in July. “Scott is a true leader, not only in his company, but in the industry,” says Tom Dobbins, CAE, president of ACMA. “He is highly respected by his colleagues on the board of directors and the ACMA staff. I look forward to a very productive two years for the association with Scott at the helm.”

A Family AffairIt’s not an overstatement to say that

Scott Balogh was born to be in the composites industry. Mar-Bal was founded in 1970 by his parents, Jim and Carolyn, in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Scott and his younger brother Steve spent summers as teenagers working at the family company. “We started in the finishing department because there’s no heavy equipment there,” says Scott. “We de-flashed electrical equipment parts with Wheelabrators® or hand files – no pretty appliance or automotive parts like we make today.” As the brothers got older, they ran compression molding presses and molded electric standoff insulators.

After graduating from high school, Scott headed southwest to Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, planning to major in chemistry and put the knowledge to use at Mar-Bal. “When I took physical chemistry my sophomore year, I realized it wasn’t my calling. I was getting A’s in economics and C’s in chemistry, so someone was trying to tell me something,” chuckles Scott. He switched to a business major.

During his senior year, Scott interned at IBM. Rather than head home to the family business after earning his bachelor’s degree, Scott forged a new path – something his parents strongly encouraged. He spent nine years with IBM in sales before joining Mar-Bal at age 30.

Working at IBM proved to be a good training ground, introducing Scott to concepts that he adheres to today as the leader of Mar-Bal. “The company had good processes in all areas – sales, engineering, customer service – and very good strategic planning,” he says. He learned from IBM executives how to structure a business, motivate employees and lead teams.

“Because it’s a technical field, I learned how to work with engineers in the same capacity you work with customers to solve problems,” he says. “Now I follow similar processes, although the needs of the customers are different.”

The Business SkyrocketsUnder the leadership of the Balogh brothers and an outside

advisory board the company instituted in the early 2000s, Mar-Bal has grown from its early mom-and-pop shop days

with one press and a focus on survival. Today, the company has 500 employees in three molding plants across the U.S., plus a research and development center in the Cleveland area and a molding and compounding facility in China. Its core markets include electrical, appliances, automotive, oil and gas, and rail transportation.

“With Scott at the helm, Mar-Bal’s business has doubled in the last 10 years,” says Ron Poff, industry director and director of global marketing for the company. “A little of that is because of acquisitions, but the other part is vision, innovation, investment and people. Scott has surrounded himself with some very talented industry veterans.”

One of those veterans is Vince Profeta, who has served as vice president of product engineering and manufacturing technology at Mar-Bal for seven years. Profeta says Scott has “an innate ability to listen to people around him, size up situations and make sound decisions.” He recalls a scenario with a customer that highlights Scott’s decision-making skills and foresight.

Several years ago, Mar-Bal lost some business with a client. “It was a tough time, but Scott predicted we were going to get the business back,” says Profeta. “No one else believed him, but he foresaw that there was more to the business than the new supplier anticipated.” To prepare for the customer’s possible return, Scott purchased new equipment.

“When the equipment was placed on the plant floor, people thought Scott was crazy,” says Profeta. Crazy like a fox. This year, the client moved its business back to Mar-Bal. “We were ready to go,” says Profeta. “What initially sounded like a train wreck – spending money on new equipment – put us ahead of the curve.”

Pushing ACMA to New HeightsAs ACMA’s chairman of the board, Scott will work to keep

the association ahead of the curve, too. During his time on

Mar-Bal has a group dedicated to rebuilding molding and compounding equipment. Shown here, from left, are Chuck Berry, Aaron Bable, Scott Balogh and Jim Andrews.


the board, he’s been active in public policy, serving as chair of ACMA’s Public Policy Steering Committee since its inception in 2016. In that role, Scott has advocated for the Innovative Materials for America’s Growth and Infrastructure Newly Expanded Act (IMAGINE Act) introduced in 2018 and pushed for development of standards for composites in infrastructure.

“A lot of innovation is occurring in infrastructure,” says Scott. “The momentum will not move forward until we build a standards encyclopedia for composites in roads and bridges.” His ability to advocate for composites on the national level was honed as a member – and most recently, chair – of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA). As he wraps up his term as the OMA chair, he segues into the role at ACMA.

Steve is confident that Scott has the ideal attributes to lead ACMA – and those aren’t just the boastful sentiments of a kid brother. Steve served on the ACMA board from 2011 to 2014, so he knows what it takes. “Scott understands the motivations of other people, whether suppliers or fabricators, and can get everyone to move in the same direction and take action,” says Steve.

One of the priority areas for Scott is continuation of the association’s strong efforts in market growth, in particular the work of the Composites Growth Initiative (CGI) committees and the ever-expanding Composites Technology Days. This year, ACMA held several Tech Days at major OEMs in the automotive and aerospace industries. “There’s a real thirst for knowledge from large OEMs in terms of composites and composite

Running a Business by the BooksScott Balogh, president and CEO of Mar-Bal and incoming ACMA chairman of the board, is an avid reader. “We tease Scott that he’s like a book-of-the-month-club,” says Ron Poff, industry director and director of global marketing at Mar-Bal. “He and Oprah have a lot in common. They like to read and share their reading with others.”

Among the books that Balogh has recently read are the following:

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. A renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Kahneman explains the two systems that drive the way we think: One is fast, intuitive and emotional, while the other is slower, deliberative and logical. “I love this book because it is about economics, psychology and human behavior,” says Balogh. “I would highly recommend it for anyone involved in sales, marketing and business development because it describes how we process and evaluate variables that we all consider when we make decisions.”

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The psychologist author suggests that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is being in a state of consciousness called “flow,” where people feel deep enjoyment, creativity and a total involvement in life. “We have all experienced being ‘in the zone’ and the positive energy we have when we are fully immersed in an activity,” says Balogh. “My goal at work is to find these opportunities, live in the moment and enjoy it.”

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. One of the few fiction books Balogh has read in a long time, this novel tells the story of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross in occupied France during World War II. “I appreciate my wife Stacy encouraging me to read this book,” says Balogh. “The intersection of the two main characters’ lives and their guardians will keep you riveted.”

materials,” says Scott. “That is very exciting!”Scott also is passionate about recycling. “If we can figure out

the whole system – the generation of materials from when they are developed, compounded or molded and recycled – it will be a huge plus for the industry from a marketing standpoint,” he says. “People are looking to ACMA to play a role.”

And members of ACMA are looking to Scott Balogh to lead the way. They are in good hands with a man who grew up in composites and has the vision to grow the industry to new heights.

Susan Keen Flynn is managing editor of Composites Manufacturing magazine. Email comments to [email protected].

From left: Larry Landis and Scott Balogh discuss a project in Mar-Bal's Materials Engineering Lab while Alfredo Guzman and Casey Blabolil work across the table.

27www.acmanet.org

Inside ACMA

Keeping Congress Up-to-Date on Composites

One of the best ways to keep your congressional representatives abreast of the benefits of composites and how the materials can be put to use across America is by hosting a plant tour. Sika Corporation’s

Senior Vice President Dave White describes hosting his congressman, Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), at the company’s facility in Lyndhurst, N.J. Armed with White’s insight and the help of ACMA, your facility can host a tour for your representatives to provide information needed to support the industry.

Q: Why did Sika Corporation host a plant tour for Rep. Bill Pascrell?

White: I had met with Congressman Pascrell on multiple occasions as a participant in Infrastructure Days organized by ACMA. As a worldwide leader in manufacturing building materials for the construction industry, Sika is at the forefront in introducing new technologies to the marketplace. These include FRP composites for the repair and construction of bridges, buildings, pipelines and other critical elements of our nation’s infrastructure. Congressman Pascrell shares Sika’s passion for infrastructure and is one of the key proponents of the Gateway Tunnel project under the Hudson River, which is critical not just to New York and New Jersey, but the entire eastern seaboard as this region affects 20% of the nation’s GDP.

Q: What did you want Rep. Pascrell to take away from the tour?

White: We wanted Congressman Pascrell to not just learn more about our company and our shared interest in infrastructure projects, but to meet his constituents and answer their questions. The congressman spent over two-and-a-half hours at our facility, and he met not just the executives but the factory workers and the support staff as well. We discussed the importance of an infrastructure bill to jump start construction projects, as well as the need for Congress to consider life cycle cost analysis so our new bridges can last 75 to 100 years. The single biggest advantage of FRP composites is their corrosion resistance and proven long-term durability performance in adverse conditions.

Q: How is hosting a plant tour beneficial to the composites industry and to ACMA?

White: Since FRP composites are not as well known or accepted in some industries, such as construction, the more education and awareness we can provide to all interested parties is a bonus. By hosting a plant tour, we can show off our manufacturing capabilities, the ability to provide Buy America products for federally-subsidized projects and a safe work environment that also complies with ISO 9001 certified quality management systems. It also provides a forum for direct conversation between the employees and their representative in Congress so other issues can be raised where appropriate.

Q: What is your advice to companies that are considering hosting a plant tour with members of Congress?

White: I would suggest doing your homework on your members of Congress and finding out which committees and task groups they are active in. Discover common ground so you can focus on those areas during the tour. Prepare a short presentation with pictures, samples, brochures, etc. to show your representative what your company does and why is it important to the public. Have them meet as many people as possible, from executives to factory workers. Allow the representative to say some words, maybe on a shift change or during a break. Provide a microphone so everyone can hear and take pictures. Finally, enjoy the day! It is not every day that you get to meet a member of Congress.

If you would like guidance on hosting a congressional representative at your company, contact Gabrielle Goldfarb, ACMA’s government affairs coordinator, at [email protected].

During a plant tour of Sika Corporation in Lyndhurst, N.J., Congressman Bill Pascrell (right) met with the company’s Executive Vice President Herbert Zwartkruis (left) and Vice President Dan Martin.


New ACMA MembersAGY Holding CorporationAiken, SCAuburn UniversityAuburn, ALBally Ribbon MillsBally, PACimbar Performance MaterialsCartersville, GACoatsCharlotte, NCCoriolis Composites USAMountainlake Terrace, WADeceuninck North AmericaMonroe, OHIPCO USA, LLCTotowa, NJ

Lehman & VossPawcatuck, CT

Materia, Inc.Pasadena, CA

MirteqFort Wayne, IN

NouryonChicago, IL

TxV Aero CompositesBristol, RI

Inside ACMA

For more information on becoming a member of ACMA, email [email protected] or call 703-525-0511.

COMPOSITES: Forming the Future of Transportation Worldwide

SEPT 4-6, 2019

19TH ANNUAL

CALL FOR PAPERS

ATTEND THE WORLD’S LEADING AUTOMOTIVE COMPOSITES FORUM You’re invited to attend the 19th Annual SPE Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition (ACCE), September 4-6, 2019 at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, MI. The show features technical sessions, panel discussions, keynotes, receptions, and exhibits highlighting advances in materials, processes, and equipment for both thermoset and thermoplastic composites in a wide variety of transportation applications.

PRESENT BEFORE A GLOBAL AUDIENCE The SPE ACCE draws over 900 attendees from 15 countries on 5 continents who are interested in learning about the latest composites technologies. Few conferences of any size offer such an engaged, global audience vitally interested in hearing the latest composites advances. Interested in presenting your latest research? Abstracts and papers are due ASAP to allow time for peer review. Submit abstracts via www.SubmitACCEPapers.com.

EXHIBIT / SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES A variety of sponsorship packages are available. Companies interested in showcasing their products and / or services should contact Teri Chouinard of Intuit Group at [email protected].

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july/august 2019 the official magazine of the american...

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