Recycled Composites Collection

The desire for sustainability and recyclability of materials continues to increase across end markets, and recycled composite materials are rising to meet that need. This collection of CW features detail the current state of the industry and recent success stories across aerospace, automotive and rail applications.

• Recycled carbon on the rails: A prototype rail bogie prominently features recycled carbon fiber.
• The state of recycled carbon fiber: As the need for carbon fiber rises, can recycling fill the gap?
• Recycled thermoplastic composites for production: Multi-year R&D at ThermoPlastic composites Applications Center (TPAC), Toray and Clean Sky 2 demonstrate economic advantage of serial production using recycled materials.

Tooling Collection

CW’s editors are tracking the latest trends and developments in tooling, from the basics to new developments. This collection, presented by Composites One, features recent CW stories that detail a range of tooling technologies, processes and materials.

In this Collection:

• Big Additive Machines Tackle Large Molds
• Cutting the Cost and Time of Tooling for Composites
• DYNAPIXEL: Automated, Reconfigurable Molds

Thermoplastic Composites Collection

Thermoplastics have been used in composite parts and structures since the late 1960s, but new materials and processes, and demand from the commercial aerospace industry for faster-processing materials, are pushing thermoplastic composites for primary aerostructures to the forefront of the composites manufacturing world.

This collection of CW Features detail the basics, challenges, and future of thermoplastic composites technology, with particular emphasis on their use for commercial aerospace primary structures.

Featured Stories

• I want to say two words to you: “Thermoplastic tapes”

• PEEK or PEKK in future TPC aerostructures?

• PEEK vs. PEKK vs. PAEK and Continuous Compression Molding

• Thermoplastic composites: Poised to step forward
  
  

Composites in Hydrogen Storage

This content collection aggregates two recent reports from CompositesWorld on the demand for hydrogen as an energy source and the role composites might play in the transport and storage of hydrogen.

• “Carbon fiber in pressure vessels for hydrogen storage” explores how the emerging hydrogen economy is driving tank development for aircraft, ships, and gas transport.
• “Carbon fiber opportunities in the hydrogen economy” reviews how hydrogen is sourced, where and how it supplies energy, the tank technologies being developed for its storage and transport, and what the opportunities are for hydrogen in certain geographic regions.

Get Better at Quoting Molded Parts

An accurate quote for an injection molding job takes into consideration the part design, thermoplastic materials, additives, tooling, molding, automation, inspection, packaging and secondary operations. That’s a lot to consider!

Take a deep dive into all of the various aspects of part quoting to ensure you’ve got all the bases—as in costs—covered before preparing your customer’s quote for services.

In this guide, we cover:

- Raw Materials
- Scrap, Regrind, Energy, Additives
- Mold and Machine
- Labor, Packaging, Secondary Operation

AI & Manufacturing

What impact will artificial intelligence (AI) have on manufacturing? We are just beginning to understand its influence. An equally intriguing question might be: What impact has it had already? The capability is available now and its role in the systems that use it is sometimes subtle. This collection of articles from Modern Machine Shop and Additive Manufacturing explores the intersection of AI and manufacturing as it stands today.

Included in this collection:

- How AI Will Influence CNC Machining
- Where AM Meets AI
- Blacksmith Promises Adaptive Manufacturing for 3D Printing and Beyond
- AI Makes Shop Networks Count
- Using AI for Predictive Maintenance, Employee Development
- Can Vision and AI Make Every Robot Collaborative?

The Case for Cleaning

The majority of finishers state that they believe parts cleaning helps optimize quality, productivity and profitability. Yet, despite the fairly uniform beliefs and claims from shops about their cleaning processes, variances in quality yield persist.

Hubbard-Hall commissioned objective third party, Gardner Intelligence, to conduct a custom survey and analysis of Products Finishing Top Shops benchmarking survey results for data-based insights to help understand attitudes and practices concerning cleaning. While a majority of respondents claim to invest in cleaning, there are some important differences in the stated reasons for poor quality.

A Benchmark Study

The analysis presented by Gardner Intelligence in this paper is based on survey questions pertaining to cleaning attitudes, concerns, and practices, along with questions about product quality and financials.

Automotive Coatings

What’s on the surface matters. No matter what kind of automobile you’re talking about, it has to stand up to its environment. A car’s coating system serves a much greater purpose above just making it look nice; it protects it from exposure, salts, heat, moisture, UV radiation and road debris. Ecoat technology provides automotive body parts with corrosion protection and a surface for topcoating. Meanwhile, plating and powder coating finishes provide protection for critical components.

At Products Finishing, our job is help you stay on top of the latest trends and developments in the finishing industry, including those for automotive markets. What follows is a collection of four PF features that delve into the technologies, processes and people working to provide protection for the automobiles of today.

Would you like to sign up for the PT Insider newsletter?

Would you like to sign up for CompositesWorld newsletters?

Would you like to sign up for Modern Machine Shop newsletters?

Would you like to sign up for the Products Finishing newsletter?