From the Sector

At JEC Asia 2017 (1-3 November), the international textile group CHOMARAT will receive a JEC Innovation Award in the Sports & Leisure category for its C-PLY™ Hexagonal with visual & structural stitching. “CHOMARAT provided NEILPRYDE and COBRA with its C-PLY™ Non-Crimp Fabric (NCF) technology to help them manufacture an innovative windfoil board, and we are very proud to be rewarded with our partners”, says Pascal JOUBERT DES OUCHES, Sports Equipment Market Director at CHOMARAT.

C-PLYTM HEXAGONAL COMBINES NEW CARBON LOOK AND PERFORMANCE

The unusual stitching of this carbon multiaxial NCF reinforcement combines visual appeal and mechanical performance. C-PLY™ Hexagonal is an innovative carbon NCF with a unique stitching yarn designed to be visible within the resin and to capture resin colour pigments. The stitching yarn also improves fracture toughness compared to standard NCF.
“We researched the right stitching yarn among multiple options before coming up with a tailor-made yarn solution. C-PLY™ Hexagonal provides a unique honeycomb carbon design that appeals to end users”, adds Philippe SANIAL, R&T Director at CHOMARAT.

A WIDE RANGE, FROM AERONAUTICS AND AUTOMOTIVE TO SPORTS & LEISURE APPLICATIONS

Originally dedicated to the design of aerospace and automotive parts, the concept is now successfully applied to the sports & leisure sector. In this innovative windfoil board construction, tows are spread to create thin plies, which are then stitched with precise ±45° angles. The C-PLY™ NCF structure respects the fibre alignment and is optimized in terms of fibre angles and ply weights, thanks to unique spreading technology. The result is a leading-edge carbon NCF reinforcement allowing structural design benefits, premium surface quality and overall parts cost savings. “Bringing a new carbon visual signature for our high-performance C-PLY™ range of NCF is a key to boost retail sales in the whole sports & consumers product industry”, concludes Pascal JOUBERT DES OUCHES.

At the “Future of Composites in Construction” trade show, CHOMARAT and ALTUS GROUP are presenting CarbonCast®, their flagship line of reinforced-concrete prefabricated wall panels, reinforced with CHOMARAT’s C-GRID® carbon-fiber grids. A recent army-hospital project in Greenville, South Carolina is another success story of this innovative product: 18,600 m² (200,000 sq.ft) of precast insulated panels were installed in record time. Come and learn more about it at the McCormick Place Lakeside Center, Chicago, Stand C 10, on 20-22 June 2017.
“Reducing installation time, improving the fire and safety performance, increasing the service life of structures, and cutting energy consumption are crucial criteria in the choice of a CarbonCast solution,” explains ALTUS GROUP Executive Director John CARSON. CarbonCast® panels are classified ASHRAE 90.1. Thanks to the low thermal conductivity of carbon fiber, C-GRID® reinforced panels offer excellent thermal performance, providing uniform insulation and, therefore, a comfortable, energy-efficient building.

Composites use in Building and Construction will be highlighted at JEC newest event dedicated to this specific Composites Industry next month in Chicago, IL, USA. The numerous and diverse benefits that these innovative materials bring to the Building Industry will help overcome the coming challenges such as, urbanization, increase of natural disasters (floods, storms, tsunamis, earthquakes…), along with the decrease of non-renewable raw materials and the high standard levels set by the society in terms of lightness and fluidity. Composites Materials bring answers and opportunities to tackle those issues in sustainable, durable and reliable manners. Solutions like ease of fabrication (Owens Corning), structures durability (Biteam), anti-seismic reinforcement (DowAksa), use of end-of-life products such as recycled bottles of water (Premier Composites Technologies), aerial forms (Optima Projects Ltd) or again energy saving (Armageddon Energy).

Following its strategy to address every Composites End-user, the JEC Innovation Awards will reward these 6 Composites Innovators in Building & Construction that will change the way we build.
If the majority of submissions relied on glass fibers, which is common in the Construction field, we see an increased interest in carbon fibers, especially for structural applications. And similarly to all sectors of the composite industry, thermoplastics are gaining in importance in Construction. Therefore, to promote the growing use of composites as a construction material, 6 categories are awarded, covering a large panel of applications and possibilities.

Pilatus is displaying the PC-24 at the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition, taking place in Geneva on May 22-24. This highly versatile jet is able to take off and land on very short runways and unpaved strips due in part to the composite-intensive structure, which makes great use of Hexcel’s composite materials and adhesive.

Hexcel’s HexPly® 8552 woven prepreg in carbon and glass variants is used to manufacture a number of the aircraft components including the belly fairing, which is the largest composite structure on the aircraft. HexPly® 8552 is one of Hexcel’s most successful and widely used prepregs for aircraft programs including commercial aircraft and fighter jets. Hexcel’s Redux® 319 epoxy film adhesive is also used for bonding the composite structures. The PC-24 is in the final stages of its certification program following the first flight of the third and final test aircraft on March 6 2017. The aircraft is scheduled for certification and entry into service in the 4th quarter 2017. Pilatus has so far secured 84 orders for the PC-24, which equates to three years of production.

 SAMPE China 2017 takes place in Beijing on May 10-12, 2017 and Hexcel is exhibiting at the event as a leader in advanced composite technologies. At booth #A60 Hexcel’s displays will demonstrate the wide range of composite materials supplied by Hexcel to customers in China.
Display parts will include the A350 XWB rudder skin and belly fairing panel made by Hexcel customer HMC (Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Center), a joint venture established by Hafei and Airbus in 2009. Since then Hexcel has been a strategic supplier to HMC of composite materials for packages including the Airbus A320 elevator, HTP spar and rudder, and the A350 XWB belly fairing, rudder, elevator and section 19 maintenance door.

Other booth displays include HexTow® carbon fiber, a helicopter canopy made from HexPly® prepreg, and a structural sandwich made from HexWeb® honeycomb and HexPly® prepreg.
Hexcel will also display a section of a composite beam manufactured by hot forming Hexcel’s HexPly® M21 UD carbon fiber prepreg. Other promotions include HexFlow® RTM6-2 resin system a 2-component version of HexFlow® RTM6 for resin transfer molding. A number of OEMs have qualified this infusion system designed for aerospace primary structures, which has a high Tg and provides excellent hot/wet performance from a flexible cure cycle. RTM6-2 also has a long shelf life and has no transportation restrictions.