Innovative

composite liftgate:
MODIFIED FILAMENT
WINDING PROCESS
TAKES THE WHEEL

FEBRUARY 2021

Composites-intensive nano-
rover hits big milestones / 16

Novel dry tape for liquid

molded composites / 20

Next-gen wing skin puts AFP

tow steering to the test / 26

A property of Gardner Business Media VOL 7 No. 2


COLUMNS
4 From the Editor
Following the grounding of the 737 and
the downturn caused by the pandemic,
Boeing finds itself a distant second to
Airbus. What should it do?
6 The Troubleshooter
Cause of adhesive bonding inconsistencies
or failure may be numerous. According to
Louis Dorworth, the following points
should be examined to determine the
culprit.
8 Gardner Business Index
Lengthening order-to-fulfillment times
caused the reading for supplier deliveries
to surge, lifting the overall December
Composites Index into expansionary
territory.
» DEPARTMENTS
10 Trends
34 New Products
40 Applications
42 Marketplace
43 Ad Index
43 Showcase
48 Post Cure
» ON THE COVER
Automotive liftgates, or rear-hatch doors,
have slowly been transitioning from
metals to composites for decades. The
all-composite liftgate on the Toyota Supra
sports car from Toyota Motor Corp., for
example, may well be the next evolution.
Using a heavily modified filament winding
process, fabricators contend that it could
meet the speed and cost targets of higher-
volume vehicle production. See p. 44.
Source | Toyota Motor Corp.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEBRUARY 2021 / Vol: 7 No
–: 2
FEATURES
16 Work in Progress:
Composites design helps
nano-sized lunar rover hit
big milestones
Developed by Carnegie Mellon University, the
ultralight, composites-intensive Iris nano-rover
16 will make its lunar debut later this year.
By Hannah Mason
20 Inside Manufacturing:
Novel dry tape for liquid
molded composites
MTorres seeks to enable next-gen aircraft and
open new markets for composites with
low-cost, high-permeability tapes and versatile,
high-speed production lines.
By Ginger Gardiner
26 Feature: Tow steering,
20 Part 2: The next generation
Wings on next-generation commercial aircraft
will be longer, thinner, more aerodynamic and
more efficient. They also are ideal candidates for
the application of steered tows. One project
aimed to design, fabricate and quantify a
tow-steered wing skin.
By Jeff Sloan
26
FOCUS ON DESIGN
DESIG
Heavily modified winding process produces
produc
light, structural support frame for
performance-critical liftgate.
By Peggy Malnati
accurate. In applying recommendations, however, you should exercise care and normal MEMBERSHIPS:
precautions to prevent personal injury and damage to facilities or products. In no case
can the authors or the publisher accept responsibility for personal injury or damages
which may occur in working with methods and/or materials presented herein, nor can
the publisher assume responsibility for the validity of claims or performance of items
appearing in editorial presentations or advertisements in this publication. Contact
information is provided to enable interested parties to conduct further inquiry into
specific products or services.
CompositesWorld.com 1
 @CompositesWrld

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 FROM THE EDITOR
» On Monday, March 9, 2020, I was in Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.,
attending a SpeedNews conference on aerospace manufacturing.
I sat in a hotel conference room with hundreds of other people,
listening to speakers talk about raw materials use in the aerospace
supply chain and aircraft production rates. The coronavirus was in
the early stages of turning into a pandemic, and there was much
uncertainty about the poten-
tial impact of the virus on
It’s possible to think commercial air travel.
about the return of Still, the sense that we were
passenger air travel. on the verge of major industrial
and societal change was palpable.
Several speakers prefaced their
presentations with the caveat that they had attempted to factor the
coronavirus into their forecasts, but were unsure what the long-
term effects would be. Others couldn’t figure out how to forecast
in such an environment and simply declared their presentations
“COVID-free.” One speaker suggested, with some trepidation,
that the commercial aerospace industry could see a -% drop
in passenger air travel as a result of the coronavirus. That, he said,
would be “unprecedented and devastating.” What we wouldn’t
give right now for just a % drop in passenger air travel.
Now, with vaccines in wide distribution, it’s possible to think
about the return of passenger air travel. Further, with the return
of the  MAX to service in November , Boeing achieved a
major milestone in its effort to get its most profitable aircraft back
in the air and generating cash again.
Prior to the pandemic and the grounding of the  MAX,
Boeing had been considering the launch of a new aircraft. Dubbed
NMA, or , it would have been a twin-aisle plane, designed to
fit between the  and . But with the double-whammy of the
grounding of the  MAX and then the pandemic, plus a tepid
market reception of the NMA, Boeing shelved its new-plane plans.
As a result, Boeing is left with what is, effectively, a product
lineup of four(ish) aircraft: the  MAX, the , the  and the
X (not yet in service). The  has a relatively bright immediate
future as domestic routes, served by the , are expected to return
to pre-pandemic usage levels soonest. International routes, served
by the  and (eventually) the X, are expected to recover
much more slowly — possibly not until  by some estimates.
4 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld
The Airbus product lineup, on the other hand, covers a wider
swath of the market and includes the A, A, AXLR, A
and A. The A is roughly analogous to the , while the
A and A are roughly analogous to the  and the X. The
AXLR, however, highlights a particular problem for Boeing.
Announced at the  Paris Air Show, this long-haul, single-aisle
plane is unmatched by Boeing and is proving to be a significant
competitive advantage for Airbus.
In a non-pandemic world, Boeing might answer the AXLR
with a new plane of its own. Such a plane, it’s assumed, would
make significant use of composites. Such a plane would also be
expensive, perhaps in the neighborhood of $ billion to develop.
Aerospace industry analysts contend that Boeing simply cannot
afford to launch a new program for several years.
The question I pose in response is this: If Boeing wants to
shore up its competitive position against Airbus, what is the cost
to Boeing of not launching a new aircraft soon? In the duopoly
that is the global commercial aircraft market, isn’t it critical that
Boeing demonstrate to its customers and Airbus that it still has the
strength, creativity and innovation the market needs, and that it’s
willing to invest in its future with the launch of a new aircraft?
Commercial aircraft development and manufacture is, arguably,
the most complex and demanding technological enterprise in
the world, and as such it is done by only a few firms. In this envi-
ronment, Boeing, it seems to me, cannot cede any ground to its
competitors — pandemic or not.
My argument is this: If Boeing wants to preserve its position as a
competitive supplier of commercial aircraft, it should announce a
new program in , and be clear that it’s ready for the next gener-
ation of commercial air travel. Paying for such a program would be
a challenge, but Boeing could debt-finance such an effort to help
secure its future. Regardless, the company, it seems, has reached
a major inflection point. How it responds will be important to the
entire aerospace supply chain.
JEFF SLOAN — Editor-In- Chief
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 THE TROUBLESHOOTER

Troubleshooting failures in
adhesive-bonded composite joints
» When experiencing inconsistencies with adhesive bonding in Possible reasons for the latter include:
production, prototyping or in the lab, how does one identify the • Ingress of moisture into film adhesive or carbon dioxide infiltra-
root cause and which course of corrective action to deploy to fix it? tion into one or both components of a paste adhesive (usually in
This month, I will share some generic ideas that may be helpful to the amine hardener).
your efforts. • Migration of contaminants from substrate surface(s) into the
First, let’s explore the adhesive bonding mechanism itself. adhesive, changing adhesive properties.
Fundamentally, there are three regions in the adhesive-bonded • Improper mix ratio or mixing of two-part paste adhesives,
joint (ABJ) that can fail: adhesion to the substrate; cohesion of changing adhesive properties.
the adhesive itself; and the (first ply of ) substrate
adjacent to the adhesive. For this discussion, we will
focus on adhesion and cohesion failures (Fig. ). Composite Substrate
Adhesion failure occurs when the adhesive fails
Adhesion
to robustly attach to the substrate, appearing as if
the adhesive separated clean from the surface
Cohesion
(Fig. ). It should be noted that adhesion takes
place in a very delicate region on the surface, two
to three molecules thick (a fingerprint is ~ Adhesion
molecules thick). Composite Substrate
Here are some possible reasons for adhesion
failure:
FIG. 1 Adhesion and cohesion
• Moisture or contamination present on the substrate
surface from improper storage and/or handling of Adhesion failure occurs at the interfacial region between the adhesive and substrate, while cohe-
sion failure occurs within the adhesive layer itself. Source | Abaris Training
the part and/or adhesive, or other environmental
exposure of surfaces during the manufacturing
process.
• Migration of fugitive oligomers from the mold
release to the part surface during molding opera-
tion; this is often difficult to remove prior to surface
preparation/treatment.
• Poor or inadequate surface preparation or treat-
ment — over or under abrading, or other prepara-
Adhesion failure area
tion leading to a low surface free energy value of the
substrate surface.
FIG. 2 Adhesion failure
• Excessive open-time (not work-life) of applied
paste adhesive prior to closing the joint — possible The adhesive failed to stay attached to primarily one substrate but also a small area at the edge of
the mating substrate. Source | Abaris Training
carbonation of the adhesive surface (amine
exposure to CO).
• Improper selection of adhesive with poor wetting
ability — high surface tension value of the adhesive
or chemically attractive fillers that keep the
adhesive bound to itself.
Cohesion failure occurs when the adhesive itself
fractures or splits and there is still adhesive attached
to each substrate. This is normally acceptable at a
predictable load; however, it is unacceptable when FIG. 3 Cohesion failure
failure occurs at much less than expected force The adhesive itself fractured down the middle, leaving equal amounts of adhesive on each
(Fig. ). substrate. Source | Abaris Training

6 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

 Adhesive-bonded joint failure

• Excessive voids in adhesive from the effect of vacuum during

processing or incorrect selection of bondline thickness control
media.
• Inadequate cure of adhesive — poor control or measurement of
temperature at the bondline.
After the surfaces of the ABJ failure are observed for causation, the
findings then guide you where to look for problems. A close exami-
nation of each critical control point in the manufacturing process
will help you determine where contamination might occur, or
where bond quality might be compromised. This can be accom-
plished by systematically verifying each step in the process. Below
are some critical points to follow.

Storage and handling

Adhesives should be stored correctly at recommended tempera-
tures and properly sealed. Examine handling and dispensing
protocols to ensure that materials are adequately thawed to
room temperature, that environmental exposure is minimized
or mitigated, that out-time is monitored (films) and that paste
adhesive containers are resealed (preferably purged with inert gas)
FIG. 4 Contact angle measurement test
immediately after dispensing. Parts should be kept clean, dry and
protected from moisture ingress and UV exposure prior to prepa- Contact angle measurement on carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) panels
prior to bonding. Source | Abaris Training, BTG Labs
ration and bonding. Clean gloves should be worn — no bonding
surfaces should be touched, including the adhesive itself.

Cleaning Adhesive cure

Review cleaning practices. Fresh wipes and solvents (if applicable)
should be clean and stored properly to prevent ingress of moisture
and other contaminants — often solvents are dispensed via small,
approved containers (no plunger cans or open dispensers). A
contact angle (CA) measurement test can be used to verify cleanli-
ness (Fig. 4) before and after surface preparation.
Surface preparation/treatment
The goal is to raise the surface free energy of the surface without
damaging fibers. Ideally, bond surfaces should be protected with
a wet peel ply (WPP), preventing contamination and providing a
bondable surface. All abrasives should be surfactant-free and the
abrasion process should not damage fibers. For flame or plasma
treatments, verify air pressure or gas type, standoff distance, rate,
etc. Verification should be performed with CA measurements,
not water-break methods (avoid hydration of the surfaces). Parts
should be bonded within minutes to hours after prep.
Confirm that adhesive within the joint sees time at temperature.
Mistakes are made when adhesive is not heated at an appropriate
rate or held at temperature for a specified time. Note that most
adhesive manufacturers specify room temperature (RT) as 77°F
(25°C). If the temperature in the facility is lower, the prescribed
time must be extended. Optionally, an elevated cure can be
employed.
Identifying inconsistencies
There may be more operations in your manufacturing scheme that
need examination. The idea is to perform systematic evaluations
of each step in the process and mitigate any pre-bond contami-
nation or other causes affecting the bond integrity. Though all
of these factors may seem complex, putting control-point proto-
cols in place makes it possible to routinely achieve high-quality
adhesive bonded joints and speeds identification of the cause
when bonding issues do arise.

Bonding
Verify that fixtures or clamping devices are clean and undamaged.
Check accuracy of measuring and mixing procedures for paste
adhesives and that it is applied immediately after mixing. Film
adhesives should be cut and applied without touching or contami-
nating bond surfaces, handling only the edges with gloved hands.
Joints should be closed and clamped within a specified time, with
uniform pressure applied.
Louis Dorworth is the direct services manager at Abaris Training
Resources, Inc. (Reno, Nev., U.S.). Lou has been involved in the
composites industry since 1978 and has experience in material
and process (M&P) engineering, research and development
(R&D), tooling, manufacturing engineering, teaching and
troubleshooting. Lou is a coauthor of the textbook titled Essentials of Advanced
Composite Fabrication and Damage Repair, second edition.

CompositesWorld.com 7
 GARDNER BUSINESS INDEX: COMPOSITES FABRICATING

Supply chains will mean everything

for composites in early 2021
December—52.2
» The Composites Index ended the final month of 2020 at 52.2, a slight increase from Novem- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ber’s 51.8, signaling modest industry expansion for the fourth consecutive month. Unfor-
tunately, the increase in the overall Index was due almost exclusively to slowing order-to- Michael Guckes is the
Chief Economist/Director
fulfillment times, which elevated the supplier delivery reading and thus affected the general of Analytics for Gardner
Index calculation. Further, December’s survey respondents reported slowing growth in new Intelligence, a division of
orders and production while employment activity expanded only slightly. Backlog and exports Gardner Business Media
(Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.). He has performed
activity issued slowing contraction readings. economic analysis, modeling and forecasting
The latest supplier delivery reading also marks the third time in  that this specific work for nearly 20 years in a wide range of
reading exceeded . For comparison, the record-high reading before COVID- was ., set industries. Guckes received his BA in political
science and economics from Kenyon College
during the peak of the - business cycle expansion. While present-day supply chain and his MBA from Ohio State University.
challenges are affecting the manufacturing sector as a whole, composites fabricators have mguckes@gardnerweb.com
reported that their supply chains’ struggles, and the domino effect resulting from it, are partic-
ularly acute. From the data, it is evident that production activity is struggling to keep pace with
new orders, backlogs are growing and material prices are surging. The data also suggest that
managing supply chains in  will be an essential goal of any successful fabricator.

GBI: Composites Fabricating Composites Fabricating

Business Index
Lengthening order-to-fulfillment times
caused the reading for supplier deliveries
to surge, lifting the overall Index into
expansionary territory for the month.
Disruptions to supply chains were
particularly acute in December as seasonal
holiday sales and COVID-19 vaccine
distribution efforts overwhelmed logistics
providers.

GBI: Composites Fabricating — Supplier Deliveriess and

a Production Supplier deliveries and
(3-month moving average)) production
Gardner’s fourth quarter supply chain
outlook unfortunately proved true. The
consequence has been upward pressure
on backlogs as firms struggle to maintain
inventories and by extension production.

Supplier
pp Deliveriess
Production
P oduc o

PRESENTED BY

Stay ahead of the curve with Gardner Intelligence.

Visit the blog at gardnerintelligence.com or e-mail mguckes@gardnerweb.com

8 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

 TRENDS
Pratt & Whitney invests and publicizes strategy for next-gen CMC-based engines, efforts
to develop new composite part recycling methods ramp up, and Maine and the U.K. sign
an agreement to advance offshore wind cooperation.

Recycling end-of-life composite parts:

New methods, markets
Many composites recycling methods work by burning
off (pyrolysis) or chemically dissolving (solvolysis) resins
from a composite part so that the fibers can be reclaimed
and reused. Some promising recyclers and researchers
are also working on methods for repurposing end-of-life
(EoL) composite parts in their entirety, for a variety of
reasons. What follows are summaries of two such efforts
Source | Anmet
from companies Anmet and the Windesheim University of
Applied Sciences.
Founded in 1998 by CEO Andrzej Adamcio, Anmet Longer term, the company is working on the development
(Szprotawa, Poland) transitioned in 2014 from a company of a pyrolysis-based solution for recovering carbon fiber
that provided manufacturers with metals recycling solutions, from wind blades. According to Marcin Sobczyk, product
to exploring ways to better recycle composite wind turbine developer at Anmet, the company’s experimental furnace,
blades at the end of their lifespans. Using his experience tested by Wrocław University of Technology (Poland), has
in metals recycling, Adamcio began to work on ways to the capability of recovering carbon fibers with a strength
recycle glass and carbon fiber composite blades. of up to 90% that of virgin fiber, and a current capacity of

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 EoL composite part recycling

processing up to 200 kilograms of carbon fiber per day. The
university also tested furnace emissions, he says, working
toward improvements in its filtration system.
In the immediate term, Anmet’s recycling solution involves
the physical repurposing of glass fiber wind turbine blades.
The company’s services start on site: representatives will
travel to a wind farm and use Anmet’s custom cutting
equipment to dismantle the blade into sections, followed by
transport of the parts back to the Anmet facility for recon-
struction into architecture or infrastructure products.
With other, more ambitious projects
in progress, Anmet is looking for part-
nerships within the U.S. and globally. 
Similarly, over the past several
researchers, this method transfers the original, recycled
materials’ mechanical strength, stiffness and water resistance
into the new part. Further, for the researchers’ push-pultru-
sion technique, up to 70% by weight of recycled composite
can be used, with 30% virgin material. 
“This is a major step forward for the thermoset compos-
ites industry,” adds Dr. Jaap van der Woude from European
Composites Industry Association (EuCIA). EuCIA’s
Eco-Calculator tool was used in the project.
Read the full article online at short.compositesworld.com/Amnet
• Over 40 types of

W yoming
years, researchers at Windesheim fixtures in stock,
University of Applied Sciences (Zwolle, ready to be shipped.

T est
Netherlands) have also become aware • Expert consultation
of the need for recycling EoL composite with Drs. Dan and
parts, and have developed a new meth- Don Adams

F ixtures
odology for repurposing thermoset • Email or call today to
composite waste for new applications. discuss your fixture and
custom design needs.
According to Dr. Ir. Albert ten INC.
Busschen, associate professor of
polymer engineering at Windesheim,
feasibility projects were performed in FRACTURE TOUGHNESS TEST FIXTURES
2015 and 2016 to investigate possible
technologies. From 2017-2019, a larger
project was completed to prove the Standard fixtures are kept
industrialization of the technology. in stock like our:
The resulting technology aims to
repurpose and recycle EoL composite ASTM D6671
parts such as wind turbine blades and
MIXED MODE
boat hulls in their entirety, by machin-
ing them (via diamond cutting, waterjet BENDING FRACTURE
cutting or shredding) into strips or
TOUGHNESS OF LAMINATES
flakes that can then be manufactured
into new components using what ten
Busschen calls a “push-pultrusion”
process. This process was developed
“to make new composite products
based on reused composites in a Custom designs
continuous, industrial manner.” are made to your
The process is based on a traditional specifications like our:
pultrusion process — wherein (virgin)
glass fiber rovings are pulled through NEW MODE I SINGLE
a resin bath and through a die to be
CANTILEVER BEAM
molded into a particular part — with
the addition of one more step: at the FRACTURE TOUGHNESS
entrance of the pultrusion die, an
OF SANDWICH PANELS
extruder pushes a compound made up
of the reused composite flakes (which
contain fibers and resin) into the hollow
core of the part. In this way, a thin, Dr. Donald F. Adams, President Dr. Daniel O. Adams, Vice President
50+ years of Composite 40+ years of Composite
outer layer of virgin material is used to
Testing Experience Testing Experience
create the new part’s shape, filled with a
reused composite core. 2960 E. Millcreek Canyon Road
Salt Lake City, UT 84109 email: wtf@wyomingtestfixtures.com
The composites, however, are www.wyomingtestfixtures.com
Phone (801) 484.5055
not simply filler; according to the

CompositesWorld.com 11
 TRENDS

AEROSPACE

Pratt & Whitney to produce advanced metal and

CMC turbine airfoils in North Carolina
casting foundry and also complete airfoil machining, coating
Aeroengine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney (East Hartford,
and finishing operations. However, local sources have noted
Conn., U.S) announced in October 2020 that it will invest
that this facility will also manufacture airfoils made from
$650 million through 2027 in a new, 1 million-square-foot
ceramic matrix composites (CMC).
facility for world-class production of turbine airfoils in
“Asheville is already home to a GE Aviation plant that
Asheville, N.C., U.S. According to a press release issued by
manufactures high-tech ceramic fan blades for jet engines,”
Pratt & Whitney, the new facility will house an advanced
noted John Boyle in his Oct. 31, 2020,
article for the Asheville Citizen Times.
“The company competes with Pratt &
Whitney, which will also manufacture
high-tech ceramic jet engine parts
— in Asheville’s case, blades for the
turbines inside jet engines.”
In the past, Pratt has downplayed
the need for CMC, choosing instead
to highlight its innovations in metals

ADVANCED NONWOVENS FOR technologies. That position started to

pivot several years ago. As explained

COMPOSITES
in a 2017 IndustryWeek article by
Steve Minter, even as Pratt worked
to introduce its PurePower geared
turbofan (GTF) engine, which started
FROM TECHNICAL FIBRE PRODUCTS INC. production in 2016, it was already talk-
ing about upgrades that would use
MULTIPLE BENEFITS FROM USING A SINGLE MATERIAL! CMC. The article interviews previous
Pratt & Whitney president Bob Leduc
HIGH QUALITY SURFACE FINISH and explains how the GTF currently
EMI SHIELDING uses double-wall metal turbine airfoil
technology, but for the next-genera-
ADHESIVE CARRIER
tion engine, Leduc said the company
RESIN FLOW MEDIA will turn to using CMC. “We think that
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY ends up with a product in the next five
FIRE PROTECTION to 10 years,” he predicted.
The case for CMC airfoils gets
FRACTURE TOUGHNESS IMPROVEMENT
stronger when one looks at the long
GALVANIC CORROSION PREVENTION list of CMC patents awarded to Pratt
ABRASION RESISTANCE & Whitney employees. Many of these
patents are for airfoils, but also for
CORROSION RESISTANCE
vanes, disks, hubs, rails, blade outer
WWW.TFPGLOBAL.COM air seals (BOAS) and other turbine
TFP IS PART OF JAMES CROPPER PLC

components as well as coatings. Note

that these patents are assigned to
United Technologies (UTC, Waltham,
Mass., U.S.), which owned Pratt &
Whitney as a subsidiary until April
2020, when UTC merged with
Raytheon.
In late 2019, Pratt & Whitney
announced that it would open a
60,000-square-foot CMC research
and development facility in Carlsbad,
Calif., U.S. Notably, the company
INQUIRIES@TFPGLOBAL.COM • 1 518 280 8500 introduced the PW1000G geared
turbofan engine family without CMC,

12 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

 Next-gen CMC turbine NEWS
airfoils

using instead single-crystal nickel alloys and advanced ther-

mal barrier coatings (TBC). However, this single-crystal alloy
technology can only take Pratt & Whitney so far. “The Pratt
& Whitney PurePower geared turbofan engine introduced
dramatic improvements in propulsive efficiency and noise
reduction,” explained Andrew Lazur, director for the new CMC
R&D facility at the HT-CMC10 conference (Sept. 22-26, 2019,
Bordeaux, France). In a paper titled, “Application of Ceramic Source | Getty Images
Matrix Composites to Deliver Value,” he continued:
“To continue improving the overall efficiency of our engines,
further improvements to thermal efficiency are targeted. a joint venture between GE Aviation (Evendale, Ohio, U.S.)
Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are one technology that and Safran Aircraft Engines (Courcouronnes, France), then
offers significant promise in this area. The higher operating locating in the same vicinity as GE Aviation’s CMC facility
temperature of CMCs compared to current state-of-the-art may help. Not only is North Carolina a lower-cost area, but
single-crystal castings will enable the reduction or elimination a workforce development has already been done, including
of component cooling air and may also enable higher combus- CMC technician training at Asheville-Buncombe Technical
tion temperatures, thereby increasing thermal efficiency.” Community College (AB Tech). During CW’s tour of GE
In March 2020, Leeham News and Analysis posted an Aviation’s Asheville facility in 2017, the manager for CMC
interview with Pratt & Whitney senior vice president of sales, production, Ryan Huth, said initial production of LEAP
marketing and customer support, Rick Deurloo. The author engine shrouds would expand to include combustor liners,
of that post, Scott Hamilton, said that Pratt & Whitney has nozzles and blades, among other parts. This local training
been in conversation with Airbus for the last few years about and workforce will be extremely helpful if Pratt & Whitney is
a new engine that will take configuration at the end of 2020. indeed seeking to start low-rate production in two years.
He described it as designed for the new Airbus A321XLR Pratt & Whitney declined to comment on the record for
(announced in June 2019), but with greater flexibility, featur- this report.
ing a new name, better economics,
better durability and fixing current
PW1000G issues. Hamilton noted:
“Low-rate production is targeted for Q4
2022. Airbus’ planned EIS [entry into
service] for the XLR is 2023. Within
18-24 months, the new engine will be
100% Pratt standard, Deurloo said.”
If Pratt & Whitney is to compete
with the LEAP 1A engine manufac-
tured by CFM (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.),

CompositesWorld, in cooperation
with Gardner Intelligence, launched
its third annual CW Top Shops
survey, an assessment designed
to benchmark the quality and
efficiency of composites fabrica-
tion facilities around the world and
highlight the top performers. Fully
complete the survey by March 1,
2021, to receive a customized report
for your facility, showing where CARBON FIBER PARTS L G SCALE MOLD
LARGE-SCALE O PRODUCTION TOOLING
it stands on multiple measures
E i
Engineering
in Services
i s C Complex
p ex Shapes
p 5 Axis
i NC Milling
compared to the overall CW Top
Shops benchmarking group and Non-Destructive
N t i Testing
i g (NDI) Hig
High-Precision
i i Equipment
i m t
other facilities; top-performing
facilities will be recognized within
CW’s print issue. Take the survey www.janicki.com
j ic i
at compositesworld.com/topshops. 360 856 5 43
360.856.5143

CompositesWorld.com 13
 TRENDS

ENERGY

Maine, U.K. sign agreement to advance offshore wind cooperation

In December 2020, Governor Janet Mills of Maine and
the U.K.’s Minister of State at the Department of Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the RT Hon Kwasi
Kwarteng MP, announced the
signing of a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) to
enhance cooperation between
the state of Maine and the
U.K. to pursue ambitious
advancement in clean energy
technologies and mutually
achieve carbon neutrality by
Source | Maine.gov
mid-century or sooner. MOU
expectations also ensure the promotion and fostering of
sustainable growth, supporting innovation and strengthening
the global response to climate change.
Specifically, the MOU commits the State of Maine and the
U.K. to collaborate and share resources to reduce emissions
from heating and transportation and advance innovative
offshore wind and green hydrogen technology, sectors
in which the use of composites has advanced, from new,
longer wind blades in offshore wind turbines, to storage
tanks for hydrogen.
For example, the Dominion Energy Coastal Virginia
Offshore Wind project will use turbines with a 222-meter
diameter rotor, equipped with new Siemens Gamesa B108
blades. Nearly 50 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, each
108-meter long IntegralBlade is cast in one piece using
patented Siemens Gamesa (SGRE, Zamudio, Spain) tech-
nology. Meanwhile, Dogger Bank Wind Farms is developing
what will reportedly become the world’s largest offshore
wind farm off the coast of the U.K., which will use GE
Renewable Energy’s (Paris, France) Haliade-X wind turbines
equipped with 107-meter-long wind turbine blades built by
LM Wind Power.
Additional cooperation also calls on evaluating impacts
of offshore wind on fisheries and the marine environment,
workforce development and port infrastructure. The coop-
eration reflects the growing need for international collabo-
ration on climate and energy.
“With offshore wind investment expected to top $70
billion in the U.S. this decade, the relationship with the
U.K. offers scientific, technical and environmental expertise
that will inform Maine’s future, and help it co-exist with our
marine industries, especially fishing,” adds Dan Burgess,
director of the Governor’s Energy Office in Maine.
The MOU took effect on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, and
will remain valid for a period of five years.

14 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

CALL FOR PAPERS
SPONSORS & EXHIBITORS FOR ACCE 2021
COMPOSITES: DRIVING VALUE BY REDUCING WEIGHT
AND COSTS & INCREASING PERFORMANCE

PRESENT YOUR COMPOSITES TECHNOLOGY at the SPE ACCE 21st annual event. The 2021 ACCE technical
program will include 80 – 100 papers/presentations on industry advances organized into the following categories: Thermoplastic
Composites; Thermoset Composites; Modeling; Additive Manufacturing & 3D Printing; Enabling Technologies; Sustainable Composites;
Bonding, Joining & Finishing; Carbon Composites; and Business Trends/Technology Solutions. Paper abstracts are requested as soon as
possible (early submissions will be given priority) and are due by April 16th, 2021. Final papers or non-commercial presentations are due
June 18th, 2021. Authors who submit full papers (not presentations) in the proper format will be considered for the conference’s
Best Paper Awards, which are presented during the event’s opening ceremony. A template for papers can be downloaded
from the SPE ACCE website online via http://speautomotive.com/acce-forms. Abstracts can be submitted via email to
ACCEpapers@speautomotive.com.
In addition to technical sessions, the SPE ACCE features panel discussions, keynotes, and exhibits highlighting advances in materials,
processes, and equipment for both thermoset and thermoplastic composites in a wide variety of transportation applications. Networking
opportunties enhance the value of the event that attracts over 800 attendees worldwide. The Automotive and Composites Divisions
of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE®) jointly produce the ACCE to educate the industry about the benefits of composites in
transportation applications.

SPONSORSHIP AND EXHIBIT OPTIONS offer companies the opportunity to support the event and promote their
products and services to a very targeted and interested audience. Student Poster Competition and Scholarship sponsorships are also
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should contact Teri Chouinard at teri@intuitgroup.com and go to www.speautomotive.com/acce-conference for more information.

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 WORK IN PROGRESS
Composites design helps lunar
nano-rover hit big milestones
Developed by Carnegie
Mellon University, the
ultralight, composites-
intensive Iris nano-rover
will make its lunar debut
later this year.
By Hannah Mason / Associate Editor
16 FEBRUARY 2021
» There are a variety of reasons to build and Small rover, big steps
launch unmanned lunar rovers — robotic, remote- Carnegie Mellon University’s
controlled space exploration vehicles built to travel composites-intensive Iris nano-rover,
shown on a simulated moonscape, is
on the moon’s surface — including the collection
scheduled for its first lunar mission
of data through onboard sensors, or equipment
by the end of 2021. Iris will serve as
transportation. Since the late 1960s, four unmanned
a technology demonstrator for the
rovers have successfully driven on the moon next generation of compact, remote-
(Russia’s Lunokhods and China’s Yutus) — though controlled space rovers.
none yet from the United States — with many more Source | Carnegie Mellon University
in various stages of planning, development and
testing.
One such rover, with plans to launch by the end of , is a carbon fiber composite
“-kilogram shoebox on wheels,” as described by Nicholas Acuna, undergraduate
research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.) and
mechanical lead for the Iris lunar rover program.
CMU’s lunar robotics program began accelerating in , after the school’s Andy
lunar rover concept won CMU a $, prize for mobility in the Lunar X Prize chal-
lenge. Though the original Andy rover was, ultimately, too large, heavy and expensive
to transport to be a viable option for space, it served as a springboard for the smaller
designs that came after it, which eventually merged into today’s Iris rover.
CompositesWorld
 NEWS
Carbon fiber nano-rover

Developed by a team of students and staff researchers out

of CMU’s Robotics Institute led by professor Dr. William (Red)
Whittaker, Iris represents a new class of exploration vehicles
called nano-rovers. Following the general idea of miniature
CubeSat satellites, nano-rovers are intended to democratize
and accelerate space exploration with a line of small, modular,
relatively inexpensive unmanned rovers built with off-the-shelf
components.
Iris, a remote-controlled and battery-operated robotic system
in development since , is scheduled to launch in the second
half of  aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA, Centennial,
Colo., U.S.) Vulcan Centaur rocket, and will travel to the north-
eastern part of the moon on board Astrobotic’s (Pittsburgh, Pa.,
U.S.) Peregrine lander, where it will then be deployed for about
 hours to serve as a demonstrator of the technology and to use
its onboard sensors to capture data about the moon’s surface.
Should its mission be successful, Iris will serve as a model for
future nano-rovers.

Composite design and manufacture

The rover comprises a box-like, carbon fiber composite chassis
in which the motors, lenses and cameras and remote control
equipment are housed, with four oversized, bottle cap-shaped
carbon fiber composite wheels fixed to the outside. Acuna
explains that there is a lot of empty space within the chassis,
minimizing weight while enabling attachment of relatively large
wheels for climbing over obstacles. “We wanted to try to [develop
a rover] as big as possible in terms of volume, while still hitting
our mass budget,” Acuna says. Ready for the moon
The original design for Iris incorporated only two larger
Janicki built three identical chassis components — one for testing, one for backup
wheels and a stabilizing structure resembling a “tail” on the back and one to take to the moon. The component was carefully designed to meet
for balance. This design was intended to minimize mass, Acuna stringent space requirements and to hold Iris’s sensors, cameras, batteries and
says, but one drawback was that it could only move forward. As wheel attachments. Source | Janicki Industries
the overall design became better optimized, the two-wheel itera-
tion was dropped for its current four-wheel design in fall  to
add capability for moving forward and backward.
The chassis, which measures approximately  ×  × 
millimeters, is built by composites fabricator Janicki Industries
(Sedro-Woolley, Wash., U.S.), while the wheels were designed
and built in-house by CMU researchers. For the chassis, CMU
provided the requirements and part design, and Janicki provided
its aerostructures expertise to guide materials selection, ply
schedule and ply layout design.
According to Todd Chace, director of research and devel-
opment at Janicki, one of the most challenging aspects of the
chassis manufacture was that several pieces of the rover’s
hardware need to attach directly to the chassis, requiring partic-
ular precision and care to avoid wrinkling or splices in the
material. In addition, the resin system used for the part needed
to meet stringent outgassing requirements set by NASA; Solvay
Composite Materials’ (Alpharetta, Ga., U.S.) MTM- K carbon Custom manufacture
fiber/epoxy prepreg was chosen to meet these requirements. For Iris' spoked wheels, CMU researchers developed a custom mold, cutting and
To build the chassis, the team at Janicki’s R&D laboratory curing fixtures and infusion process. Source | Carnegie Mellon University

CompositesWorld.com 17
 WORK IN PROGRESS

Built for space travel

The spokes — called grousers — on
each of Iris' bottle cap-shaped
wheels operate sort of like cleats
or spikes on athletic footwear,
designed to help the rover dig into
and traverse the rocky lunar land-
scape. Source | Carnegie Mellon University

first designed and built an aluminum layup tool. The chassis’ ply
arrangement was designed digitally and cut using an Eastman
(Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.) cutting machine, followed by autoclave cure.
The cured parts were trimmed and drilled using Janicki’s Zimmer-
mann (Wixom, Mich., U.S.) milling machine. The part is only four
plies thick, so great care was required by the machining team to
handle the delicate struc-
ture, Chace says.
Read this article online | Three identical parts
short.compositesworld.com/Irisrover were manufactured. The
first chassis was used for
shock and vibration testing
to simulate launch and landing conditions. The remaining two
will be assembled for flight — one for the mission and the other
on standby in case of any issues leading up to launch.
Designing the wheels: A learning process
Originally, Iris’ wheels comprised a seven-point disc stampformed
from aluminum mesh. Unfortunately, Acuna says, these wheels
had trouble rolling efficiently, were difficult to manufacture
without breakage and weighed 50 grams more than the 25-gram
weight target for each of the 18-centimeter-diameter wheels.
When he joined the research group in the spring of , Acuna
led the development of the current wheel design. “I came up with
the geometry and calculated out the dimensions of it,” he says,
and, after several design iterations, first using folded paper, and
then with actual composite materials, developed the -spoked,
carbon fiber composite version of the wheels on the rover today.
The spokes — called grousers — are formed close together and
pointed to give the wheels better traction over difficult terrain.
The main body of the wheel comprises Teijin (Tokyo, Japan) Tenax

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18 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

 NEWS
Carbon fiber nano-rover

HTS spread tow carbon fiber (distributed through Composite

Envisions, Wasau, Wis., U.S.) and Hexion (Columbus, Ohio,
U.S.) EPON  epoxy (distributed through Miller-Stephenson
Chemical Co., Danbury, Conn., U.S.), with Hexion’s Epikure W
as a curing agent. The disc is stiffened by spokes made of -gsm
TeXtreme (Borås, Sweden) MSSC unidirectional tapes reinforced
with a K layer of Toray Composites Materials America (Tacoma,
Wash., U.S.) T plain weave carbon fiber.
“The carbon fiber ‘bottle cap’ wheels that CMU produced are
really interesting,” notes Janicki’s Chace. “They found a simple
and lightweight method to add rigidity to the wheels and provide
traction for the vehicle.”
One particularly challenging requirement from a materials
choice standpoint, according to Acuna, was making sure that all
of the materials used had low outgassing and were compatible
with the lander and rocket that Iris will be riding to its destina-
tion. “Every single material on the rover is going to be exposed
to the vacuum of space, and if anything releases vapors under Next step: launch
vacuum, there’s a possibility of condensation on the lander’s
A fully assembled test version of the rover had to pass rigorous vibration, impact,
lenses,” he says. temperature and other qualifications prior to building of the final flight rover.
The first successful iterations of the wheel design were built Source | Janicki Industries
via wet layup; once the design was finalized, Samuel Porter, a
graduate research assistant and master’s in mechanical engi-
neering student at CMU who works on the Robotics Institutes’
composites development team, helped develop a more repeat- evaluation and temperature testing were also implemented. These
able and efficient vacuum infusion process. “The main challenge tests guided changes needed for the final flight model.
that we had is the fabric doesn’t want to drape across the corners,” Once this final model is complete and tested, Iris will be ready
Porter says. To solve this, the team stacks the plies of fabric and for launch. Acuna and Porter, and all of the other students who
three layers of a Teflon-coated peel ply on top of the mold, held in have worked on Iris and its predecessors over the past few years,
place with custom fixtures that Porter devel- are excited to see a project come to
oped, and pulls the material onto the mold fruition that, for them, started out as
shape using a vacuum bag. Once conformed Iris, a remote-controlled and an academic extracurricular activity.
to the mold, the part is moved into an oven Acuna says, “I was a freshman when I
battery-operated robotic
and infused at an elevated temperature to first joined, and didn’t think there’d be
system, is scheduled to much I’d be able to contribute. At first, it
keep the resin viscosity low, followed by
oven cure. launch in 2021. just seemed like a far-off dream that the
“In terms of the process, I think wheel I was working on could end up being
we’ve come such a long way,” Porter on the flight rover and flying to the moon.
says. He helped establish the research group’s quality assurance Now, we’re almost there, and it’s just crazy for me to think it’s
plan to bring the laboratory up to space-quality levels, including actually going to happen.”
building of a cleanroom, establishing safety procedures and For CMU, it doesn’t stop with Iris, either: Though Iris will be the
improving the manufacture of the rover into a repeatable, thor- first to be deployed, it’s only one of several lunar robotics projects
oughly documented process. at CMU. For example, Moon Ranger, a larger, -kilogram lunar
rover that also features extensive composites use, is expected to be
Preparing for launch deployed in  to the moon’s south pole.
Iris was developed to meet NASA’s General Environmental Verifica-
tion Standards (GEVS), as well as requirements set by Astrobotic
for deployment of the rover aboard the Peregrine lander. The third
full-scale iteration of the rover, called EM-3, or Engineering Model
3, was built and tested in launch-equivalent environmental testing,
Hannah Mason joined the CompositesWorld team in 2018
which included random vibration testing, sinusoidal vibration after working as an editorial intern for sister magazine
testing and shock testing to make sure the rover can handle the Modern Machine Shop and earning a Masters of Arts in
Professional Writing from the University of Cincinnati. 
resonance and vibrations of space travel and landing. An acoustic

CompositesWorld.com 19
 INSIDE MANUFACTURING

Novel dry tape for liquid

molded composites
MTorres seeks to enable next-gen aircraft and open
new markets for composites with low-cost, high-
permeability tapes and versatile, high-speed production lines.

By Ginger Gardiner / Senior Editor

» Improved cost, efficiency and sustainability are key for
composites to enable the next generation of aircraft. One tech-
nology being developed to meet these goals is automated fiber
placement (AFP) of dry fiber tape followed by liquid resin
infusion or resin transfer molding (RTM) for out-of-autoclave
(OOA) cure. CW has written about this development in several
articles (see Learn More).
In CW’s  article, “A complete paradigm shift in aircraft
construction,” AFP equipment and composites automation
specialist MTorres (Torres de Elorz, Spain) detailed its disruptive
Torreswing composite fuselage and wing technology that elimi-
nates conventional tooling and fasteners during automated fabri-
cation of large, one-piece structures. Demonstrated in a business
aircraft-sized fuselage, MTorres used premade composite rings
and floors to form the structural skeleton/mandrel, which it then
overwound using dry carbon fiber tape and AFP to create the
Engineering a better tape for lower cost
A leader in AFP technology, MTorres has combined this expertise with its long
history in papermaking, to develop a patented, novel dry fiber tape and high-
speed production process, including a 0.5-inch-wide carbon fiber tape line (line at
right, above) and a more versatile line for tapes up to 2 inches wide (inset) using
glass, carbon or other fibers (line at left, above). The goal is to lower the cost of
AFP composites to enable next-gen applications and open new markets.
Source for all images | MTorres
layup for the outer skin. Skeleton and skin were then vacuum-
bagged and converted into an integrated composite monocoque
using resin infusion and oven cure (Fig. , opposite).
MTorres claimed this technology reduces weight, tooling and
labor cost, but can also cut raw material cost by up to %. How?
MTorres developed its own dry carbon fiber tape for the process.
Notably, though the process was “born from our experience in

20 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

 Novel dry carbon fiber tape
NEWS

FIG. 1 Pioneering OOA

aerostructures
Torreswing technology uses AFP, dry
carbon fiber tape and resin infusion to
create a business jet fuselage without
autoclave, tooling or fasteners, cutting
weight as well as tooling and labor
costs.

wind blades,” says Iñigo Idareta, head of MTorres Special Projects, weren’t any materials cost-efficient enough to make it viable.”
“it can accommodate prepreg, thermoplastic materials and other “We started first with glass fiber and a stitching process to bring
formats, as the customer wants.” together rovings into a -millimeter-wide format,” recalls Lucia
In this article, CW walks through MTorres’ patented dry fiber Iniesta, MTorres lead composites engineer on the dry fiber tape
tapes and automated, high-speed production lines. Optimized project. “However, the productivity of the stitching process, at
for AFP and high resin permeability, the tapes allow infusion of - meters/minute, was not high enough to achieve the low cost
thicker structures, while the production lines can convert K required. So, we started to think about higher productivity and
carbon fiber tow or  tex glass fiber rovings at rates five to came up with a number of ideas: replacing stitching with a high-
 times faster than state-of-the-art production by current tape temperature veil, electrostatic deposition of a low-temperature
suppliers.
“Our founder, Manuel Torres, saw this technology approach as
the future,” explains Idareta. “By using dry tape, the extra cost of
prepregging and freezer storage is avoided, as is an autoclave. Our
-year history in papermaking, including winding and splicing
of materials, is now being transferred to fiber-reinforced compos-
ites. We have developed these new materials to enable infusion of
affordable, large composite structures because it was not avail-
able in the market. These new lines also enable making small
batches of new tape materials, something large suppliers have
been unwilling to do.”

Origins outside of aerospace

This novel tape technology began more than 10 years ago in a
program well outside the aerospace industry. “We were working
with what is now Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, developing
an automated manufacturing process for wind blades,” explains
Idareta. “But we didn’t have a dry glass fiber material in a format
that we could use in AFP. At the same time, we also started to
discover that the market wasn’t ready for such automation due to FIG. 2 Novel dry tape
the high cost of the tape materials required. We found the same
MTorres’ patented new dry tape increases permeability in the z-direction via slits
situation in automotive with carbon fiber. For both markets, we oriented in the fiber direction and in-plane via a high-temperature thermoplastic
could see that fiber placement was important for reducing scrap veil, seen as white circles on the 0.5-inch-wide tape (right) and faint white arcs on
compared to noncrimp fabrics (NCF) and nonwovens, but there the 2-inch-wide tape (left).

CompositesWorld.com 21
 INSIDE MANUFACTURING
1 Multiple spools of 50K carbon fiber tow are drawn into the tape production
line. Source for all steps | MTorres
2 Spread tows are conditioned to the specified width, which ranges from
0.5 to 2.0 inches on current pilot lines.
binder for AFP processability and a method to improve perme-
ability, both in-plane and through-thickness, for faster and more
reliable resin infusion.”
When the team put those ideas together, however, it was first
for carbon fiber, resulting in a lab-scale pilot line for .-inch-wide
dry fiber tape. “This tape performed very well in our AFP equip-
ment,” notes Idareta, “better than other commercially available
dry fiber materials. But more importantly, it could achieve a much
more efficient cost and still provide good performance in the final
component properties. We then decided to develop a new line
with more versatility, including options to use different fibers and
different widths. We want a process that allows us to produce the
materials that our customers could require.” The technology for
the carbon tape was thus modified to produce glass fiber tapes
and widths up to  inches.
22 FEBRUARY 2021
3 Low-temperature binder is applied using an electrostatic deposition gun.
4 High-temperature thermoplastic veil is applied and heated using infrared
radiation to fuse the binder and cohere the tape.
Anatomy of a novel tape
To understand the tape production lines, it is helpful to first
understand the tapes they produce. The right image in Fig. 2
shows a 0.5-inch-wide carbon fiber tape with a pattern of overlap-
ping circles. These are formed by a melted high-temperature ther-
moplastic veil that coheres the tows into a tape while increasing
in-plane permeability during resin infusion. These strands of
thermoplastic filament can also be seen on the 2-inch-wide tape
in Fig. 2 (left). Both tapes are also coated with a low-temperature
thermoplastic powder binder that allows rapid laydown and excel-
lent forming of tapes during AFP. Slit-like perforations along the
fiber axis of both tapes improve through-thickness permeability
of the layup. Made by pushing the fibers aside, the slits neither
cut nor distort the fibers, which would reduce their load-carrying
capability and result in a knockdown of mechanical properties.
CompositesWorld

5 Tape is inspected using two optical stations to ensure consistent width, veil
application and slits for permeability.
6 Finished tape is rewound onto bobbins for use in AFP machines.
Novel production lines
Tape production starts with multiple spools of either 50K carbon
fiber tow or 4800 tex glass fiber roving (Step 1, opposite). “These
are the main materials used so far,” says Iniesta, “but any other
material and roving size available can be introduced in the
process.” The tows/rovings are then conditioned to adjust their
width (Step 2). A series of rollers that can be raised and lowered
are manipulated to control tension and build a buffer in the tape
line for switching out one set of input spools for another without
stopping the line (not shown in manufacturing steps).
The next station applies a low-temperature binder with an elec-
trostatic deposition gun (Step ). “We heat and then cool to melt
the powder binder and resolidify, stabilizing the tape,” explains
Iniesta. “This will also provide adhesion between layers during
AFP. To use AFP with infrared heating at a fast laydown rate
CompositesWorld.com
Novel dry carbon fiber tape
NEWS
7 The complete pilot lines for 0.5-inch-wide carbon fiber dry tape (top) and
tapes up to 2 inches wide using carbon, glass or other fibers (bottom).
you need a binder with low melt temperature. When we trialed
the novel tape with this binder in our machines, we achieved a
laydown speed of  meters/minute.”
After the low-temperature binder is cooled, the high-temper-
ature binder is applied (Step ). “We melt thermoplastic pellets
and blow this with hot air to create a fine mesh-like veil on one or
both sides of the tape simultaneously at high velocity,” says Iniesta.
“We control the diameter of the veil’s polyamide filament because
it affects the in-plane permeability, as does the overall ratio of
binders to fibers in the tape, which we maintain at a specific low
percent.” The tape is heated using infrared (IR) lamps very close
to the carbon fiber tape, which absorbs radiant energy very well.
“It heats very quickly,” adds Iniesta, “to fuse the binder and give
cohesion to the tape. The veil also stiffens the tape, which helps to
keep its edge-width constant.”
23
 INSIDE MANUFACTURING
After the tape is once again cooled, it passes over spiked rollers,
which create the slits for z-direction permeability. “We stabilize
these so that they remain open even when we apply tension during
AFP,” notes Idareta. The tape then passes through an automated
inspection station (Step ). “The first light checks the tape width
and application of veil, while the second measures the percent of
light through the slits,” Iniesta explains. “We check these versus the
tape specifications and when we see a deviation, we can adjust to
maintain consistency and reduce variation.”
24 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld
After inspection, there is again a series of vertically actuated
rollers before the tape is rewound onto bobbins for use in AFP
machines (Step ). “We use the vertical actuation in the buffering
rollers to reduce speed during bobbin changeout,” says Idareta.
“The line speed is so high that you must have automated changeout
when the bobbins are full. You never stop the line.” This is done, he
notes, to reduce the capital and operating expenses for the material,
particularly the labor cost. “We try to reduce it to a minimum thanks
to a much higher productivity. Our prototype line runs at  meters/
minute with a maximum speed of 
meters/minute and we expect  meters/
minute for a fully industrial line.”
Glass vs. carbon fiber tapes
The production line for glass fiber tapes is
similar but not identical. “The carbon fiber
has thermal conductivity that is not the
same with glass fiber,” explains Iniesta. “We
use infrared to heat the carbon fiber, which
conducts that heat to the high-temperature
polyamide veil. But with glass fiber, that’s
not possible. So, we changed the composi-
tion of the binder to enable heating the veil
without thermal conductivity in the fiber.
We also had to modify some parameters to
achieve the same efficiency as with carbon
fiber and also with good properties,” she
adds. These lines can work with practi-
cally any glass fiber or carbon fiber in the
market, including high-strength (HS), inter-
mediate-modulus (IM) or high-modulus
(HM) carbon fiber.
There are two pilot lines now running:
a .-inch-wide line for carbon fiber and
a versatile line for up to -inch-wide tapes
using glass, carbon or other fibers. “We
have done some testing on other widths
but those are the ones that we are working
with the most and see as having the most
interest from the market,” says Iniesta.
“Though we have the ability to make
different areal weights,” says Idareta, “at
this moment, we are producing  grams
More about liquid molding or welded
thermoplastic process approaches |
 short.compositesworld.com/CFRPblkhd
Read about a high-rated automated aerospace
RTM line |
short.compositesworld.com/nextgenRTM
More on Irkut MS-21 infused and co-cured wings |
short.compositesworld.com/MS-21Wing

per square meter with K carbon fiber and , grams per
square meter from multiple  tex glass fibers in a -inch-wide
tape. We also make a -inch-wide carbon fiber tape that is .
millimeters thick at  grams per square meter.”
Slitting, tolerances and future development
One of the main ideas of these production lines is to avoid slitting.
“This is a critical difference versus currently available materials
and helps to reduce cost,” says Idareta. “Our tolerance is not quite
as tight as with slit prepreg tape, but it’s more than enough to
make good parts.” Iniesta says the team has tested its novel dry
tape versus slit tape with tighter width tolerances in AFP parts, and
it compares well. “The tolerance for our 0.5-inch-wide carbon tape
is ±0.3 millimeters,” she notes. “This is good versus the market, but
more important is to control the layup and we do this with tension
control in our AFP machines. So, we don’t really need that tight
of a tolerance for tape used in our machines, but we continue to
improve it for the industry.”
“We have tested these tapes with our AFP machines and they
work well with hardly any modifications to the equipment,” says
Idareta. “Also, we can get better steering with this dry fiber versus
prepreg tapes, which enables more complex geometries.” The
team has also evaluated the tapes in resin infusion, achieving
good properties with aeropace-grade RTM (Hexcel, Stamford,
Conn., U.S.) epoxy resin and with an industrial-grade epoxy from
Huntsman Advanced Materials (The Woodlands, Texas, U.S.).
Iniesta notes the .-inch-wide,  grams per square meter,
.-millimeter-thick carbon fiber tape shows better mechan-
ical properties — including interlaminar shear and compres-
sion strength — and processes better than off-the-shelf tape from
existing suppliers.
“We’ve also made the same tape with carbon fiber commingled
with polypropylene (PP), polyamide and PEI,” says Idareta. “This
thermoplastic tape does not need slits for permeability. We have
demonstrated carbon fiber/PP parts for automotive, achieving a
-minute cycle time using hot press stamping, oil heating and a
nickel mold with ceramic on the back to prevent heat loss. We also
CompositesWorld.com
Novel dry carbon fiber
NEWStape
FIG. 3 Optimized for AFP and resin infusion
Tests of MTorres novel dry tape shows better steering versus prepreg tapes,
enabling more complex geometries (left) as well as higher permeability during
resin infusion (right) and better mechanical properties in finished composite
structures.
used a special PP filament to ensure no shrinkage.” Another inter-
esting development is a new AFP head for -inch-wide, aerospace-
grade dry carbon fiber tape that will be demonstrated in a prototype
part being made with Airbus.
So what is MTorres’ endgame? “We could sell the equipment or
license the technology,” says Idareta, “or directly become dry fiber
tape suppliers. But our motivation is to grow composites. If we want
to introduce carbon fiber into new markets, we must lower not
only cost but also risk. At MTorres, we have the experience in fiber
placement and infusion processes to cover the whole supply chain
of technologies and requirements for parts manufacturing. In this
way, we are training and helping future customers to make their
components in the most efficient and least problematic way and to
get the desired part performance.”
He notes that MTorres works together with its customers on
their learning curves, “regardless of the composites offering.
And we have imbued our knowledge of process into these new
tape lines. This vertical integration from raw material to the final
solution is allowing us to offer disruptive and customized solutions,
unblocking opportunities even beyond the aeronautics industry,
and we are already looking forward to the great reboot of the post-
COVID- era.”
CW senior editor Ginger Gardiner has an engineering/
materials background and more than 20 years of experience
in the composites industry. 
ginger@compositesworld.com
25
 Tow steering, Part 2: The next generation
Wings on next-generation commercial aircraft will be longer, thinner,
more aerodynamic and more efficient. They also are ideal candidates
for the application of steered tows. One project aimed to design,
fabricate and quantify a tow-steered wing skin.
By Jeff Sloan / Editor-in-Chief
» Up to now, the use of tow steering in automated fiber place-
ment (AFP) has been implemented carefully and selectively, and
mainly in an effort to accommodate relatively modest contours
in tool and part designs that demand tow placement flexibility,
particularly in large aerostructures.
As CW reported in Part  of this three-part series, published
in the December  issue, although some AFP suppliers have
demonstrated the ability to place tows at radii as small as  inches
( millimeters), in a production environment radii typically
range from . to . meters. And even then, such steering usually
sees limited use, particularly given the fact that composite aero-
structures operate in a certification environment that favors tradi-
tional quasi-isotropic ply schedules.
Thinking about the future, however, it’s not too difficult to
imagine creative ways tow steering might be deployed to design
and build aerospace parts comprised of super-optimized, highly
steered composite structures that are decoupled from the highly
regimented, quasi-isotropic world in which aerocomposites
currently live. And it’s not too difficult to understand that an
26 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld
Passive Aeroelastic Tailoring project
NASA worked with Aurora Flight Sciences and the University of Michigan to
design, optimize and fabricate this 39-foot subscale wing to assess the perfor-
mance of steered carbon fiber tows in wing skins. The project, called Passive
Aeroelastic Tailoring (PAT), aimed to evaluate M&P technologies to enhance
aeroelastic and aerodynamic behavior and decrease wing weight and fuel burn
in next-generation aircraft. The wing is shown here in a test stand at NASA’s
Armstrong Flight Research Center. Source | NASA
aircraft wing skin might be the ideal candidate for such a tech-
nology. The Boeing  and the Airbus A, which feature
commercial aviation’s first all-composite wings, helped aircraft
designers realize a step change in aerodynamic performance.
What might the next step be in wing design and engineering, and
how might tow steering enable that?
Passive Aeroelastic Tailoring
The most thorough evaluation conducted yet on the feasibility of
using tow-steered composite structures in an aircraft wing was
 NEWS
Tow-steered aircraft wing skin

performed in a project led by NASA and involving Aurora Flight uCRM-9 uCRM-13.5
Sciences (Manassas, Va., U.S.), the University of Michigan (Ann
Arbor, Mich., U.S.) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta,
Ga., U.S.). The project, called Passive Aeroelastic Tailoring (PAT), is
part of NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology (AATT) project
and was organized to design and assess the use of passive aero-
elastic tailoring on a high aspect ratio wing. PAT launched in 2014
and issued its final report in February 2020.
Karen Taminger, senior materials research engineer at NASA
Langley (Hampton, Va., U.S.) and project technical lead for PAT, says
the goal of the research was to look two to three generations into
the future of aircraft wing manufacturing to find a path that enabled
-% fuel burn reduction. “What technology will be needed to
dramatically reduce fuel burn and emissions?” she asks. “And how
can a higher aspect ratio wing — longer, thinner, more aerodynamic
— make that possible?”
Taminger notes that the current aspect ratio (the ratio of the
span to the mean chord of a wing) of a commercial aircraft wing
is approximately .. The PAT project contemplated increasing
that ratio by % to . by increasing wing length and reducing
the mean chord. “The problem is that when you do that, the wing
becomes more flexible and ‘floppy,’” Taminger notes. “We wanted FIG. 1 Optimizing wing model aspect ratios
to use tow steering to control the wing’s tendency to flutter.” Doing The NASA PAT project first optimized tow steering for two wing models.
so would involve the use of tow steering in the wing skins to bias The first, uCRM-9, has an aspect ratio of 9.0 and is typical for commercial
the wing structure and control wing tip behavior. Taminger says aircraft flying today. The second, uCRM-13.5, has an aspect ratio of 13.5 and
is longer and thinner than the uCRM-9 model. High aspect ratio wings are
the leading edge of a wing, particularly near the wing tips, tends to considered necessary to increase fuel efficiency in next-generation aircraft.
rotate up and out when under load, which harms the aerodynamic
Source | University of Michigan
efficiency of the craft. A more efficient aeroelastic structure, she says,
would “wash out” under load and bias the wing to rotate the leading
edge near the tip forward and down — using a structural attribute
called bend-twist coupling. Further, it would do all of this without 24
20
mechanical actuation. 16
12
The PAT project was divided into four phases. In the first, repre- 8
sentative test panels were fabricated to demonstrate the feasibility of 4
Control points ϴ0 0
using steered tow paths with conventional AFP systems. These panels -4
-8
were then used for mechanical coupon testing to characterize the -12
-16
strength differences between steered and unsteered laminates. The -20
second phase, performed by the University of Michigan’s Multidisci- -24

plinary Design Optimization Laboratory, a graduate research group

lead by professor Joaquim R. R. A. Martins, focused on optimization
of a high aspect ratio, tow-steered wing, with assessment of potential ϴ0 ϴ0 + 450 ϴ0 - 450 ϴ0 + 900
fuel burn savings, weight savings and aeroelastic performance. In the
third phase, performed by Aurora Flight Sciences, a % (-foot/-
meter) scale wing structure was fabricated using tow steering
patterns developed during the optimization phase. In the fourth and
final phase, NASA subjected the subscale wing to structural testing Pattern 1 Pattern 2 Pattern 3 Pattern 4
at the Armstrong Flight Research Center’s (Edwards Air Force Base, 62.5% 12.5% 12.5% 12.5%
Calif., U.S.) Flight Loads Laboratory to correlate predictions from the
optimization phase with the physical product. FIG. 2 Reference tow orientation field
Tow steering for the PAT project focused on four patterns in order to simplify
Design optimization design and optimization. Because tow steering allows for deviation from
traditional quasi-isotropic layups, each pattern is based on a reference tow
The design optimization work done by the University of Michigan
orientation field (θ0). This reference orientation field gives the local tow direc-
laboratory was led by Tim Brooks, who was a graduate student at the tion for the first tow pattern, referred to as the main tow pattern. The remaining
time in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, researching the three tow patterns are then defined by offsetting the main tow orientation by
application of tow steering in aerostructures. A summary of his 45°, 45° and 90°. Source | University of Michigan

CompositesWorld.com 27
 FEATURE
work can be found in a paper he wrote with Martins and Graeme
J. Kennedy, an assistant professor in the School of Aerospace
Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Their paper,
titled “High-fidelity Aerostructural Optimization of Tow-steered
Composite Wings,” was published in February 2019 in the Journal
of Fluids and Structures. “We wanted to take advantage of the direc-
tional stiffness offered by steered tows,” says Brooks, who has since
graduated from the University of Michigan. “We wanted to come as
close as possible to isotropic properties in a composite wing skin in
a larger, more efficient wing.”
Brooks et al. note in their paper that current aerostructures tend
not to take full advantage of the benefits provided by tow steering.
“One reason for this is the difficulty in defining certification stan-
dards for these unconventional laminates,” they say. “The second
reason is that there is only limited work quantifying the benefits of
adding tow steering into the composite design of complex struc-
tural components, such as the wing structure. Another challenge
in the design of tow-steered structures is that it is not obvious nor
intuitive what the tow paths should be for such a structure so that
it maximizes the benefits offered by its variable directional stiff-
ness properties. The goal of the present work is to address the
latter two difficulties by developing a methodology for performing
high-fidelity multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of tow-
steered structures, and quantifying the benefits of tow steering for
flexible wing design.”
The modeling Brooks et al. did focused on the use of tow steering
28 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld
in two wing models, each of which is based on the undeflected
Common Research Model (uCRM). The uCRM is, in turn, based
on the aerodynamic benchmark wing design called the NASA
Common Research Model (CRM). The first uCRM variant, uCRM-
(. aspect ratio), maintains the original wing planform of the CRM
with dimensions and structures similar to that found on a Boeing
 aircraft. The second variant, uCRM-. (. aspect ratio), is
modified to be longer and thinner to achieve the higher aspect ratio
(Fig. , p. ). All of the optimization work focused on application of
tow steering in wing skins only, not in stringers, spars or ribs.
Brooks says one of the early challenges of the structural
modeling stemmed from the fact that the use of tow steering allows,
in theory, a unique tow pattern for each layer of the laminate,
and in a thick laminate like a wing skin, that’s a lot of unique tow
patterns. In the paper, Brooks et al. note that “since the number of
iterations required to converge the optimization scales with the
number of design parameters, this increase in design parameters
may result in prohibitively expensive optimization problems.”
To avoid this optimization hurdle, Brooks et al. decided to restrict
each layer of the wing skin laminate to one of four tow patterns.
However, the use of tow steering obviates the standard direction-
ality (°/°/±°) employed in AFP. Because of this, Brooks et al.
defined a reference tow orientation field (θ). “This reference orien-
tation field gives the local tow direction for the first tow pattern,
referred to as the main tow pattern,” the paper says. “The remaining
three tow patterns are then defined by offsetting the main tow
orientation by °, ° and °, such that
the resulting laminate remains locally
orthotropic with respect to the main tow
path.” Also, the reference axis for all ply
angles in the skins is defined to be parallel
to the wing leading edge (Fig. , p. ).
Brooks says the minimum tow radius
chosen for the design optimization calcu-
lations was  inches (. meters) using
.-inch carbon fiber tows. This is on
par with radii currently in use in aero-
space manufacturing. The goal, Brooks
reiterates, was not to push the limits of
tow steering radii, but to develop design
optimization criteria for the application of
steered tows in a wing skin, and for how
such optimization translates into a lighter,
stronger, more efficient aerostructure.
The Brooks paper details the calcula-
tions performed during the optimiza-
tion project, including predictions of lift,
twist, bend-twist and other performance
parameters. The optimization calculated
maneuver load limits from -.G up to
.G. The authors also calculated wing
mass and fuel burn savings, as well as
maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) advan-
tages to be realized using tow-steered
skins. Brooks and his team also allowed
 NEWS
Tow-steered aircraft wing skin

the optimizer for the uCRM- model to rotate or offset the layup of each skin with
respect to the wing’s leading edge to increase aeroelastic efficiency. Such a “conven-
tional rotated” design would, in theory, be more efficient than a conventionally
designed and manufactured structure, but less efficient than a tow-steered structure.
Table  shows the results of the calculations from the optimization studies.

TABLE 1 Summary of wing design optimization studies

Design model Parameter Tow-steered
plies
Conventional tow
plies
Conventional
rotated plies
Solve Your
uCRM-9 Fuel burn (kg) 85,535 87,558 86,745 Toughest
MTOW (kg) 262,937 269,575 266,831
Wing mass (kg) 14,402 19,016 17,086 Measurement
uCRM-13.5 Fuel burn (kg)
MTOW (kg)
75,918
255,960
77,062
259,857
N/A
N/A
Challenges
Wing mass (kg) 17,042 19,796 N/A
Fiber optic sensing
solutions that scale from
The data from the work of Brooks et al. shows that a wing fabricated with a skin
test and verification to
optimized using steered tows does in fact provide the bend-twist coupling desired
to achieve washout conditions, and provides fuel burn and MTOW advantages. The condition monitoring
mass of the uCRM-13.5 wing versus the standard uCRM-9 is greater, but this is due
in large part to the fact that the uCRM-13.5 wing is a larger structure. The next step
High-Definition
in the PAT project was to take the design data from Brooks’ calculations and apply Distributed Fiber Optic
them in the fabrication of a wing structure. Sensing
Tow-steering in action High-Speed Fiber
As noted already, fabrication of the subscale (39-foot) wing structure was performed Optic Sensing
by Aurora Flight Sciences (AFS). The wing, based on the uCRM-13.5 finite element
model (FEM), included an upper and lower skin, a leading edge spar, a trailing Terahertz Imaging
edge spar and 58 ribs. The wing was manufactured in Columbus, Miss., U.S., using
an Electroimpact (Mukilteo, Wash., U.S.) gantry-based AFP system equipped with
an eight-tow head. Park Aerospace (Newton, Kan., U.S.) supplied the carbon fiber
prepreg material, which comprised 0.25-inch-wide tows of the company’s 130-gsm
HTS45/E-752-LT material.
Much of the AFS work was led by Clint Church, VP of engineering at AFS, who
could not be reached for this report. However, working with Church was Ben Smith,
who has since left AFS and is currently chief engineer at Resonant Sciences (Dayton,
Ohio, U.S.). Smith says that Brooks’ incorporation of manufacturing constraints
within the optimization was invaluable in achieving a manufacturable design. “It
made that detailed design-to-manufacturing process really smooth,” Smith says.
AFS followed the design parameters defined by the optimization, applying one of
the four unique tow patterns established by Brooks et al. Again, these patterns relied
on the use of a tow orientation field (θ) that provided a reference point for the tow
patterns that followed. Fig.  (p. ) shows the four tow patterns employed and their
theoretical ply fraction percentage.
Fabrication of the subscale wing structure, however, varied slightly from these ply
fractions as the optimized thickness (based on a continuous variable) was rounded
up to whole plies. Skin laminates were designed with repeating units of [°, °,
°, °, °, °, °, -°]s, with ply drops taken from the center of the laminate and
selected such that the desired ply fraction was maintained. For the upper wing skin,
thickness ranged from  plies (. inches) at the root, to  plies (. inches)
at the Yehudi break (the second kink in the trailing edge spar), to  plies (. inch) lunainc.com
at the tip. For the lower wing skin, thickness ranged from  plies (. inch) near
the root to  plies (. inch) near the tip.

CompositesWorld.com 29
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Overlap Gap
FIG. 3 Avoiding convergence zones with tow-drop criteria
One of the challenges inherent to tow steering are convergence zones, where tows intersect at off
angles. The result is a series of overlaps and gaps that must be carefully managed. For the NASA
PAT project, criteria were developed that determined when tows should be dropped or added,
depending on the width of the overlap or the gap. Source | NASA
The upper skin actual ply fraction for ° plies ranged from .-.%; ° plies
from .-.%; ° plies from .-.%; and -° plies from .-.%. The
lower skin actual ply fraction for ° plies ranged from .-.%; ° plies from
.-.%; ° plies from .-.%; and -° plies from .-.%.
A particular concern in the application of tow steering is the development
of tow-drop criteria for tow convergence zones. When tows are steered, tow
courses rarely meet edge-to-edge as they do in a non-steered design. As a result,
gaps and overlaps are created where tows converge or diverge at off angles, thus
creating convergence zones, which can have deleterious knockdown effects on
skin performance (Fig. ). Smith says tow drops were scheduled according to an
overlap percentage criteria. For example, Smith says, if an overlap exceeded %
of the width of a tow, one tow would be dropped from the course. Conversely, if a
gap exceeded % of the width of a tow, one tow would be added to the course.
Another challenge inherent to tow steering is tow buckling along the inner
edge of the radius. As noted in Part I of this report, the tendency of a tow to buckle
depends on a variety of factors, including tow thickness, tow stiffness, resin type,
fiber type, tow radius, arc length, compaction technique, compaction time, AFP
heat source type and more. Regardless of cause, buckling can be ameliorated with
debulks, or by the application of subsequent plies, but an accumulation of buckling
in a region can adversely and possibly prohibitively affect mechanical properties.
It should be noted that the infrared heating technology employed in the Elec-
troimpact AFP used in the PAT subscale wing fabrication is not considered,
according to Electroimpact, current state-of-the-art technology for tow steering.
The company noted, in Part I of this report, that its current systems rely on laser
(not infrared) heating of the substrate and the tows, as well as independent
compaction for each tow being placed. Both of these advancements have been
proven to increase the quality and reduce the radius of tow steering.
Testing, correlation, new questions
The PAT program subsequently subjected the subscale, tow-steered wing that AFS
fabricated to a series of static load and ground vibration tests (Fig. 4, opposite).
This was done to assess the efficacy of tow steering in general, the bend and twist
behavior tow-steering engenders, the mechanical performance of the spars and
ribs and the correlation of real-world performance to predicted performance as
established by the optimization program run by the University of Michigan.
The final report of the PAT program issued by NASA outlines in great detail
results from all of the testing. NASA’s Taminger notes that the subscale wing,
thanks to the application of steered tows, did exhibit the “bend and twist”
behavior desired in the tip. Further, NASA’s final report says that “most data
CompositesWorld

correlate very strongly with predicted models.” The exception
was a discrepancy in the tip deflection. This is attributed to two
sources: The first, and largest, is the “rigid body rotation,” which
was not properly accounted for in the model. The second source
is associated with fastener joint stiffness, which produced more
compliant joints and, thus, larger tip deflections than modeled.
The report suggests that further work is required to mitigate flutter.
A project like PAT, by design and necessity, tends to create
as many questions as it answers about if and how tow steering
might be applied in aerostructures. The NASA report, for its part,
suggests, “Compounding benefits may be obtained by combining
tow steering technologies with other wing technologies, such as
active load alleviation. By coupling both technologies in a single
optimization, an accurate assessment of the combined perfor-
mance, limitations and relative benefits can be obtained.”
The report also recommends application of tow steering in
any aerostructure in which principal load direction changes may
benefit by maintaining alignment with the load direction. Such
structures include spars and fuselages. The report’s final comment
is possibly the most important: It notes that the prevalence of
overlaps, gaps and fiber buckling demand either more M&P work
to mitigate their knockdown effects, or a more robust testing and
certification regime that predicts their occurrence and effects.
“Because the tow steering process so significantly opens the
design space, it is anticipated that traditional composite material
testing matrices will quickly become intractable,” the report says.
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Tow-steered aircraft wing skin
FIG. 4 Static load and ground vibration testing
The 39-foot PAT wing, with steered tow skins, was subjected to static load and
ground vibration testing by NASA at the Armstrong Flight Technology Center. The
goal of the testing was to assess strength and aeroelastic characteristics of the
wing, and to correlate test data to optimization data. Results showed generally
strong correlation, encouraging aeroelastic behavior. Source | NASA
“Therefore, advancements in the analysis and cost-effective testing
must be developed prior to certification.”
The challenge of qualifying and certifying structures optimized
with tow steering is a serious one. Brooks notes that “no one has
experience trying to characterize or certify a tow-steered structure.
The laminate has no fixed characteristic — the location deter-
mines the fiber angle. Is it possible to fabricate a coupon for each
possible variation? It’s just not feasible.” Brooks also says designing
and fabricating a tow-steered structure takes disproportionately
February 18, 2021 • 2:00 PM ET
Aerocomposites Optimization and Assembly
Through Integrated Protection and Bonding
EVENT DESCRIPTION:
Manufacture of future composite aerostructures demands more efficient and robust fabrication and
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3M, will evaluate solutions for the manufacture, bonding, and protection of composite parts. This
includes integrated composite fabrication, bonding and protection options with matrix resins, co-cure
structural adhesive films, composite laminate edge sealers, and lightweight structural surfacing films
with or without conductive mesh for lightning strike protection. The presentation will review paste
adhesives, core splice adhesives, and more, all formulated for robust shop handling and efficient
application.
PARTICIPANTS WILL LEARN:
• Structural adhesive films: toughen and bond composite parts with a selection of 3M structural adhesive films,
available in a range of weights, carriers, and cure temperatures
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for streamlines honeycomb structure joining and gap filling
• Surfacing and lightning strike protection films: epoxy-based structural adhesive films cure into tough, smooth
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• Corrosion-inhibiting bond primers: solvent- and water-based, chromated and non-chromated heat-cure
primers inhibit corrosion on prepared metal parts and maximize adhesive wet out
CompositesWorld.com 31
 FEATURE
more time than a conventional layup. “There is a learning curve
here,” he says. “Something would have to be improved upon to
meet rate and scale requirements.”
Smith argues that evolution to a fully tow-steered aerostruc-
ture could be done incrementally and suggests a hybrid struc-
ture as a good intermediate step. Under this design strategy, an
aerostructure could combine ply regions of conventional steering
(called “low aggressiveness”), where mechanical loads are less
demanding, with regions
of “high aggressiveness”
Read this article online | where tow steering is
short.compositesworld.com/PATtowstr
deployed to meet higher
mechanical loads. “There
are trade-offs that come with tow steering,” he says. “Where does
the knockdown [of tow steering] outweigh the performance
benefit, and where does the performance benefit outweigh the
knockdown? Tim’s [Brooks’] work could be used to explore this
idea.”
Another intermediate and more manageable application of
tow steering in aerostructures, pointed to by Brooks, Smith and
the NASA report, would be in aircraft door, window and panel
surrounds. Such structures would benefit greatly from tow steering
and could be more readily designed and modeled.
Taminger, commenting on certification, notes that one of the
PAT project’s goals was to “explore the possibilities and show what
can be done. We steered clear of certification initially because
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32 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld
we thought it was important to first prove the benefit of the tech-
nology.” That said, she acknowledges that the integration of tradi-
tional quasi-isotropic composite structures into the PAT program
was done to “give us a connection to something that is certified and
has been flying.” Still, there is an order-of-magnitude increase in
complexity when an aerostructure is designed to apply tow steering
the way the PAT project did, and traditional testing and certifica-
tion tools are not equipped to manage that complexity. A tech-
nology such as tow steering, Taminger suggests, might help accel-
erate the development and application of “certification by analysis,”
which NASA is also evaluating in a separate project.
It is clear that tow steering in aerostructures has a future that
might be guided, in part, by the work done on the PAT project.
It was a project that seemed, to Taminger, highly audacious as it
began. “When we started,” she says, “the idea at the heart of this
project sounded good. Along the way it changed the way we think
about designing and manufacturing wings. To go from idea to proof
that we could build a wing much better than we thought we could
was a real eye-opener.”
Jeff Sloan is editor-in-chief of CompositesWorld, and has been
engaged in plastics- and composites-industry journalism for
25 years. jeff@compositesworld.com
Whether you are a manufacturer,
equ pment supplier or finance
equipment
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 NEW PRODUCTS

New Products

» INDUSTRIAL COBOTS

Ready-to-work robotic machine time of subscription, increasing operating profits an

operator automates common average of $110,000 per year for each unit installed.
machine tasks Rapid Robotics adds that easy management is
Rapid Robotics (San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) launched a major advantage of its industrial cobots, even for
its first ready-to-work robotic machine operator, non-technical users. Simply select a machine type from
which is said to give contract manufacturers an easy, Rapid’s touchscreen interface, input variables specific
affordable way to automate common machine tasks to the project and the cobot completes the rest. Users
and compete with offshore facilities. can oversee numerous Rapid Machine Operators at
According to the company, the Rapid Machine once and quickly configure them for new jobs as
Operator is an industrial cobot that needs no needed, making it ideal in high-mix environments.
Source | Rapid Robotics
programming or systems integration. It reportedly The Rapid Machine Operator comes with fixtures,
can perform simple tasks such as injection molding, pad printing, heat grippers, cameras and all other components. Its proprietary built-in
stamping, pick-and-place and can execute dozens of other tasks across computer vision system quickly finds parts and automatically creates
manufacturing sectors including medical devices, electronics, CPG optimized motion paths for faster cycle times — all without a single line of
(consumer packaged goods), automotive, etc. code or additional costs. Rapid takes care of the initial same-day setup and
The system is offered on a subscription basis at $25,000 per year. The provides support at no additional charge.
company contends that its Rapid Machine Operators cost 75% less than Further, the cobot receives new capabilities monthly over the air and
human operators and 90% less than other robotic solutions. Return on shares intelligence in real-time through the cloud, so the entire fleet
investment (ROI) is also said to be delivered within 3-4 months from the becomes more valuable the longer it’s on the job. rapidrobotics.com

34 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld


» UNROLLING CREEL SYSTEM
Creel system delivers uniform,
low tension for high-end
carbon fiber market
A next-generation fiber unwinding creel that
uses patented pneumatic technology to achieve
reliable tension has been launched by Cygnet
Texkimp (Northwich, Cheshire, U.K.) and added to
the company’s portfolio of traditional mechanical
creels. The Flatline Creel is said to be the latest
technology to graduate from Cygnet’s U.K.-based
Source |Cygnet Texkimp
Innovation Program, where it has been developed
to address the need for precision and uniformity in
the high-end carbon fiber prepreg and multi-filament tow market.
According to Chris Furphy, Cygnet Texkimp’s product director for creels,
the way in which fiber tows are unwound from the bobbin and fed into
downstream technologies is critical to the success of the whole process and
the quality of the finished material. When it comes to manufacturing the
highest quality carbon fiber prepregs and woven technical fabrics, he says,
tensioning and handling are essential considerations. By harnessing the
capability of precision pneumatics, Furphy contends that the company’s
Flatline Creel retains unparalleled tensioning and handling performance.
The Flatline Creel is essentially a pneumatically controlled brake to
CompositesWorld.com
NEW PRODUCTS
regulate the torque applied to each position
on the creel. Using low-pressure, low-friction
pneumatic cylinder technology, the creel gener-
ates a consistent tension for each fiber tow as
it is fed into a range of downstream processes,
from prepreg to weaving. The pressure of each
precision cylinder is set by a central electronic
control system, which modulates the pressure in
response to operating conditions.
A key consideration in the design was that it
should not require any mechanical calibration
or high level of operational expertise to set up
and run the system within the manufacturing
facility. Therefore, the pressure and braking force of each cylinder is
pre-programmed electronically and set, requiring no onsite calibration.
That also mitigates variation in the manufacturing process.
Further, each Flatline Creel is formed within a largely enclosed module,
which eliminates the potential for fiber debris to enter the system and
cause variation of tension. The range of tension the Flatline offers,
between 100g and 1000g, is also said to be significantly greater than
that of a conventional mechanical creel, offering the end user greater
flexibility in their processing. cygnet-texkimp.com
35
 NEW PRODUCTS
Safe, Green
Acetone
Replacement
A pproaching our sixth decade
in the marketplace, U. S.
Polychemical Corp. is proud to
announce the availability of our
Polychem Acrastrip line.
Polychem Acrastrip is a safe, green
alternative for all your cleaning
needs within the composite industry.
U.S. Polychemical has partnered
with the EPA’s Design for the
Environment (“DfE”) program to
promote the use of products with
improved environmental and
human health characteristics.
Polychem Acrastrip is non-
flammable, biodegradable, has no
HAPS and is re-usable. Designed as
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product, it will effectively clean,
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polyester, vinyl ester, epoxy resins,
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36 FEBRUARY 2021
» POLYMER CONSTRUCTION COMPENDIUM
Compendium offers comprehensive look at polymer
material use in construction
Organized by Technology and Conservation, Boston Society of Architects’ Historic
Resources Committee and Professor Goulthorpe, MIT Dept. of Architecture, the “Architectural
Plastics & Polymer Composites in the 21st Century” Conference Proceedings Plus Package is
a comprehensive compendium
on polymeric materials and their
use, conservation/preserva-
tion and care in contemporary
and historic architecture and
artistic works. All of the papers
and posters in the conference
book and in the supplemental
material are designed to offer
readers valuable insights into the
performance and sustainability of
plastics and polymer composites
Source | “Architectural Plastics & Polymer Composites in the 21st Century”
in specific environments, as well
as the appropriate selection, specification, use and maintenance of these materials for new
and existing construction operations.
Topics discussed in the book include:
• Historic perspectives — looking at plastics then and now
• Properties of plastics and carbon fiber/polymer composites used in the construction of
buildings, building components, windows and other structures, and in the creation of
works of art and architectural decorations
• Performance characteristics of these polymeric materials including fire behavior, energy
considerations, durability and weathering
• Material selection
• Research on testing and conserving plastic works of art and the challenges of repro-
ducing historic plastic works
• The role of 3D printing
• Case studies that detail polymeric materials used in the design and construction of
museums, entertainment and athletic facilities, factories, commercial buildings, religious
facilities, educational complexes, parking garages, residential structures, health care
operations and research facilities.
The book encompasses papers and posters from the conference previously scheduled for
2020; a digital file containing the full content of more than 40 historic and modern books and
articles; and other relevant supplemental material relating to properties and applications of
plastics and polymer composites.
The publication/shipping date for the “Architectural Plastics & Polymer Composites in the
21st Century” Conference Proceedings Plus Package is March 26, 2021. The special pre-
publication rate of US$275 is extended until Feb. 15, 2021. sah.org
Clarification: A new product in the January 2021 issue of CW, headlined,
“Thermoplastic tension members enable flex strength improvement,” contained
pricing errors for the 8,000-filament and 12,000-filament Tension Member (TM)
products from Integrated Composite Products (ICP, Winona, Minn., U.S.). The article
should have stated that these products are priced at approximately US$.034 (3.4
cents) and US$.061 (6.1 cents) respectively. CW regrets the error.
ld
CompositesWorld
s
 NEW PRODUCTS
Source | vombaur GmbH
» NATURAL FIBER TEXTILES
Natural fiber woven tapes offer improved
mechanical properties, sustainability
vombaur GmbH (Wuppertal, Germany) introduces new woven tapes
composed of flax fibers that offer a lightweight design that takes into
consideration both functionality and ecological impact.
In addition to high rigidity and strength, flax fibers possess low
density. Combined, these characteristics offer natural fiber-reinforced
plastics (NFPs) stability, including a reduced likelihood of splintering.
The company also says that NFPs reduce production costs and
improve the material’s carbon footprint. The cultivation of flax binds
CO2 and the production of NFP generates 33% fewer CO2 emissions
than conventional fiber-reinforced plastics. Energy consumption is
reduced by 40%.
NFPs also support versatile applications. According to Tomislav
Josipovic, sales manager, vombaur, composites from its flax tapes
are used to reinforce high-tech skis, and to extrude state-of-the-art
window sections. The company also supports applications in automo-
tive, wind, construction, sports and other markets. vombaur.de
Raising
the bar.
38 FEBRUARY 2021
CompositesWorld
s
Source | China
Jushi Co. Ltd.
» HIGH-PERFORMANCE GLASS FIBER
High-modulus glass fiber for high-end
applications
Glass fiber manufacturer China Jushi Co. Ltd. (Hangzhou, China) intro-
duces its E9 ultra-high-modulus glass fiber with improved mechanical
properties. With a modulus of more than 100 GPa, this new, high-
performing fiber is said to create more opportunities for the expansion of
glass fiber-reinforced composites into high-end applications.
E9’s modulus is said to be 36% greater than traditional E-glass, and 12%
greater than Jushi’s E7 glass. Jushi says this translates into a 60% strength
increase compared to E-glass, and a 12% strength increase compared to E7.
Additional product benefits include improved high-temperature resistance,
with a softening point 132°C higher (970°C) and a CTE 21% percent lower
than traditional E-glass; increased fatigue and impact resistance; and
boron- and fluorine-free glass composition.
E9 glass fiber is suitable for use in a variety of end markets. Typical
applications include large wind blades, optical cable reinforcement, aircraft
parts, automotive components, temperature-resistant parts and sports
equipment. E9 is currently still undergoing formulation testing. jushi.com
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 APPLICATIONS

All-composite white ›Whitecane (Duderstadt, Germany) is a company with a goal of designing and devel-
cane improves oping high-quality, technically sophisticated medical products, with a focus on equip-
ment to aid the visually impaired. Supported by composite engineering and production
mobility for visually specialist Refitech Composite Components (Waalwijk, Netherlands) and partner CG Tec
GmbH (Spalt, Germany), Whitecane has developed and launched IO, an innovative white
impaired cane featuring a lightweight, easy-to-handle composite tube structure and ergonomic,
carbon fiber grip.
The partnership, according to Bas Nijpels, sales engineer at Refitech, began in 2018.
The light weight, ergonomics “The cooperation came about when we purchased carbon tubes for our first prototypes
and stiffness provided by the from the CG Tec web shop,” adds Lüder Mosler, executive partner at Whitecane. As
carbon fiber composite design Whitecane sought a partner to design a grip for the cane, CG Tec recommended
enable a safer, easier-to- Refitech, with which it had formed a strategic partnership in 2018. “Both companies
handle mobility solution. have shown a great willingness to respond to our very specific technical and economic
requirements, and find good solutions together,” Mosler says. “This has resulted in a
highly innovative carbon fiber white cane that has no match in the current market.”
CG Tec supplies the carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg tubes, which are manufactured in a
semi-automatic process that winds prepreg around mandrels; the canes are assembled
in batches at its Spalt facility. “In a first conversation, the idea and the background of
the IO white cane were introduced, and this immediately triggered our enthusiasm,”
says Oliver Kipf, CEO of CG Tec. “Based on Whitecane’s requirements, we first developed
carbon fiber tubes that could withstand the expected pressure loads in combination
with a high bending stiffness. The tight tolerances were a challenge, but we solved that
in the end.” The much greater stiffness compared to a standard cane, Nijpels explains,
enables a sturdier contact and better experience and feel for the user.
In addition to stiffness, Nijpels says, two of Whitecane’s top requirements for the
design were ease of assembly and affordability for the consumer. “Our engineers
worked closely with Whitecane and CG Tec on the design, giving advice and having
regular meetings to discuss the project progress,” Nijpels says.
For the carbon fiber grips, Refitech needed to develop a “mirrored” design that could
be manufactured for right- and left-handed users. For this project, the company used its
experience designing similar products for medical and consumer applications, such as a
carbon fiber guide dog handle that was a finalist for a JEC 2019 Innovation Award. The
white cane grip is manufactured from a twill-weave carbon fiber/epoxy
prepreg over top of an additional layer of unidirectional (UD) fabric.
The parts are manufactured via a blow molding process followed by
autoclave cure. “This allows for a lightweight, thin-walled part, allowing
us to manufacture in series production at a reasonable cost,” Nijpels
says.
The grip is connected to the rest of the cane via a specially designed
bracket. The design also features a lightweight rolling tip and a patented
yield mechanism that immediately folds the cane upon impact with an
obstacle, reducing the risk of injury due to a collision. IO can also fold
into three segments for easy transport and storage.
“This application clearly demonstrates the potential benefits that
3D-formed carbon fiber components can bring: an integral solution
designed and produced with innovative materials, ensuring an imme-
diate competitive edge over the competition,” Nijpels says.
Whitecane launched IO in the German medical market in early 2020.
Next steps include expanding certifications for the product in other
countries and expanding IO’s distribution network with additional
The IO carbon fiber white cane, developed by Whitecane and produced in
partners. Over the next few years, Whitecane also plans to scale up
cooperation with Refitech and CG Tec, is extremely lightweight, making the
cane easy to handle, reducing fatigue and the risk of injury, while improving production of the product, from current batches of 100 parts per
sensory perception. Source | Whitecane shipment to up to 700 per batch.

40 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

 CALL FOR
ABSTRACTS
ENTER BY 3.5.21

APPLY TODAY Showcase your innovation in composites manufacturing

on a global stage at CAMX 2021. Submit abstracts for
technical papers and education sessions by the deadline,
ABSTRACT DEADLINE and visit the CAMX website for details. Subscribe to the
MARCH 5, 2021 CAMX Connection newsletter to receive updates.

theCAMX.org/call-for-abstracts

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42 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

 SHOWCASE / ADVERTISING INDEX

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A&P Technology, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover Magnum Venus Products, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
braider.com mvpind.com

Airtech International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Molded Fiber Glass Tray Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

airtechonline.com mfgtray.com

CAMX - The Composites and Advanced Materials Expo . . 41 Newstar Adhesives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

thecamx.org newstaradhesivesusa.com

CGTech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Pro-Set Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

cgtech.com prosetepoxy.com

Coastal Enterprises Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Renegade Materials Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

precisionboard.com renegadematerials.com

Composites One LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back Cover Society of Plastics Engineers Automotive Division . . . . . . . 15
compositesone.com speautomotive.com

Design Concepts / Marine Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Technical Fibre Products, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

designconcepts-us.com tfpglobal.com

Engineering Technology Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Teijin Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

etcwinders.com teijin.com

Hawthorn Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Thermwood Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

spintechinc.com thermwood.com

Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing TMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Innovation (IACMI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 frenchoil.com
iacmi.org
Torr Technologies, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Janicki Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 torrtech.com
janicki.com
U.S. Polychemical Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
LEWCO, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 uspoly.com
lewcoinc.com
Vectorply Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Luna Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 vectorply.com
lunainc.com
Wyoming Test Fixtures, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Magnolia Advanced Materials, Inc. . . . . . . Inside Back Cover wyomingtestfixtures.com
magnolia-adv-mat.com

CompositesWorld.com
43
 FOCUS ON DESIGN

Liftgate design puts modified

filament winding to the test
Heavily modified winding process produces light, structural
support frame for performance-critical liftgate.

By Peggy Malnati / Contributing Writer

» Automotive liftgates, or rear-hatch doors, have slowly been
transitioning from metals to composites for decades. While it
wasn’t until 2013 that the first all-plastic/composite liftgate, minus
metal support structure, was commercialized, most liftgates today
still feature this support component on which outer skins and
inner panels are attached, particularly on larger, heavier sport-
utility vehicles (SUVs) and crossover-utility vehicles (CUVs) with
bigger rear doors.
However, what may well be the next evolution in composite
liftgates debuted in  on the Toyota Supra sports car from
Toyota Motor Corp. (Toyota City, Japan). A filament wound
composite frame replaced a metallic frame and is said to offer
higher stiffness and strength at lower weight than traditional
metal structures, with greater design flexibility, especially in
tight packaging space. Reportedly, the filament winding process
has been modified to such an extent that, as interest grows and
applications proliferate, it can meet the speed and cost targets
The new Toyota Supra
An innovative all-composite, filament wound space frame is finding first use on the
rear liftgate of Supra two-seater sports cars from Toyota Motor Corp., assembled
by Magna Steyr AG & Co. KG in Graz, Austria. Source | Toyota Motor Corp.
of higher-volume vehicle production. This is how the design and
technology came to be.
Trilateral manufacturing
Magna International Inc. (Aurora, Ontario, Canada) is a Tier 1
integrator in North America, but in Europe, its Magna Steyr AG
& Co. KG (Graz, Austria) subsidiary also designs and assembles
complete cars for OEMs that need extra manufacturing capacity.
Recently, Magna participated in an interesting program
involving automakers Toyota and BMW AG (Munich, Germany),
which have worked cooperatively on design and manufacturing

44 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld

 All-composite liftgate design

Long-glass fiber Filament wound

PP interior trim PUR/glass fiber
panel (B-side structural frame
shown in black)

Interior & exterior panels

bonded to frame via 2K
PUR structural adhesive

Painted, talc-filled
HP-RTM’d features TPO exterior trim
like “ear” bracket panel
overmolded in
glass fiber/PUR for
parts consolidation,
assembly ease

All-plastic/composite liftgate

› PUR/glass fiber frame features variable › Frame is 10% lighter than metal, but complete › Lighter liftgates are easier to install,
diameters and wall thicknesses. liftgate is ~20-25% lighter than a metallic liftgate easier to open/close and save fuel.
due to mass-decompounding effects.

Susan Kraus / Illustration

projects since . For its latest effort, Toyota was looking to
revive its Supra nameplate and had partnered with BMW to
provide design and tuning for the vehicle and a sister car, BMW’s
-seater Z. The two vehicles share engine, suspension and
steering systems. Magna Steyr would assemble both cars in Graz,
as well as supply the Supra with seats, body panels, door latches
and liftgates. While there’s plenty of innovation on both cars, the
liftgate incorporated in the Supra is where composites design
innovation is most apparent.
Manchester of Bohemia
Years before Magna’s involvement with the 2020 model year Supra,
its operation in Liberec, Czech Republic, had been exploring
technologies for composite space frames for a number of potential
applications. As luck would have it, the area has a rich tradition as
a leading textile center and was once known as “the Manchester
of Bohemia.” The Liberec team sought a technology architecture
that supported high loads, reduced overall mass, maintained tight
dimensional tolerances and could be produced in a process with
high repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) to meet the perfor-
mance and manufacturing demands of European automakers.
“We concluded we needed a thermoset product with high
thermal and dimensional stability,” recalls Riad Chaaya, Magna
global product line director - composite liftgates. “We also knew we
needed a closed shape with the ability to produce cross-sections of
variable shapes and thicknesses — necessary to optimize mechan-
ical performance, package space, mass and cost — that could be
produced in a process capable of making , parts annually.
We looked at many technologies, including blow molding, braiding
and filament winding, but none quite met our needs. After many
trials, we selected filament winding as the best match for what we
wanted, since it gave us control of orientations and numbers of fila-
ments to extract the highest modulus at the lowest weight.”
Despite many benefits, there was concern that filament winding

CompositesWorld.com 45
 FOCUS ON DESIGN
New space frame technology finds first use
The first use of Magna’s generic filament wound space frame technology (top)
is the support structure for the Toyota Supra liftgate (bottom). The PUR/glass
fiber frame features variable diameters and wall thicknesses throughout.
Source | (top) Magna International Inc. and (bottom) SPE Automotive Div.
might be too slow for conventional automotive production. Addi-
tionally, the team needed a method to begin and end the winding
process in order to create a closed-shape frame. Fortunately, while
the team had no history with filament winding, Liberec’s legacy
of textile manufacturing meant the local community was full of
experts in rovings and the winding of filaments.
“Lucky for us, these experts had the passion to resurrect their
traditional know-how to help us apply it in new ways to meet high-
volume automotive needs,” adds Dr.-Ing. Josef Půta, Magna Exte-
riors technology leader - Czech Republic.
“Because traditional filament winding was too slow for our
needs, we and our partners looked at many ways to make it run
faster,” recalls Lukáš Strouhal, head of industrialization, Magna
Liberec. “We considered ways of speeding up each step in the
process as well as doing things quite differently. While we can’t
say too much about how we did that, we can say that we achieved
huge improvements in speed, so that our modified process could
become ‘automotive worthy.’”
Magna and its partners explored many resin systems, including
46 FEBRUARY 2021 CompositesWorld
Not an easy application
The Supra liftgate was a challenging application owing to tight packaging
space, sweeping styling lines and tight torsional loading requirements.
Source | Toyota Motor Corp.
epoxy, polyurethane (PUR) and a PUR/vinyl ester blend, plus a
variety of reinforcements, from glass to carbon to basalt fibers.
The final system features PUR and glass fibers, which offered the
best balance of fiber efficiency, performance, cost and produc-
tion speed.
Magna’s generic filament wound space frame is produced
in three steps, each carefully optimized for speed. First, a rigid,
cellular PUR core is produced via reaction injection molding
(RIM); second, that core, which functions as a mandrel, is wound
with glass fiber; and third, that wound structure is then infused
with PUR and consolidated in the high-pressure resin transfer
molding (HP-RTM) process. Care is taken to ensure the core
doesn’t collapse during infusion/consolidation. Půta explains
that much work went into specifying the types of rovings, sizings
and resins used — requiring close work with suppliers on
material modifications — as well as determining the number of
windings and orientation of filaments in each layer. Not surpris-
ingly, the company has been issued numerous patents covering
everything from design and core production, to the filament

A lighter liftgate
The final composite frame is ~10% lighter than a comparable metallic frame.
However, mass-decompounding effects help make the entire liftgate ~20-25%
lighter than a comparable metallic liftgate. Lighter liftgates are easier for
consumers to operate, require less effort for line workers to handle during vehicle
assembly, save fuel during vehicle operation and provide what’s described as a
satisfying sound when closed. Source | Magna International, Inc.
winding machine, plus additional trade secrets they hold close.
“We have made multiple innovations in each process step and
product,” explains Strouhal. “You could tear one of our frames
apart, see the shapes and geometries used, and you’d still wonder
why and how we did that.”
Although the Magna Liberec team had not developed its space-
frame technology for a particular application, they were about to
get an interesting opportunity to use it.
Challenging liftgate
Magna has a long history of producing passenger-vehicle liftgates.
The company reportedly built the first all-olefin liftgates in North
America and Europe for the 2013 BMW i3 electric city car, and
designed and built a next-generation all-olefin liftgate for FCA NA
LLC’s (Auburn Hills, Mich., U.S) 2019 Jeep Cherokee SUVs. Given
that liftgate production was a deliverable for the Supra program,
Magna not only drew upon the work done in Liberec, but also its
long history of converting metallic liftgate structures to composites
and plastics.
“The Supra liftgate offered a number of immediate challenges,”
recalls Chaaya. “First, package space was very limited, meaning
tolerances were very tight and coefficient of linear thermal expan-
sion values must be carefully managed to keep liftgates opening
and closing freely. Second, the shape of this door was even more
challenging. Toyota not only wanted a lighter liftgate, but they had
very specific styling requirements for how the back of the vehicle
draped. Third, with the vehicle’s projected build volumes, tooling
to achieve that shape in metals would be very costly. In fact, we
concluded the liftgate frame couldn’t be produced in a single
piece of metal and still meet Toyota’s design and performance
requirements. That meant the space frame had to be made from
composites and, more specifically, thermoset composites.”
CompositesWorld.com
All-composite liftgate design
The outer skin would be a painted, injection molded talc-rein-
forced TPO panel to handle the aggressive shape, while the inner
panel would be long-glass polypropylene (PP); both would be
joined to the frame with a structural K PUR adhesive. Chaaya
adds that much work was done to optimize the space frame and
complete the liftgate to meet torsional loading requirements. An
early challenge was to find a way to accurately simulate material
properties to achieve accurate correlation between predicted
versus measured results.
“It was a hard fight to get good correlation with our material
models, since we had to simulate each layer of winding and incor-
porate shape, radii and the winding requirements themselves,” he
adds. “Although we started out being off %, after much tuning
and determining the best way to improve our stiffness, our final
predictions were very close. On such a big frame, we also managed
to hold dimensional tolerances to  millimeter.”
Many benefits
The final donut-shaped frame features variable diameters and
wall thicknesses throughout, but has a nominal diameter of
50-60 millimeters. Other than a small bracket in the corner, and
hard attachments like latches and hinges, plus foil to ground the
integral antennae, the entire frame — which is 104 x 111 centime-
ters — is entirely composite. Even “ear” brackets, used to connect
the inner trim panel to the bottom half of the liftgate are composite
and manufactured via HP-RTM. Although the composite frame
is 10% lighter than a comparable metal frame, mass-decom-
pounding effects mean the complete liftgate is ~20-25% lighter
than a metallic liftgate.
Lighter liftgates require
less effort for consumers to
open/close, are easier for Read this article online |
a worker to install during short.compositesworld.com/FWliftgate
vehicle assembly, save
fuel during vehicle use life
and provide what Strouhal describes as “an amazing solid sound”
when the liftgate closes. The composite system also eliminated
steps like hemming edges and welding points/joints required with
metal liftgates.
Chaaya hints his company has another major filament wound
automotive project underway. He also says Magna sees other uses
for the technology beyond liftgates. “Doors, decklids, hoods, FEMs
(front-end modules) and even autonomous vehicles — like a bus
that is comprised of a glass-wrapped frame — could use such a
space frame,” he adds. “And it wouldn’t even have to be hidden. If
we used carbon fiber weave, it would be a sign of prestige to leave
that beautiful surface exposed and not hide the frame inside.”
Contributing writer Peggy Malnati covers the automotive and
infrastructure beats for CW and provides communications
services for plastics- and composites-industry clients.
peggy@compositesworld.com
47
 POST CURE

Post Cure
Highlighting the behind-the-scenes
of composites manufacturing

Supportive shoe shanks

As the costs of composite materials and manufac-
turing come down, new applications are now within
reach. One such application is the sole shank for
Source | Covestro
athletic shoes. Covestro’s (Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.)
Maezio carbon fiber/polycarbonate material is being
used to make shanks — shown here — for the KT6 Show us what you have!
(Klay Thompson) basketball shoe, manufactured The CompositesWorld team wants to feature
by China-based ATA. Carbon fiber shanks provide your composite part, manufacturing process
critical structural support for the foot during frequent or facility in next month’s issue.
and abrupt changes in direction that are common Send an image and caption to CW
in athletics. For more on Maezio, listen to the CW Associate Editor Hannah Mason at hmason@
Talks podcast interview with Covestro’s Lisa Ketelsen: compositesworld.com, or connect with us on
www.compositesworld.com/podcast. social media.

@CompositesWorld CompositesWorld @CompositesWrld @CompositesWorld CompositesWorld

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