From Boeing 787s to new Navy destroyers, fiber-reinforced composites are gaining in use. As production scales up, more-efficient manufacturing remains a focus. One key to that efficiency is tooling for composites. These molds and forms give the final shape to a part, and are often integral to their final curing.
Keeping products clean is becoming a more significant part of manufacturing as standards for cleanliness, deburring, and finish grow more stringent.
Larger titanium aircraft components are being manufactured faster with selective laser melting 3D printing technology from SLM Solutions NA Inc.
If a new 3D printer is on your shopping list for 2017, you may find two recent publications quite interesting. One is an academic paper, the first to comprehensively evaluate bioprinters. The other is a third annual guide to printers that, for the first time, includes industrial technology.
Oerlikon announced today that it will be building a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Plymouth Township, Michigan, USA, dedicated to producing advanced materials for additive manufacturing and high-end surface coatings.
Friction welding may be just the recipe for joining lightweight materials
The additive manufacturing revolution is in full stride, flying in aircraft and giving manufacturers a robust tool for design and production
Advanced materials for automotive manufacturing are helping automakers build lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Composites engineers are expanding their craft to build more complex, durable parts at higher production volumes. One way they are achieving this objective is by using infusion-molding processes based on Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) and Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM).
Many industries have been making parts with micron dimensions for some time, but in the last few years, the market for miniaturization has expanded. The demand is not only for small parts, but also for small complex features on larger parts. This is due chiefly to the switch to modules in which the functions of several parts or subsystems are not handled by a single complex unit.
