CW Blog

Leaders in all facets of manufacturing will be on hand at the National Association for Surface Finishing’s Sur/Fin Manufacturing and Technology Trade Show and Conference in Cleveland, June 4-6 to hear about the latest technology and science in the world of surface finishing.

The technical program features 83 presentations, including an automotive OEM panel discussion, offering attendees 42 hours of exposure to new and existing technology, and perhaps more importantly, access to the industry experts who are presenting.

Containerization, or massing smaller pieces of cargo together in a single, larger container, was first practiced for shipping of coal in 17^th Century England. The idea has evolved since into the now-ubiquitous stackable intermodal containers seen on container ships, trains and trucks. Likewise, the commercial aircraft industry developed lighter-weight container versions called Unit Load Devices, or ULDs, to containerize cargo shipments on planes. Several efforts have been reported in CW of composites-intensive ULDs (for instance, here: https://www.compositesworld.com/news/tencate-advanced-armor-usa-will-fabricate-composite-cargo-containers-for-air-cargo-containers-providing-material-and-assembly-). This past week, CW was made aware of a new, high-tech and multi-material ULD solution from an innovative container company called Smart Containers Group (Zurich, Switzerland).

 The latest episode of CW Talks: The Composites Podcast has been published and features three guests: Gino Francato, global business leader for composite platform at SABIC; Arno van Mourik, CEO of Airborne; and John O’Connor, director of product and market strategy at Siemens. SABIC, Airborne and Siemens recently collaborated on the development of a new thermoplastic laminate manufacturing system called UDMAX.

For most of their histories, composites fabrication and thermoplastic injection molding have lived in their own worlds, linked by a common polymer DNA, but separated by process differences that have effectively cleaved these two industries.

While the status of wind energy projects in the US tends to be as changing as, well, the wind, last week saw some exciting developments. Potential offshore wind farm projects were reported for both East and West coasts.

The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM, Washington, DC, US) is conducting assessments of the Atlantic Coast for offshore wind farm locations and is seeking public input. More information about how to submit input is available on the BOEM website.