The Power Generation Blog: composites

Showing posts with label composites. Show all posts

Kevlar Mithril Jacket Will Last Longer Than You!

We use kevlar and other aramid fibers for a lot of industrial power generation applications. Since it’s appallingly strong, fire-resistant, and extremely lightweight, it can be used for just about everything. If you and your company use a lot of kevlar, you might want to check out this new garment.

Especially if you’re a big Lord of the Rings fanatic.

The Mithril Kevlar Jacket is made by Klättermusen, a Swedish company whose name also looks like something from Tolkien’s classic. Originally designed to be a motorcycle jacket, the company updated it to be a generally all-around great coat. It’s supposed to last literally longer than you, and practically forever.

It weighs about 1.3 pounds, so it’s pretty light, but not too light. The Mitrhil Jacket is also wind resistant and water repellant, made with hiking, climbing, mountain biking, and basically any outdoor activity requiring durability and protection.

The jacket has won the OutDoor Industry Gold Award for its sustainability-minded design (a jacket that last forever won’t require being wastefully replaced). It retails for a bit over $500, so hopefully it lives up to its lifespan claims.

Fiberglass Laptops Take a Bit Out of Apple?

Apple struck a blow in the personal computing industry with its “unibody” aluminum MacBooks. The Cuptertino company’s most recent business moves have seen it officially retire the white plastic MacBook, and a big upgrade to its svelte MacBook Air. This on the heels of of the company’s latest financial earnings call, which revealed Apple has a 10.7% share of the US computer market, making it the third-most-popular computer seller in America.

A lot of Apple’s popularity has to be attributed to its brilliant aluminum MacBook designs, which marry strength and (low) weight in perfect harmony. But a report in the Washington Post shows that aluminum is starting to be in short supply—precisely because Apple has that market practically cornered.

Fiberglass is now being touted as an alternative to aluminum for laptop manufacturers not named Apple:

The laptop makers plan to combine the latest fiberglass fabrication techniques with a plastic shell to produce something as tough and lightweight as magnesium-aluminum, but significantly cheaper.

By using fiberglass (rather than a metal alloy), laptop makers could expect to lop off $20 from the gross cost of manufacturing a laptop. That gross saving on a per unit basis means that your next laptop may be housed in fiberglass.

Some Recent Advancements In Resin Infusion

Resin infusion is a popular method for creating custom composite materials, which are used throughout the power generation industry. As one of the leading methods in the composites industry, advances are being made in resin infusion constantly. Composites World has the rundown on a new advance in resin infusion.

The development CW goes over is a “tunable” polyurethane-based resin system, being engineered by Huntsman Polyurethanes. It works like this:

Two-part polyurethanes (PURs) traditionally have been limited to small parts or to continuous processes, such as pultrusion, because of fast reaction time and rapid increase in viscosity after PUR’s two components are mixed. But Connolly reported that the VITROX resin combines isocyanates, polyols and a unique, proprietary catalyst system that permits processors to “dial in” a desirable gel time and viscosity profile, yielding previously unachievable processing benefits together with mechanical properties that exceed those achieved with some epoxies.

The result of Huntsman’s polyurethane innovation is that impact-resistance, high-performance parts may be able to be formed by resin transfer molding and resin infusion using these new, “tunable” polyurethanes. Hopefully, we’ll see this sort of research help coax resin infusion manufacturing to become more widespread in the power generation industry.

Custom Composites Getting Muscles from Mussels!

Custom composites (including composite resin matrices) are used throughout many manufacturing industries. The power generation industry uses composite resin matrices like epoxy resins, polyester-vinyl ester, and polymide materials.

Aside from resin composites, there are a variety of other types of composite materials. Some of the most exciting advances made in composite technology are in high-strength carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are used in applications like constructing the world’s strongest cables, fibers, and fabrics, which all have uses in myriad industries. Any advance in carbon nanotube technology is good for the world’s technological innovations.

And some these advances are coming from the least likely of places… like the ocean.

According to Materials Review, certain species of mussel, the Mytilus edulis sports an adhesive foot whose proteins can be used in composites research. The strongly binding properties of this mussel’s feet are being translated to carbon nanotube composites, increasing some composites’s tensile strength by 500%!

As composites research continues, it makes sense to think that white-coated technicians in labs are going to make the biggest strides. But as we’ve seen for some time now, mother nature still has a few tricks left up her sleeve.

Composits in Power Generation and Beyond

Composite materials like Kevlar, carbon fiber, resin epoxies, polyesters, and vinyl esters are relied on heavily by the power generation industry. Composites are extremely versatile due to their

excellent dielectric qualities;
superior mechanical strength with regard to their weight;
low thermal conductivity; and
corrosion resistance.

Some common components made by composites include collector assemblies, slot armor, turn insulation, tape kits, wedges, and thermocouples--just to name a few.

If composites were used to create and shield the massive power generation machines used to power whole cities, then you would think they were pretty robust. But now, NASA has announced that they've found a way to make composite materials even cooler: They've built an all-composite space capsule.

The properties we outlined above--a good strength to weight ratio; high corrosion and heat resistance; low thermal conductivity--all contribute to making composite applications perfect for space. In particular, the ability of composites to be formed in complex shapes while retaining their great strength and structural integrity is very important. Mike Kirsch, the NASA Engineering and Safety Center project manager sounds very optimistic when he says,

"We are very pleased with the entire test series. Throughout testing, there were no anomalies and performance aligned amazingly well with analytical predictions."

It is incredibly humbling and exciting that the frontiers of human knowledge can be expanded using the same kind of high tech materials that allow us to charge our cellphone and brew coffee in the morning.

The Power Generation Blog

Kevlar Mithril Jacket Will Last Longer Than You!

Fiberglass Laptops Take a Bit Out of Apple?

Some Recent Advancements In Resin Infusion

Custom Composites Getting Muscles from Mussels!

Composits in Power Generation and Beyond

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