CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/450689
CompositesWorld.com 35 NEWS N E W S N S N E W S E N W S W CFRP Camera Boom Cornerstone Research Group (CRG, Dayton, Ohio) and two Dayton-based subsidiaries, NONA Composites and Advantic LLC, were awarded the beam and sensor package contract on July 21. Te REACH system, however, was to be installed and in use before the end of September. Less 10 days for shipping to the WIPP site, that gave the CRG team only eight weeks for design, tooling, fabri- cation, assembly and shakedown testing. Te design and structural engineering was roughed out by Advantic, a CRG spin-of that specializes in advanced composite solutions for the construction and infrastructure markets. "Te camera boom had to have a 27m clear reach, but there was also a vertical requirement, in that the boom had only 0.8m of operable space between the ceiling and the top of the waste stack," explains Advantic VP of engineering Brad Doudican. Terefore, the design was stifness-driven due to the limited allowable defec- tion. It also needed to be as light as possible to facilitate mobility and full extension. "We ended up with a box-beam that changes depth continuously along its length," says Doudican. Te width was constant at 152 mm but depth declined from 762 mm at the support to 203 mm at the tip. C-channels would comprise its top and bottom caps, and fat plates would form the sidewalls. Te beam was broken down into 12 sections, each 3m long, to make it man-portable and easy to transport via elevator before assembly under- ground. Section connections would have to be easy to align and attach because assembly would be completed in a high-temperature environment by technicians in full-body protection suits, wearing three layers of gloves. Design for rapid molding "Design for manufacturability was our greatest challenge, because we needed to move so quickly," recalls NONA Composites president Ben Dietsch. "We also sought the greatest fexibility downstream to give us room to refne the structure if needed. Tis was important because we had to start without a full analysis completed." Tis approach permitted the team to initiate the frst stages of manufac- turing before the structural analyses were in hand. Te big push in the frst week was materials selection. "We were limited in what materials we could use because they had to be commercial, of-the-shelf — specifcally, available to go on the truck on the afternoon we got the contract," quips Doudican. Tis also impacted design. For example, IM7 (from Hexcel, Stamford, CT, US) was not an option for the carbon fber (CF) because the lead times were too long. "So we started with REACHing for a Solution Commissioned for the US Department of Energy's (DoE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (Carlsbad, NM, US), this very long 32m camera boom for the DoE's appropriately named REACH project was designed for and built with carbon fber composites, and then tested in only seven weeks, enabled by No Oven, No Autoclave (NONA) technology developed by the Dayton, OH-based NONA Composites team (pictured here with the fnished beam). The beam was light enough to be cantilevered from a steel support mounted to the pictured mobile frame. Source | NONA Composites Close Up, But from a Distance REACH was built to enable workers in protection suits (bottom photo) to remotely inspect — via a video camera package mounted on the composite beam — a burst 55-gal drum of contact-handled waste (middle photo) without disturbing the radioactive dust that covered its storage room (like the one pictured in top photo). Source | WIPP, US DoE