CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/517026
JUNE 2015 4 CompositesWorld FROM THE EDITOR » Tere is one question I have consistently felded throughout my 25 years of magazine editing and publishing, and it goes some- thing like this: "Don't you worry about running out of things to write about?" Te short answer is, "No." Te composites industry (and every industry, for that matter) is too active and dynamic to allow the editorial well to run dry. Te real measure of editorial evolution is what is covered and how, not how much. If you look back at what we published in these pages 10, 15 or 20 years ago, you will fnd stories that refect, for the most part, the technology and thinking of the time. It is instructive, therefore, to assess what we are covering today to see what it tells us. Tis month's issue is particularly telling because it refects what I argue is a tipping point for the composites industry. Tis tipping point represents the intersection of two governing principles of composites fabrication, one representing the past, and the other, the future. In the past, during the early decades of composites manufacturing, manual work prevailed, quality varied widely, and relatively high costs were tolerated because of the substantial mechanical and weight-saving benefts composites ofered. In short, the ends justifed the means. Meanwhile (and this represents the environment into which we're "tipping"), manufacturers of legacy materials, such as aluminum and steel, went back to the lab and did a great job of developing lighter alloys that have, in the past few years, eroded the cost/beneft advantage of composites. We're seeing this play out vividly in the aerospace and automotive markets. Tus, the pressure is now on composites fabricators to optimize material selection and part design and develop mass-production strategies that demonstrate not only an end-product performance advan- tage, but a manufacturing cost/efciency edge as well. In short, the end product increasingly will be justifed by the means. We have several stories this month that refect the indus- try's efort not only to be more cost-efective and efcient but to tackle applications that just a few years ago would have been impossible to consider. You'll fnd the impossibility in our story (p. 44) about the composite façade realized and fabricated by Kreysler & Associates for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Tis project represents not only an unprecedented use of composites in a daunting construction scenario, but also a composites-enabled consolidation of structures and installation activities that enabled the SFMOMA contractor to actually save money compared to conventional materials and methods. On p. 34, you will fnd Sara Black's report on thermoplastic composites R&D; in European aerospace applications, based on visits she and I paid to several thermoplastics specialists in Te Netherlands and France earlier this year. Boeing and Airbus are investing substantial time and money in an efort to prove the viability of composites in aerostructures, and companies such as Fokker Aerostructures are not only proving such viability but also earning production contracts in the process. Our two Works in Progress stories this month (p. 26 and p. 30) address, respectively, chopped carbon fber mechanical strength and bubble behavior in out-of-autoclave (OOA) fabrication. Te appeal of chopped carbon fber is substantial, as Donna Dawson's report shows — at the right length and orientation, it could ofer mechanical properties approaching continuous carbon fber. Under- standing and managing bubble behavior in OOA processing has real potential to help fabricators more efciently produce composite structures, out of the autoclave, that are comparable with autoclave- cured structures. Finally, on p. 62, you'll fnd Peggy Malnati's report on the design and development of the composite decklid for the Nissan GT-R. Tis is a relatively high-end vehicle, but the application proves the ef- ciency and afordability of composites in automotive, thanks in the main to a compression molding-based process can achieve produc- tion volumes of up to 50,000 units per year. So, no, we'll not run out of editorial fodder anytime soon, and we have you to thank for that. And here's hoping that we continue to tip toward ends that are justifed by the means. . The end product will increasingly be justi- fed by the means. JEFF SLOAN — Editor- In- Chief