CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/532917
SAMPE North America (Covina, CA, US) held its signature conference and exhibi- tion, May 18-21, at the Baltimore Convention Center. The event, hosted by SAMPE's Great Lakes and Baltimore/Washington chapters, as always attracted composite material experts and practitioners from many indus- tries. Given the event's East Coast location and proximity to Washington, DC and US defense interests, the conference keynote speaker was Thomas Russell, director of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL, Adelphi, MD, US). Taking the long view, Russell said that the ARL is focused on the year 2040 in terms of new technologies and materials. "Our job as a technology community is to make current technolo- gies obsolete," he pointed out. His group is currently researching an array of new concepts, including armor and helmet designs, and he outlined areas he believes require much more work: Among them, better portable power sources for the warfghter, and better weather prediction. Ultimately, Russell indicated, ARL is migrating to an open-campus concept, and is engaging in cooperative agreements with private industry to develop new technology. SAMPE's Awards Luncheon speaker, Dr. David Robarge, is the US Central Intelligence Agency's chief historian. He had attendees' full and rapt attention, with talk about the A-12 OXCART Archangel reconnaissance aircraft. The Mach 3-capable A-12, which replaced the U2 spy plane, came out of a stealth aircraft program started in the late 1950s and declassifed in 2007. Robarge described the aircraft's materials, which included composites, as well as its mission history. Notably, he revealed that Area 51 in south- ern Nevada was where the plane's developmental models were tested to evaluate radar cross-section, and that those activities likely spawned the unidentifed fying object (UFO) rumors that persist to this day. Although the A-12 was decommissioned in 1968 after only a small number of missions, a US Air Force variant, the well-known SR-71 Blackbird, continued fying until 1989. "The A-12 and SR-71 are still the fastest, highest, jet-powered, piloted aircraft ever fown," claimed Robarge. Conference themes included structural health monitor- ing (SHM), nanotechnology, additive manufacturing (see CW's WIP on 3D-printed tooling, p. 22), multifunctional composites, modeling and testing, as well as an update SAMPE Baltimore conference looks back with an eye to the future SAMPE showcases composites' potential on its conference show foor as others look to realize it with revolutionary approaches to laminate design and mold temperature control … and a new all-composite rotorcraft airframe. on the DARPA TRUST program, aimed at certifcation of primary bonded structure (see CW's recent TRUST cover- age online | short.compositesworld.com/DARPATRUST). Standout papers included the second-place Outstanding Paper Award winner, by Danning Zhang of the University of Delaware. She discussed the issue of reducing voids in thermoplastic laminates by using the interlayer permeability of the prepreg stack during vacuum bag processing. The process must be optimized to allow time for entrapped air to fow before the temperature rise melts the polymer. The panel "Recent Federal Programs in Composites" assembled a group of US government ofcials from NASA, the Ofce of Naval Research (ONR), the Department of Energy, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the ARL. The discussion focused on developing new composite materials and new processing technologies that would improve technology adoptability. A key takeaway was a statement by NASA's LaNetra Tate that the Agency wants to see composites used as a primary structure on launch vehicles. And ONR's Bill Nickerson commented that the US Navy is interested in funding better materials. "Durability and performance is the big driver for us," he pointed out, "but when it comes to strength, weight and afordability — there's a big gap of where we are now and where we want to be." The SAMPE Baltimore exhibit hall yielded some intriguing new products. Find a sampling in the "CW New Products" department on p. 42. JULY 2015 14 CompositesWorld TRENDS Source | SAMPE