CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/791367
MARCH 2017 48 CompositesWorld New Products » NOISE, VIBRATION & HARSHNESS DAMPING MATERIALS Composite damping material SMAC, a Toulon, France-based advanced materials supplier, has announced the launch of SMACWRAP, a composite damping solution. SMAC notes that high-modulus and high-strength composite materials tend to be noisy when shocks (even small) occur, and the sound gener- ated with these parts can be uncomfortable and unpleasant. It notes that in air transport, acoustic comfort in aircraft is a major issue for passengers. SMAC's skin-damping principle is based on shearing of a viscoelastic material between two hard layers subjected to vibration. By shearing, specific viscoelastic materials dissipate energy (Joule's thermoelastic effect). One layer is the structure to damp, and the other hard layer combined with the viscoelastic (and the adhesive) material composes the skin-damping product. SMACWRAP is a thin viscoelastic rubber specifically formulated by SMAC and delivered in rolls 60-600 mm wide and 0.2 mm thick. Damping zones must be determined by the designer, and to prevent reduction of mechanical properties, SMAC recommends placing SMACWRAP on top of existing structures, and to cover SMACWRAP with a constrained layer (i.e., with the same Young's modulus as the structure). Reported benefits of SMACWRAP, compared to other damping materials, include vibration, noise and weight reduc- tion, easy application, better crash performance and increased flexibility/ anisotropy. www.smac-sas.com » DATA GATHERING/MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE TOOLS Material and process software updated Granta Design Ltd. (Cambridge, UK) has enhanced its GRANTA MI materials information management system, its integrated set of software tools designed to give engineering enterprises complete control over how they collect and apply materials knowledge. GRANTA MI:Workflow enables companies to manage materials information and the processes that they require, to ensure that such information can be requested, collected, approved and released in a controlled, secure and traceable manner. Organizations can set up workflows, for example, to ensure that information flows through the system based on an agreed set of steps, and appropriately qualified persons sign off each step. MI:Workflow enables users to implement to-do lists, e-mail notifications, approval sequences, moderation queues and other actions restricted to specified users. It offers a clear user experience for those who consume or contribute to a materials database — they only perform actions relevant to them. Underpinning the system is a Workflow Designer tool and a flexible engine that ensures workflow rules are adhered to, including a Forms Engine for creating tailored user experiences. A key feature of the system, says Granta, is the resulting audit trail — a record of who performed which step of the process, and when. A typical application is processing material test requests, allowing engineers to request test programs, lab managers to schedule and prioritize tasks and a management chain to sign off and release the resulting design data to a wider community. www.grantadesign.com » ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT & MATERIALS Industrial desktop 3D printer Avante Technology LLC (Cheyenne, WY, US) has announced the commer- cial release of its new Fabricatus High Precision Desktop 3D Printer. Designed to print tooling for molds as well as precision parts, using propri- etary Avante engineering-grade composite filaments, this printer, says the company, is targeted toward tooling and manufacturing engineers who seek to design, build and revise molds and fixtures faster and at less cost than conventional means afford. Capable of 0.05 mm layer thickness at 40 mm/sec, the printer is, says Avante, as precise as many more-expensive, industrial-class printers. It features automatic print-head calibration and a Contour Correction technology that automatically corrects for deviations in flatness of the print bed. The printer also uses dual, fully independent hot ends to provide what Avante claims is a superior way to support printing with two filaments on the same print job. Printing support material with the second, independent hot end allows for more precise placement of the material without the risk of one filament "drooling" on the other filament's print path. Unlike twin nozzles on a single carriage, independent hot-end carriages insulate each extruder assembly to facilitate temperature control in each extruder. The hot ends are coordinated to alternate printing of each layer without danger of collision. Each printer comes with two reels of Avante FilaOne filaments (gray and green), two Avante FilaOne printing adhesion sheets, a copy of Avante Emendo automatic .STL file repair software, Slc3r slicing software and Repetier Host printing management software, a putty knife and user guide. Cost of the unit is US$3,750. www.avante-technology.com SMACWRAP ® Constrained layer Existing structure NEW PRODUCTS