CompositesWorld
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CompositesWorld.com 19 TRENDS a phenolic honeycomb that had a skin of Mylar over the top of it. And that phenolic honeycomb assembly was bonded with gaseous nitrogen, and the nitrogen kept the tempera- ture down, but we couldn't keep the seal, and the gaseous nitrogen was leaking all over the place. …. When they finally gave up on it, fortunately this guy named Wernher von Braun, the rocket scientist that came from Germany, knew about this polyure- thane stuff, and so we tried to see if it could work under cryogenic condi- tions, because nobody knew that either. …. It took us about two years to figure out how to get this stuff to stay on, and we finally did that for launch vehicle five. CW: With the S-2 program complete, you were looking for work? CM: I was out with all this experi- ence, and nowhere to go. One of the men I was working with was trans- ferred to the Los Angeles office of North American Aviation, and they were building XB-70, the first super- sonic fighter, a huge, huge plane. He called me one day and said, "We just got delivery of a 50-ft CNC" — which was one of the earliest ones built — "and I was thinking about the foam we used on the side of the Saturn. We need something to do the tool proofing on this thing to make sure it's working right. Can you make this foam in a higher density, as a board, something we can machine? Because right now we are using railroad ties, and we are tying those together and machining those." I said, "Yes, we certainly can," without a clue of what that really meant. So, that was my first exposure to tooling board. …. The first board we made was 4 inches thick, 4-ft by 4-ft, and they tried it out and liked it a lot. They went from just tool proofing the landing gear to tool proofing the whole, entire wing section, so they said, "Hey, can you guys do this in a 40-ft piece?" … And again, the answer was, "Of course." … I still say the same thing. I always say, "Yes," and we get together and figure out how to do it. That will never change. BIZ BRIEF RTP Company (Winona, MN, US), a compounder of custom-engineered thermoplastics, an- nounced its expansion into Poland with an 7,990m 2 facility located at Prologis Park V in Nowa Wieś Wrocławska. Its newest manufacturing location will support regional demand, provide a consistent supply of RTP Company's product to European customers, and provide RTP Company with the ability to expand operations in the future. The new facility will have a wide dock area, office space and a laboratory with controlled temperature and humidity. The production area will be equipped with additional ventilation and drainage, and will accommodate up to six production lines. Building our future...together! 815-987-6000 | www.ingersoll.com AUTOMATED FIBER PLACEMENT MACHINES LEADING THE PRODUCTIVITY CHALLENGE