Diab was awarded the 100% thermoplastic and recyclable panel for cabin interiors at JEC World 2022

Diab received the JEC Composites Innovation Award for the 100% Thermoplastic and Recyclable Panel for Cabin interiors. The panel is 100% recyclable, includes recycled content from production waste, and is consequently 100% waste-free. Being recyclable and reusable, it offers the Aerospace industry a vital step toward a circular economy.

Diab’s sustainable panel solution for cabin interiors takes advantage of the performance of the structural foam core Divinycell F and combines it with thermoplastic skins. Using only materials already tested and qualified by Aerospace OEM, the panel is fully compliant with all requirements within the industry, yet 100% recyclable.

Diab also created a new innovative manufacturing process that saves up to 20% of the cost, up to 10% of weight, and offers higher mechanical and fire resistance behavior than current Honeycomb core and Phenolic resin/Glass fibre solutions.

“At the start of the project, we decided to think out of the box and push the limit of existing materials and processes”, says Aurelien Lafforgue, Market Segment Manager Aerospace & Industry at Diab. “We wanted to simplify the manufacturing process as much as possible with a single step process, with the panel ready to use out of the mould as the ultimate target.”

Consequently, Diab decided to avoid using an adhesive film and instead welded together skins and core to create adhesive properties much higher than the current solution with Phenolic resin. The result is mechanical properties that are fully compliant with cabin interior applications.

In addition, Diab decided to use a new generation of coating systems developed for the cabin interior market that can effectively be ‘welded’ to the panel as it is molded in a single, one-step process using induction heating. This method takes minutes rather than hours, which is the case when using multiple layers.

The shaped and decorated parts presented during JEC Show (the product picture above) have been produced in one single-step process in partnership with the company Aviacomp.

Diab, together with their partners AkzoNobel, Roctool, and RESCOLL, shape the future of cabin interiors.

Source: Diab Group/JEC COMPOSITES

Aroma chemicals

 I have completed an assignment on the Aroma chemicals market for a well-reputed company and shared my insights on Aroma chemicals mainly the Benzenoids market and demand for the Asia Pacific and European Union etc.

I have covered an overview landscape of the market, swot analysis, latest technological advancements, customer preference over pricing and design, Investment structure, etc stated in detail in the report.

Eurecat's "Compositronics" Technology!

The technology center @Eurecat has announced tests in manufacturing with Compositronics for the development of functional composite materials, by combining various manufacturing processes, flexible printed electronics, and insertion of components, which provide new features in terms of lightness and in the cheapening of industrial assembly.

According to the director of the Composite Materials Unit at Eurecat, María Eugenia Rodríguez, Compositronics "is the perfect combination for the development of functional lightweight structures". That is, "thanks to the lightness of composites and printed electronics, it is possible to significantly reduce the weight of components and large structures, and reduce costs in assembly processes with the introduction of sensors during the manufacture of the composite".

The various processes "are carried out at Eurecat's facilities, at Plastrónica's pilot plant and in the laboratories of the technology center's composite materials unit," adds María Eugenia Rodríguez.

Very interesting concept! We look forward to see how it develops!

Source:managingcomposites

Sinoma Chengdu celebrates its 100,000th 260L carbon fiber fully wound composite gas cylinder

 Sinoma Science and Technology (Chengdu)’s 100,000th 260L steel liner carbon fiber fully wound composite gas cylinder successfully rolled off the production line. More than 60 people including the company’s middle-level and above cadres, technical backbones, and front-line employee representatives participated in the event.

The 260L steel liner carbon fiber fully wound composite gas cylinder is an attempt to fully respond to the lightweight development direction of the gas cylinder market. 

In 2016, China’s national standard of the automobile industry, “Outline Dimensions, Axle Loads and Mass Limits of Automobiles, Trailers and Automobile Trains” was released, and greatly lowered the mass limit of vehicles. Sinoma Chengdu had a keen insight into the lightweight needs of the gas cylinder market, and quickly made a decision to develop weight-reducing gas cylinders through in-depth research. With industry experience and innovation spirit, the company’s R&D team quickly developed a 260L steel liner carbon fiber fully wound composite gas cylinder, and began mass production in April 2018. 

The successful development of this product has achieved a 22% increase in gas cylinder volume compared with traditional products, a 20% increase in cruising range, and a cumulative weight reduction of 1.1 tons for a single heavy commercial truck. 

Sinoma Chengdu has been deeply involved in the gas cylinder industry for more than ten years, and its products are widely used in automobile manufacturing, gas storage and transportation, drones, and special equipment. A series of innovative products such as 210L 320L 385L hydrogen storage cylinders as well as 70MPa domestic carbon fiber hydrogen storage cylinders have successively won awards from the Sichuan Enterprise Technology Center, Sichuan High-growth Enterprise, Chengdu Unicorn, and Chengdu Invisible Champion Enterprise. 

Source:jeccomposites/Sinoma Chengdu

Strength of fibers

Let's learn more about the strength of fibers!

Fibers generally exhibit much higher strengths than the bulk form of the same material. The probability of a flaw per unit length present in a sample is an inverse function of the volume of the material. Since fibers have a very low volume per unit length, they are much stronger on average than the bulk material, which has a high volume per unit length. On the other hand, because a bulk material has a much higher content of weakening flaws, it exhibits much lower variability in strength. Thus, the smaller the fiber diameter and the shorter its length, the higher the average and maximum strength but the greater the variability. Therefore, fibers have higher strength than their bulk counterparts, but they have greater scatter in their strength. The variability in the strength of fibers is a function of the flaws they contain and, in particular, the flaws they contain on the surface.

Flaws can be minimized by careful manufacturing processes and the application of coatings to protect them from mechanical and environmental damage. Precursors used in fiber manufacturing processes must be of high purity and free of inclusions. Many fiber manufacturing processes involve drawing or spinning operations that impose very high degrees of orientation parallel to the fiber axis, thus producing a more favorable orientation in the crystalline or atomic structure. In addition, some processes involve very high cooling rates that produce ultrafine-grained structures, which are not achievable in most bulk materials.

That said how do commercially important fibers fare against each other when it comes to a specific strength and specific modulus? Check out this graph to discover!

Bibliographical Reference:

Structural Composite Materials - Page 32

Source:managingcomposites

Adani, Total team up in $5bn green hydrogen project

 Green hydrogen projects will help India slash its reliance on oil and coal and help it curb emissions.

French giant TotalEnergies SE and Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate plan to invest $5 billion to produce green hydrogen and related products in India as the world’s third-largest polluter seeks to decarbonize.

Total will buy a 25% stake in Adani New Industries Ltd. for an undisclosed amount, according to an exchange filing from Adani Enterprises Ltd. on Tuesday. Adani New Industries is a closely-held company of Adani Enterprises, the flagship firm for the coal-to-ports conglomerate. Adani Enterprises’s shares were trading almost 6% higher in Mumbai at 11:53 a.m. local time.

The purchase would be yet another shot in the arm for Adani, who has been seeking global investors and has committed to spending as much as $70 billion by 2030 across the green-energy value chain. Green hydrogen projects will also help India — the world’s third-largest carbon-emitting country — to slash its reliance on oil and coal as it chases a target of being net-zero carbon by 2070.

Total is boosting clean-energy output while reining in oil-product sales as shareholders demand greater efforts to fight climate change. It has previously teamed up with Adani to invest in natural gas and renewables in India, where the government this year unveiled plans — and incentives — for massive hydrogen growth. In 2019, Total bought a 37.4% stake in Adani Gas Ltd. — now called Adani Total Gas Ltd. — and last year spent $2.5 billion acquiring 20% of Adani Green Energy Ltd. and a 50% stake in a portfolio of solar assets.

Green hydrogen, produced from water and renewable power, is forecast for rapid growth this decade, and global output could jump as much as 18-fold to about 11.6 million tons a year by 2030 with strong policy support, according to BloombergNEF.

Potential Path

It also offers a potential path to decarbonize heavy industries such as steelmaking, cement production, and fertilizers. While the fuel is still a long way from being commercially viable, India targets production of 5 million tons by the end of the decade.

Adani New Industries will start by investing around $5 billion to build 2 gigawatts of hydrogen-producing electrolyzers powered by a 4-gigawatt solar and wind farm to make urea to displace imports of the fertilizer, Total said in a press release. The venture eventually plans to target 1 million tons of green hydrogen production a year by 2030, underpinned by 30 gigawatts of clean power capacity.

Other major producers could include Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries, which is aiming for initial output of 15 million tons a year of green hydrogen by 2030 from a network of global projects. Vestas Wind Systems A/S,

Source:Bloomberg

Phase-1 consulting service for Type 4 composite cylinder project for Indian market

 Gruntech Polymer Consultants have completed a phase-1 consulting service for a global multinational company to enter into an Indian market for a Type 4 composite cylinder project.

The Indian market has got great potential for Make in India to gain strong momentum among international investors.

It is exciting to see the progress that we are making as an industry and the growth that Type 4 composite cylinders are having in new applications.
These initiatives will help me progress towards getting the composite cylinder market to scale in India and other Asia Pacific regions but there is a lot more work to be done.

First CO2 long-duration battery storage launched in Sardinia

Italian long-duration storage developer Energy Dome has launched the first CO2 battery demonstration nationally.

The facility in Sardinia, Italy is aimed to mark the final de-risking of CO2 battery technology as a long-duration storage option as the company takes it to the commercial scaling phase.

Energy Dome says in a statement that the initial phase of operations has confirmed the performance of the CO2 battery and its capability of storing energy for a long duration, all while maintaining highly competitive round-trip efficiency, without degradation or site dependency.

Developed using off-the-shelf equipment, rapid deployment of the battery should now be possible.

“We can now provide an answer to the most pressing issue of our time: climate change,” said Energy Dome Founder and CEO Claudio Spadacini.

“Our breakthrough technology, the CO2 battery, is now commercially available to make cost-effective renewable energy dispatchable on a global scale.”

Energy Dome claims its CO2 batteries can be deployed at less than half the cost of similar size lithium-ion battery storage facilities and using readily available materials including carbon dioxide and water.

The company is now preparing for its first full-scale commercial facility, a 20MW/200MWh plant which is due to be deployed by the end of 2023.

Other commercial agreements include a 20MW/100MWh facility for the Italian utility A2A and a non-exclusive license agreement with power engineering company Ansaldo Energia on long-duration energy storage projects in Italy, Germany, the Middle East, and Africa.

Energy Dome’s proprietary technology is based on a closed-loop process with CO2 as one of a few gases that can be condensed and stored as a liquid under pressure at ambient temperatures.

In charging mode, the CO2 is drawn from the gasholder, the dome, compressed, and then stored in the liquid state. When energy needs to be released, the CO2 is evaporated and expanded into a turbine, and then returned back to the gasholder for the next charging cycle.

In comparison with compressed air energy storage, the volume requirement is much reduced, while the cryogenic technology requirements of liquid air energy storage are avoided.

Venture capital-backed Energy Dome is planning to launch a Series B fundraising round to fund the rapid commercial scale-up.

Source:Eqmagpro