Master’s student Leo Baumann, in collaboration with the ETH spin-off 9T Labs, investigated the possibility to 3D print lightweight and selectively compliant composite structures. With the supervision of the doctoral students Dominic Keidel and Urban Fasel, the team developed a wing with a continuous skin and a morphing structure, which has highly adaptive and aerodynamically efficient control surfaces reducing the aerodynamic drag.

To proof the structural performance of the morphing wing, and to analyse the flight characteristics of the aircraft, the team developed a morphing composite drone. To achieve the desired trade-off between stiffness and compliance, they used a 3D printer developed by 9T Labs, which enables the manufacturing of parts consisting of both plastics and carbon composites. All structural components of the drone were created using 3D printing technology, with the exception of the wing skin and electronics. The manufacturing process and the flight tests can be found in the Journal of “Manufacturing Letters”.

The advantage of the 3D printed manufacturing methods is that the carbon fibres can be aligned to achieve the desired characteristics of the part. By aligning the fibres with the load paths, the properties of the material are optimally exploited. By printing complex geometries with less waste material, the parts could be manufactured at a lower cost compared to conventional manufacturing methods. The printing process is repeatable and easily adaptable, which allows multiple iterations of a part and fast fabrication of spare components.

The drone was manufactured in individual components, with the main structural parts of the wing, fuselage and V-​Tail being printed on the 3D printer. The lattice structure of the wing was then covered with a thin skin. This combination of a load-​carrying internal structure and the aerodynamically smooth surface leads to an efficient, lightweight aircraft. Both the plastics and composite parts are based on thermoplastic materials, which enables the reheating and welding of the structure. This could be used to assembly the final structure without requiring any additional adhesive.

Both the wing and the V-​Tail relies on the same morphing concept to achieve control around the pitch, roll, and yaw axes. The control surfaces on the wing are actuated by eight servo motors, which enable a maximum trailing edge deflection of 48mm. By individually controlling the deflection of each motor, the lift along the span can be varied, reducing the structural loads and potentially increasing the efficiency of the drone.

A three-minute maiden flight showed ample control of the aircraft through morphing. Not only the main wing, but also the V-​tail performed excellently, achieving full control around the roll, pitch, and yaw axis. Different manoeuvres, including barrel rolls and loopings, could be flown, showcasing the versatility of the aircraft.

9TLabs has recently closed a seed financing round of $ 4.3 million to finish the development of their industrial 3D printing solution and scale-up the first mass manufacturing industrial use cases.

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With the purchase of the UK based distributor, BÜFA is not only expanding its presence in the UK market but also consolidating its position as a speciality manufacturer for the composites market in Europe.

We are glad to strengthen our trusting, successful cooperation with BÜFA, and at the same time create a stronger company in the UK.  This will serve our customers even better and create a bright future for our UK employeesJoe Salley, Global CEO AOC Aliancys

Resins from AOC Aliancys, who have supplied BÜFA Composite Systems for more than 50 years, are transformed into specialities by the Rastede-based chemical company. The complete package also includes a long-standing sales partnership in numerous European markets.

The company will officially change over from the 3rd of March and will offer its existing product range In combination with the BÜFA specialities product range.

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Novel fibre-reinforced composites are becoming increasingly important as stable and lightweight materials. One example of this type of composite is carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP), which are used in aircraft construction or in the construction of Formula 1 racing cars and sports bicycles. The properties of these materials depend to a large extent on how the tiny fibres are aligned and how they are arranged and embedded in the surrounding material, influencing the mechanical, optical, or electromagnetic behaviour of the composites.

To investigate the fibre’s orientation in such composites, researchers must look inside them. One could use small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), exploiting the fact that X-rays are scattered when they penetrate matter. The resulting scattering pattern can then be used to obtain information about the interior of a sample and potentially the orientation of the fibres. However, the common SAXS methods have the disadvantage of being quite slow: It can take up to several hours to scan centimetre-sized specimens with the required resolution.

The new method works not only with X-rays from synchrotron facilities such as the Swiss Light Source SLS, but also with beams from conventional X-ray tubes. It is expected that this novel approach will find practical applications in medical devices and non-destructive testing as well as the area of homeland security Prof. Marco Stampanoni

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and ETH Zurich, together with colleagues from EPF Lausanne and the Danish spin-off company Xnovo Technology, have now succeeded in further developing the technology for practical applications. As proof of principle, the researchers used the new method to display fibres’ orientation in a carbon fibre ribbon during the knotting process. They acquired time-resolved X-ray projections at a rate of 25 images per second over a period of 11 seconds.

The researchers have published their results in the journal Nature Communications.

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By acquiring Axson Technologies, Sika is increasing its product offering and expertise in the Tooling and Composites business. The main technologies used are polyurethane and epoxy, which will further complement and advance the future product offerings.

Jan Jenisch, CEO of Sika said;

We are delighted to welcome all Axson Technologies employees into the Sika family. The acquisition will make Sika a strong player in the global Tooling and Composites business and will expand and complement our product range for a broad customer base.

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The SKYe SH09 is a single engine helicopter and made its first flight in October 2014. The SKYe SH09 features a full composite airframe as well as all-composite main and tail rotor blades; it is equipped with glass cockpit, avionics systems and the Honeywell HTS–900–2 turbine engine.

With a cruise speed of 270 km/h (145 knots) it is not only one of the fastest single engine light helicopter in its class, but also offers very long-range – in excess of 800km (430 nautical miles) with standard fuel tanks.

TenCate will supply the Swiss helicopter maker an Epoxy resin that’s known for its toughness and ability to be used in out of autoclave fabrication conditions. Frank Meurs, Group Director of TenCate Advanced Composites EMEA, said;

We are very pleased to have been chosen by Marenco Swisshelicopter for the supply of our system based materials for this new and important project. This complements our global growth strategy in thermoset materials, not only from our facilities in the United States of America, but also from our facility in Langley Mill, United Kingdom.

The SKYe SH09 is scheduled to go into production within the next 12 to 16 months.

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The new joint venture will be lead by Jürgen H. Aurer who will develop the composites market in the German-speaking countries. This cooperation is expected to provide a long-term relationship between Velox and its customers in Austria, Germany and Switzerland due to the combination of know-how for these new markets.

François Minec, Velox General Manger said

We are very happy to welcome Jürgen in our team especially as we trust he is the right person to push VELOX on the German-speaking Composites markets due to his professional career

With 25 years of experience in Composites, Jürgen H. Aurer has a strong knowledge on the products and the market. His experience as Manager at BASF, Managing Director at BÜFA, Euroresins, DSM Composite Resins Deutschland and ALPOMID, founded by himself in 2011, brought him a large knowledge on the Composites market. Jürgen has also been very active for the Composites Industry as he was until 2010 President of AVK, the Federation of Reinforced Plastics, as well as boardmember of GKV. With this partnership VELOX is confident to enter the German-speaking markets to become the one-stop shop in Europe for composites.

Jürgen H. Aurer said;

Velox is a valuable partner for the Processors as well as for the Principals in the European Composites Industry. My heart is beating for composites and I am very happy to be able to contribute together with VELOX to the further growth of this industry. This cooperation will give to our Austrian, German and Swiss Composites customers access to the powerful network of VELOX. New opportunities for innovative products, latest technology and composites know-how are guaranteed. We plan to launch our new activities in January 2014. Thanks to Velox extensive regional stock and distribution system we will then be ready to start with a full range of products and reliable just-in-time deliveries at competitive cost.

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The aim of the newly established enterprise is to mass-produce fibre-reinforced composite components for the automotive and aviation industries. Evonik supports the new company with its materials development expertise while SECAR will bring expert capabilities in mass producing lightweight parts, this creates unique potential for developing new production technologies.

The joint venture will be headquartered in Hönigsberg. Evonik and SECAR manage the company jointly, with Evonik owning 49 percent of the shares and SECAR 51 percent. Dr. Arnim Kraatz of Evonik Industries AG and Karl Heinz Semlitsch of SECAR Technologie GmbH are the company’s managing directors.

Gregor Hetzke, president of Evonik’s Performance Polymers Business Unit said;

For years now, our products have supported efforts within the automotive and aviation industries to move toward lightweight construction, and LiteCon is the next step in our partnership with those industries, LiteCon unites our polymer expertise with SECAR’s prowess in composite development and manufacturing, so that our customers can use these synergies to their greatest possible advantage.

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3A Composites launches new Airex and Baltek core materials offering significant weight and cost savings for infused sandwich applications.

The company has developed a new sealing technology which reduces the resin uptake of infused core material. While this reduction is above 50% for their Airex T90 and T92 cores, it is reported to be above 80% for their Baltek SB and SBC balsa cores. Depending on sandwich design, resin uptake can constitute around 15% up to 40% of the infused core materials’ total costs.

This resin saving not only reduces the cost but also the weight, with the new materials PET-cored sandwiches can now become lighter than PVC solutions.

3A Composites will launch the Airex T92 SealX and T90 SealX at JEC in Paris, while the Baltek SealX will be presented as a technology platform.

Along with these new products 3A Composites will also launch a new low-density PET core material targeted at weight and cost-sensitive applications. It is ideally suited for marine applications and meets DNV requirements for boat decks and superstructures.

Philipp Angst, Director of Product Management at 3A Composites Core Materials, says:

We have a compelling package of value-adding product solutions and services for our target markets, and we are particularly excited to launch our break-through SealX technology, bringing balsa and PET core materials to a new dimension.

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