Aerospace manufacturers are actively incorporating high performance, lightweight materials into their manufacturing processes in an effort to improve efficiency, prolong product life through durability and decrease costs. I sat down with Tim Burbey, Founder and President of Blueshift, at the American Aerospace & Defense Summit to discuss lightweighting and how polymer aerogels will be a game changing material in the industry. The American Aerospace & Defense Summit will be returning to Scottsdale, Arizona, on December 6-7 2016! Find out more about the 2016 Summit.
Read More →The Digitization of Manufacturing: A Framework for Transformation
Technology plays a major role in efficient manufacturing and the early adoption of emerging technologies can lead to a significant competitive advantage. As a result many manufacturers are looking towards digitization to drive profitability and maintain competitiveness. Cognizant, a leading provider of information technology, consulting and business process outsourcing services, has generated the in-depth whitepaper below to help guide manufacturers on their journey to digital transformation. The whitepaper looks at the challenges and opportunities that manufacturers face in the current environment and cites several industry examples to highlight how innovative manufacturers, such as Mercedes-AMG and Dow Chemical, are using technology to enhance their productivity and efficiency. In the whitepaper Cognizant defines the four mandates that should be adopted by manufacturers seeking to take advantage of emerging technologies and outlines a practical transformation road-map that is built on their digital maturity framework. To hear more from Cognizant, join the discussion at the American Manufacturing Summit 2016 taking place on February 29th – March 1st in Chicago!
Read More →How Plasma Enables Enhanced Efficiency and Decreases Costs in Aerospace Manufacturing.
Aerospace and defense manufacturers are constantly seeking ways to improve product durability and reliability while reducing costs. Incorporating composite materials into aerospace production has presented manufacturers with unique cleaning and adhesion challenges in processes such as joining, printing, coating, sealing and painting. Surface treatment and surface modification have therefore arisen as a critical factor to aerospace manufacturers, especially during the production of aircraft components such as wings or fuselages. Plasma treatment is ideal for a number of these processes as it helps to join dissimilar materials including difficult to adhere to plastics and lightweight substrates, protect against corrosion, prevent leaks, resist flaking. Plasmatreat is the global leader in proven automated plasma technologies for manufacturing. Plasmatreat has received a distinguished TRL 9 rating by industry customers classifying it as a reliable strong manufacturing solution. Improved bonding and adhesion for component, lightweight parts The bonding and adhesion of aerospace parts is critical for an industry where safety and durability are paramount. Lightweight, dissimilar materials such as carbon fiber (CFRP), aluminum, sheet molding compound (SMC) and high performance polymers are used in both body and component design. Joining these dissimilar materials can only be achieved when the surfaces are clean and prepped for bonding/adhesion. The cleaning and functionalization of material surfaces is necessary to achieve strong permanent bonds leading to high quality production output, yielding a safe and reliable product. Traditionally, prepping for bonding includes surface roughing such as sanding, welding or metal …
Read More →Deliver Enhanced Efficiency in Aerospace Manufacturing
Aerospace manufacturers are emphasizing the need to incorporate high performance, lightweight materials into their manufacturing processes in an effort to improve efficiency, prolong product life through durability and decrease costs. In today’s post we will look at one of the innovations entering the market that has the potential to change the way aerospace manufacturers integrate composites and use aerogels. Blueshift International Materials is a new player in the aerospace arena that has recently brought to market a unique product, AeroZero®, a 100 percent-polymer aerogel that is both lightweight and easily incorporated into composites. The high performance material combines the physical and toughness properties of plastic films with the insulation properties of aerogels to create a strong yet lightweight, thin, clean and flexible insulator. “The emphasis on the lightweighting of products has sparked a growing need for composite materials such as AeroZero due to their low density nature and high thermal insulating properties.” Explains Garrett Poe, Executive Vice President, Blueshift. As the 2015 winner of the JEC Innovation Awards in the Raw Materials category, AeroZero has already garnered attention and demonstrated its ability to be easily incorporate into composites. “Existing aerogels are made from particulate silica, which inhibits their adoption in composite structures,” explains Garrett, “Blueshift AeroZero was designed to be a highly capable core material that is extremely easy to incorporate into composites, meeting the needs of a variety of industries while seamlessly overcoming this significant obstacle organizations face with other aerogel solutions.” AeroZero’s value …
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