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Improved Composites Manufacturing
JoeSilva writes: "I immediately thought this cheaper and faster process for manufacturing composite materials could really lend a hand to the goals of HyperCars a-la the Rock Mountain Institute folks, and Reusable Space Launchers a-la X-33/VentureStar, Roton, and others. The RMI folks have been advocating use of carbon fiber composites, but have noted that Aluminum has seen some favor with the Auto manufacturers, and one reason for that has been cost. The X-33 program was set way back due to a manufacturing failure in making what they claimed was the worlds largest carbon fiber composite fuel tank...in fact I recall reading that there was no AutoClave in the world big enough for the tank size for VentureStar. The X-33 was a smaller scale test vehicle...not a launcher. The new process can make whole boats and airplane fuselages."
... Because they don't read the article before commenting either. From the article:
... The process has superior performance to autoclave, vacuum and atmospheric curing methods in terms of strength, stiffness and appearance."
I appreciate that you have an understanding of the topic, due to the detailed nature of your comment, but I almost skipped the article after reading what you had to say. But, apparently,
Dr Hodgkin, says that the Quickstep process is a fast fabrication method for making very high quality (to aerospace standard) composite products without using an autoclave.
The vaccuum used in an autoclave is necessary to 'suck' out airpockets
is actually 60-200 psi. As far as the recycling thing goes, you may have a point. But, as far as I can tell, recycling technologies are usually developed after a manufacturing technology.
ceci n'est pas un 'sig'
The main reason that the Automobile industry will never use this is the same reason that it hasn't gone anywhere with ceramic engines. In the early '80s, the big three auto companies did research on Ceramic engines that could run hotter and were lighter and stronger than steel engine blocks. The reason that the development never went anywhere had nothing to do with ceramics' brittle nature (which is just a design technicallity). The reason was because ceramic engines couldn't be recycled. Towards the middle of the '80s, recycling automobiles became a big deal and it has been ever since.
Carbon fiber paneling won't ever replace aluminum because
Aluminum is Earth's most abundant metal
Aluminum is infinitely more recycleable than carbon fiber composites. The only thing that you can recycle carbon fiber composites into is chopped-carbon fiber composites.
The process from the article is useful for a couple of things. Large carbon fiber shapes can be created because an autoclave is no longer neccessary. Protype carbon fiber components can be created because of no autoclave and cheap molds can be used.
I don't feel that high quality carbon fiber components will ever be created by this process. The vaccuum used in an autoclave is necessary to 'suck' out airpockets and provide a uniformly dense material. The carbon fibers are brittle and the stress concentrations that arrise in microscopic air pockets are enough to fracture the fibers (eventually). This same problem has occured over and over again in other thermoset composite processing techniques (what the article describes). I worked on a thermoset production process for Glass Fiber enhanced Nylon.
These techniques are innovative and they have important applications. However, these applications are limited to low-cost and low-quality components, or components where the traditional processes can't be used (complex geometry components, or, large/small scale components).
Keeping