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>> AUTOMOTIVE

DURATEC for Super Car Production

Lighting Composites aims firmly at the motor-sport industry, or more specifically V8 Supercars, with customers such as Dick Johnson Racing, Steve Ellery Racing, and WPS Racing. Components supplied include body kits, aero dynamic devices (wings), air ducting and interior panels. Aero kits on V8’s have high structural and toughness requirements, therefore advanced fibres and epoxy resins are used throughout.

The front spoiler, for instance, is manufactured using the wet-layup, vacuum bag system. DURATEC 714-002 White Surface Primer is used in-mold, with a variety of advanced reinforcements and two core styles, laminated with ATL’s KINETIX R246LV Laminating Epoxy. The part is post-cured in mold at 600C for 12 hours and TECHNNIGLUE- HP R5 Toughened Adhesive is used to bond in aluminium mounting points.

Principal of Lighting Composites, Bruce Mooring, commented, “DURATEC 714-002 is not only lighter that gelcoat systems, it also allows you to go straight to the topcoat application after minimum sanding.”

This combination provides a tough, but light component which will not shatter in first corner (touch-up) hits and gives the race teams confidence to go race distance without having to replace parts during the race. One of Dick Johnson’s cars, with a Lightning Composites spoiler, completed full race distance at Bathurst (1,000 kilometers) and the same front spoiler has since completed INDY 2004 without the need for replacement.

>> INDUSTRIAL

Australia Bridges the Gap

Reinforced plastics are making their way into Australia’s infrastructure, as Wagners Composite Fibre Technologies, Toowoomba, Queensland, supply composite bridges in the Australian public road network. Wagners were commissioned by the New South Wales Roads and Transport Authority to replace a deteriorated 12m timber span of a 90m multi-span bridge in Northern New South Wales.

The new bridge utilizes pultruded profiles made using carbon fibre, polyester and epoxy resins and unidirectional, double bias and continuous strand E-fibreglass matting and rovings. The bridge structure is 520mm deep, 12m long and 7m wide, and consists of two sections joined using shear keys.

ATL Composites worked with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) to assess what adhesive properties would be required to bond the pultrusions, and provide optimum mechanical properties. A thixotropic, toughened epoxy, was formulated to provide high tensile and peel strength in an adhesive, with a higher than normal HDT. Post cured laminates resulted in a 900C HDT.

Once the pultrusions are bonded to form a box beam, they are then wrapped with double bias e-fibreglass, with additional unidirectionals on the side to provide stiffness, and are laminated with an ATL custom blend high performance laminating system.

Composites were chosen because a highway- load rating was required, which negated the possibility of using pre-cast concrete methods, as well as the requirement for a quick replacement of the existing span to minimize traffic disruption. The two bridge sections were installed during a five-day road shutdown, which was some two months faster than traditional techniques.