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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 60°C 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.
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>> 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 90°C 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.
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>> MARINE
The 105’ trimaran Sodeb’o designed by Nigel Irens and partner Benoit Cabaret, will be sailed by French multihull skipper Thomas Coville, in an attempt to break the Single-handed Around the World record of 71 days, currently held by Ellen McArthur on B&Q Castorama. Both boats were designed by Irens – Cabaret, and built by Boatspeed Performance Sailcraft in Gosford, New South Wales using structural materials supplied by ATL Composites.
Sodeb’o was launched on June 21 and Colville elected to return to France by the unusual route of New Caledonia, Indonesia, the Seychelles, Red Sea, Suez Canal, Gibraltar, to arrive at Sables d’Olonne in mid September. “I want to get to know the boat on my own, to find out how much effort is needed, especially where it comes to sail handling. It will be a foretaste of what it will be like on the round-the-world record attempt, planned for later in the year.”
Construction
AIREX R63 structural foam, used in the construction of the hull and floats, combines very high elongation and excellent bond strength. Extremely damage tolerant, R63 is an exceptional core for dynamically loaded and shock absorbing structures, such as Sodeb’o.
Other products used in the hull construction included AIREX C70 and selected densities of BALTEKR end grain balsa products. The combination of core materials was chosen to meet Sodeb’o weight targets, stress and impact loads and other design parameters.
Boatspeed used ATL’s unique KINETIX R240/H341 wet-preg epoxy system to optimize the mechanical properties of the carbon laminates. Fibreglass impregnating equipment was used with this long open-time system, followed by cure under vacuum at relatively low temperatures, to meet the weight fraction required in the designers specifications. A selection of TECHNIGLUE adhesives, also supplied by ATL, was used for various secondary bonding applications in the construction.
After the hull and floats were constructed, structural fitout began. Custom DuFLEX Composite Panels with nomex cores and carbon skins, were manufactured by ATL Composites and supplied as CNC routed kits for the bulkheads and floors to reduce construction time.
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