CW Talks: The Composites Podcast

In this latest installment of CW Talks, the composites podcast, CW interviews Markus Rufer from Scorpius Space Launch Co. (SSLC, Torrance, Calif., U.S.) about its Type 5 carbon fiber composite pressure vessels, recently used in two lunar lander missions for Intuitive Machines (IM, Houston, Texas, U.S.), one of the providers in NASA's (Washington, D.C., U.S.) Commercial Lunar Payload Delivery Services (CLPS) initiative. SSLC has built 150-200 tanks over 15 years, and their cryogenic tanks enable the use of greener propellants for space missions as well as offering advancements in energy storage and medical applications. Rufer discusses the company's aims to integrate tanks into the spacecraft structure, reducing parts and weight. He also offers insights into work SSLC is pursuing with applications in medical and other industries, highlighting its cryogenic technology's versatility. Photo: Intuitive Machine's Nova-C lander is equipped with two SSLC Pressurmaxx tanks that enable its LO2/LCH4 propulsion system. (Source: Intuitive Machines)

In this latest installment of CompositesWorld's CW Talks podcast, Yannick Willemin, founder of Catalysium, a new consultancy that specializes in investment trends within the composites industry, discusses the investment side of advanced manufacturing as well as industry trends shaping the composites landscape.

CompositesWorld's Carbon Fiber Conference is just around the corner, scheduled for October 8-10 in Charleston, S.C. In this episode of CW Talks, we hear from Richard Apps of Counterpoint Marketing Intelligence as he offers a preview of what Carbon Fiber Conference attendees can expect from his Wednesday Oct 9 keynote address on the "Outlook for Carbon Fiber in Aerostructures." For more information about the Carbon Fiber Conference agenda or for registration information vist carbonfiberevent.com. 

August 26-30, 2024 is National Composites Week. The theme of this year's NCW is "Composites Reinvent the World." In this episode of CW Talks we interview Christopher Mims, technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Joe Brennan, manufacturing lead – composites, Joby Aviation. Join us for this exciting discussion of how composites are reshaping the world around us particularly in the mobility/transportation sectors.

CAMX, North America's largest event dedicated to composites and advanced materials, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Brought to you by American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) and The Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE), CAMX 2024 takes place Sept. 9-12 in San Diego, Calif. In this episode, CW Talks caught up with Cindy Squires, the president and CEO of ACMA  and Rebekah Stacha, the chief executive office of SAMPE, to talk about how CAMX has evolved over the past decade, the important trends in the industry and what's in store for attendees.   

Infrastructure in the U.S., particularly, the deterioration of a number of bridges in the country has been in large topic of discussion in recent years, with the bipartisan infrastructure law designating nearly $400 billion in infrastructure investments, with around $40 billion of that earmarked for bridge repair. The recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland due to a shipping container accident, sparked a new round of discussion about bridge repairs. In this installment of CW Talks, CompositesWorld interviews fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites manufacturer Creative Composites Group's business development manager Scott Reeve and sales manager of waterfront solutions Corey Sechler about the company's use of composite materials in infrastructure rehabilitation projects, including bridges and waterfront structures.

Sustainability has become an increasingly important topic for the composites industry, with increasing demand, especially from OEMs, for sustainable business practices. Sustainability includes many areas of focus with one important area being the use of biomaterials. In this installment of CW Talks, we interview Dr Andy West, chief chemist with Sonichem, about the company's unique process for converting biomass into lignin, as well as other biomaterials of interest for composites manufacturing.  

The recycling of composite wind blades from wind turbines is a topic of much debate in the composites community and in sustainable energy discussions. In the latest episode of CW Talks, we explore a new approach aimed at the reclaim and upcycling of some of these materials when the wind blade reaches its end of life. Professor Alan Banks, innovation and industrial engagement supervisor at Ford Motor Company's Dunton Technical Center in the UK, discusses Ford's involvement with the EMPHASIZING project, a UK consortium working to develop a material from recycled glass fiber with mechanical properties superior to virgin glass, but at a price point lower than carbon fiber. 

This episode of CW Talks coincides with the 30th anniversary of the CompositesWorld brand. The first issue of High-Performance Composites, one of two magazines that would eventually merge into CW magazine, debuted in September of 1993. As part of CW's anniversary celebration, we sat down with CW publisher and brand vice president Jeff Sloan to hear about the history of the magazine, its place in the industry and some of the industry milestones of the past few decades.

In the wake of the loss of the OceanGate Titan submersible, there was much discussion and speculation about the materials used to manufacture the vehicle. Many pointed to the use of carbon-fiber as a potential source of failure, yet there has been a good deal of success in the use of the material for undersea applications including pressure vessels and unmanned submersibles.  In this episode of CW Talks, we sit down with two representatives from Composite Energy Technologies Inc., a Bristol, RI based company that manufactures a wide range of composite structures from racing sailboats to architectural designs to theme park ride vehicles to defense applications including deep-sea submersibles.  Chase Hogoboom, president and TJ Perrotti, senior Naval architect and chief design engineer discuss their experience working with the U.S. Navy on submersible designs and the rigorous testing that goes into the use of carbon fiber for undersea applications.       

In episode 40 of CW Talks: The Composites Podcast, Jeff Sloan, editor-in-chief of CompositesWorld sits down with Sarah Cox, Materials Engineer at NASA. Sarah has worked for NASA for more than 18 years and has experience applying advanced materials to space structures. Jeff talks to Sarah about her education, how she came to NASA and how she helped guide composites use there.

Consultant Joe Fox talks about the massive potential for composites use in infrastructure applications and what it will take to turn that potential into reality.

Alan Hiken, COO of Kane Robotics, talks about historic, current and future composites use in aircraft fuselage structures and the role of automation in next-gen manufacturing environments.

Ian Wilson, CEO of Develop and Supply In-Sync (DASIS), talks about his history as a CNC specialist for Formula One and his introduction to composites manufacturing.

IACMI’s Dale Brosius and Uday Vaidya talk about the first five years of the organization, how it has evolved and what the future might hold as IACMI continues its quest to help drive composite materials and process growth.

CW Talks visits with Lisa Ketelsen, head of thermoplastic composites and CEO of Maezio at Covestro. Ketelsen talks about her path to Covestro and the Maezio product line, Maezio’s attributes and applications, and how she sees thermoplastic composites evolving in the marketplace.

Carmelo Lo Faro, president of Solvay Composite Materials, talks about how he sees aerocomposites evolving in the time of COVID-19, the rise of computational power to evolve composites use, the prospects for increased composites use in the automotive market, and the increasing importance of education in the composites industry.

CW Talks checks in with Ethan Escowitz, co-founder and CEO of Arris Composites, to learn about the Additive Molding technology his company has developed.

Gregg Balko, CEO of SAMPE since 2004, is retiring on July 1, 2020. CW editor-in-chief Jeff Sloan talks to Gregg about his tenure at SAMPE, changes he led and how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the trade show and conference business — including SAMPE’s.

Rhode Island Commerce director of business development John Riendeau discusses how the state’s legacy experience in boat building has translated into expertise in new markets within the composites industry.

Composites industry veteran and marketing advisor Gary Sharpless discusses his more than 35 years in the industry and his current advisory roles with Concordia Fibers and Boston Materials.

Prodrive Composite’s John McQuilliam discusses the company’s primary to tertiary (P2T) carbon fiber composite recycling process.

Vartega’s Andrew Maxey discusses carbon fiber waste, carbon fiber recovery, and the still-growing market for recovered fibers.

Elevated Materials’ CEO Ryan Olliges and CTO Jaysen Harris discuss the company’s mission and unique approach to keeping carbon fiber out of the landfill.

Achim Fischereder, director of sales and marketing for the automotive business segment at Hexcel, discusses the state of composites in cars and trucks today and the outlook for the future.

CompositesWorld editors discuss advanced materials and processes that will play a role in the next generation of aerospace.

Scott Lewit, president of Structural Composites, discusses the company’s innovations in marine and ground transportation composites including the development of CoCure Hybrid Metal/Composite technology for Wabash trailers.

Wiener Mondesir, co-founder and chief technology officer at Arevo, discusses continuous fiber use in additive manufacturing.

Danu Chotikapanich, CEO of COBRA International, discusses COBRA’s history in watersports products and its ever-expanding composites business in multiple markets.

Mike Del Pero, managing director at FocalPoint Partners, a middle-market investment banking advisory firm, discusses the business side of the composites industry including growth strategies, mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property protections.

Thymo Vlot and Ze Soengas of Delft Hyperloop and John Jackson of TenCate Advanced Composites discuss Delft’s entry in the SpaceX Hyperloop competition.

Tom Lemire is a composites industry consultant, which is the latest culmination of his career spanning back to 1969 with stints at Owens Corning, EDO Fiber Science, BASF, Toho and others.

Business leaders at Web Industries discuss cutting and kitting services, and the process of slitting carbon fiber prepreg.

Business leaders at Sabic, Airborne and Siemens discuss a collaboration by the three companies to develop the UDMAX thermoplastic laminate manufacturing system.

Donna Dawson, senior writer emeritus for CompositesWorld, shares her memories from the early days of composites. 

Joe Sprengard, president and CEO of nanomaterials specialist General Nano, talks about  carbon nanotubes, the company’s work with Boeing and more.

Chuck Miller, founder and president of tooling board manufacturer Coastal Enterprises, details tooling board technology and how it continues to evolve. 

Avner Ben-Bassat, president & CEO of Plataine Technologies Ltd., discusses optimization software, the ‘digital thread,’ automation and how it all relates to composites.

Geoff Wood, founder, fellow and vice president of innovation at the Composites Recycling Technology Center (CRTC) in Port Angeles, Wash., discusses CRTC, the composites recycling market and more. Geoff will be moderating a panel on composites recycling at CompositesWorld’s Carbon Fiber conference Nov. 28-30 in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Steve Gonzalez, director of the major projects unit, Americas, at elevator manufacturer KONE, details the development of UltraRope, a pultruded carbon fiber cabling system for elevators. If you want to learn more, Gonzalez is giving a presentation about UltraRope at CompositesWorld’s 2017 Carbon Fiber conference, Nov. 28-30 in Charleston, SC, US. 

Patrick Blanchard, global technical leader – composites at Ford Motor Co., talks about applying composites to vehicles.

Joseph Choma, assistant professor of architecture at Clemson University, discusses his work with developing foldable composite materials for use in architectural structures.

Ryan Huth, manager of ceramic matrix composites (CMC) production at GE Aviation’s Asheville, NC facility, talks about CMC technology, GE Aviation's CMC parts production and the future of both.

Frazer Barnes, managing director at ELG Carbon Fibre, discusses the carbon fiber waste stream and the market for recycled materials.

James Austin, CEO of North Thin Ply Technology, talks about the company’s start in the marine environment and how it continues to grow in other sectors.

Greg Mark, founder and CEO of Markforged, discusses his journey of working with composites in additive manufacturing.

Pam Schneider and Mike Braley with A&P Technology talk about how far braiding has come and what’s on the horizon.

The third episode of CW Talks: The Composites Podcast features a conversation with Tom Haulik, sales director of carbon fiber at Hexcel.

The second episode of CW Talks: The Composites Podcast is an interview with Bryan Dods, CEO of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI).

The first episode of CW Talks: The Composites Podcast features an interview with Arnt Offringa, head of aerostructures R&T at Fokker Technologies, part of GKN Aerospace, in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands.