Composites Australia held its annual conference in Newcastle NSW last week. It was very successful, with many attendees and presenters coming from around Australia and from overseas.

It started with a work shop on Engineering Fundamentals of Composite Structure Design run by Rik Heselhurst. Rik is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Information Technology of the University College, UNSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA) where he lectures in aircraft design, airframe design and analysis, structural joining methods, damage analysis and repair design, and composite structural design. He also is available to Colan's customers for engineering design and support.

The Workshop was on - Composites are no longer the “material of the future”. Increasing recognition among the engineering profession of the performance benefits of composite materials is leading to broader applications across a growing range of industries.

and covered:

  • Application of composite materials in terms of the constituent component material properties and manufacturing processes based on the design requirements analysis
  • Tailoring of structural properties through lamination and fibre orientation placement in relation to strength of materials issues and load/deformation response
  • Design development of the laminate, based on design outcomes and how fibre/resin systems and ply orientation is determined to achieve these design outcomes
  • A brief overview of the design requirements of stress analysis for the design detail of joints, structural stiffening against instability and other structural discontinuities.
  • Environmental and longevity aspects of composites
  • Certification requirements
  • In-service support.

Following this workshop there was a factory tour of RPC Technologies and welcome drinks after for a lucky 50 people who were able to see the production factilities and products at the Broadmeadow facility. RPC Transport (a business unit of RPC Technologies) provides products and services to meet the needs of the transport sector. RPC Transport engineers, manufactures, assembles and supports a vast range of composite components for passenger rail, light rail and bus systems, offering additional capabilities in relation to locomotives, emergency vehicles, trucks, marine and aircraft. 

The Conference itself was opened with a very enlightening address by Nicholas Melillo - Senior Manager in the Boeing Company Research and Technology business unit. He has been with the Boeing Company since 1984, and has participated in the development of several Boeing products, including the RAH-66 Comanche, V-22 Osprey, YF-23, F/A18-E/F Super Hornet, MD-11, and T-45 Goshawk. He recently served as airframe and subsystems design team leader for the Phantom Eye Hydrogen powered unmanned demonstrator aircraft. He currently leads the Advanced Design Technologies Organization, a team that develops and implements innovative solutions for Boeing products.

He address was on - the insertion of advanced airframe technologies, particularly new composite materials and architectures, has traditionally been problematic, due to the large investment required to develop and qualify these technologies in a risk adverse production environment. The use of rapid prototyping to evaluate new technologies can be an effective tool to develop these technologies without incurring the risk and cost of a production commitment.

Agencies such as the US Department of Defense have encouraged and now often require prototyping at an early stage of development as part of the risk reduction process. At The Boeing Company, several recent prototype efforts have resulted in the insertion of advanced composite technologies into future products, delivering reduced cost and increased performance.

 

After a busy day of presentations and discussions there was a 3 hour dinner cruise on Newcastle harbour and on safe return much discussion in a relaxed atmosphere at the Crown Plaza.

 

Presentations and papers continued the next day, with the general consensus that the Conference was very suddessful.

 

We congratulate Kerryn and Anna for their hard work to achieve such a successful Conference and we look forward to next year.