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Composites Weekly

Composites Weekly is an online podcast published each week by industry expert Jonathan Taylor. Jonathan has served as consultant in the composites industry for over 12 years. He brings you the latest news and information in the world of composites and provides interviews of leading manufacturers and distributors in the industry.
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Now displaying: Category: podcast
Feb 4, 2020

This week, I welcome Tony Schmitz on the show to discuss the growing trend of composite materials in structural applications. Tony is the vice president and senior project manager of Hoefer Wysocki, an architecture, planning, and design firm known for collaborating with clients to create performance-driven solutions.

With a background in environmental design, Tony joins me to discuss the positive opportunities that composites offer to builders today. These benefits can be seen in reduced costs, better performance and a reduced environmental impact.

Oct 21, 2019

This week I welcome Chris Camfferman, managing director of marketing for Deckorators, a company that manufactures composite decking using their patented "Eovations" technology. This technology provides the best stiffness-to-weight ratio and lowest thermal expansion/contraction of any thermoplastic deck board available. 

Deckorators composite decking is composed of a mix of polypropylene and calcium carbonate, which is used instead of wood fiber to prevent moisture absorption and minimize thermal movement.
In this process, the polymer-mineral blend is extruded and stretched. The resulting cavitation creates tiny air pockets that keep the
board lightweight as it takes on a fiber-like structure similar to wood for superior strength.

The result is a fibrous composite board that looks and works like wood. At the same time, each board is:

  • 35 percent lighter than most wood-plastic composite decking and similar in weight to PVC.
  • Twice as strong as PVC decking in terms of stiffness-to-weight ratio for superior durability.
  • Extremely stable with the lowest thermal expansion/contraction of any thermoplastic deck board.

On this interview, Chris will be sharing the background of Deckorators and how their Eovations technology is creating a superior product. 

You can learn more about their company by visiting them at www.deckoroators.com

 

Dec 6, 2018

This week I welcome Joshua Martin, CEO of Fortify on the showto discuss his company and some of the work they are doing in the world of Digital Composite Manufacturing. 

Fortify is a company that was founded on research by Randall Erb and Joshua Martin at Northeastern University. Their goal was to enable quick and seamless fabrication of composites with optimized microstructures.

Through their research, they invented magnetic 3D printing, or Fluxprint. They established Fortify to bring optimized composites to engineers across the globe.

Today, Digital Composite Manufacturing (DCM) has found success in tooling, aerospace, and automotive applications. Now, Fortify is a leader in optimized composites. DCM has transformed the DNA of materials, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in engineering.

Fluxprint is a patented magnetic 3D printing process that creates optimized composites. It combines magnetics and digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing to produce composite parts with ideal mechanical properties. As a part is additively manufactured, fibers are magnetically aligned voxel by voxel to optimize the microstructure. High-performance components are created significantly faster and at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional manufacturing.

You can find out more about Fortify by visiting them at https://3dfortify.com

Nov 14, 2018

This week, we welcome of Lee Clark-Sellers of Ply Gem on the show. Ply Gem is a leader in exterior building products across North America. We'll be discussing some of their roofing products that use recycled composite materials.

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