Composites: Manufacturing

The EDO Fiber Science in Salt Lake City, Utah and EDO Specialty Plastics in Baton Rouge, Louisiana are equipped and staffed for manufacture of composite products using multiple composite processes. Both facilities feature large filament winding machines for production of tanks, structures, piping, and higher performance tubulars. EDO Fiber Science is equipped to handle long, heavy, large diameter products, while EDO Specialty Plastics is equipped to produce high volume piping.

FILAMENT WINDING
The filament winding process relies on special computer controlled machines to lay down wet (fiber that has been run through a bath of uncured resin) or pre-preg fiber, called tows, around a rotating mandrel. EDO Specialty Plastics uses wet processes exclusively to filament wind pipe in diameters up to 48", as shown in these photos.

EDO Specialty Plastics is located in a specialized 60,000 sq. ft. fully equipped facility located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The shop portion of the facility includes dedicated areas for filament winding, mandrel extraction, trimming, assembly, fittings fabrication, and painting.

Filament winding equipment at the EDO Fiber Science facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, tends to make lower volume, larger diameter products such as tanks.

HAND LAY-UP — WET RESIN & PRE-PREGS
EDO Fiber Science has an extensive background in the manufacture of various structures, tanks, and tubes using the hand lay-up process. Historically, much of this work was done with wet uncured resins and adhesives designed to cure (or cross-link and then harden) at room temperature, or in a curing oven.

In more recent years, EDO Fiber Science has adapted and excelled in the use of pre-impregnated fabrics and fibrous tapes, or pre-pregs. Nearly all aircraft and missile exterior structures are made with pre-pregs, which require special cleanrooms for the lay-up work, and autoclaves, rather than simple ovens, for consolidation/compaction and cure of the laminate.

Lay-up of structural parts at EDO Fiber Science is accomplished with many different materials including fiberglass, carbon fiber, and some aramid fibers such as Kevlar. EDO Fiber Science uses epoxies, vinyl esters, and other conventional resins and adhesives for lamination, sandwich panel construction (using foam or honeycomb core), and secondary bonding/assembly of structures.

LARGE STRUCTURES
EDO Fiber Science has the capability to filament wind large diameter structures such as stator cones, riser buoyancy modules, and long tubulars for the offshore oil and gas market.

 

 

 

RESIN TRANSFER MOLDING (RTM)
Specialty Plastics and Fiber Science fabricate all the required components and fittings for use with FIBERBOND® pipe systems. These include all non-conductive stub flanges that are produced using the Resin-Transfer-Molding (RTM) composite molding process.

For RTM, dry plies of fabric and tape are kitted and sometimes stitched into intricate preforms. Preforms are then placed inside a cavity mold, which is usually metallic and bolts together. Liquid resin is then pumped into the cavity mold, allowing resin to both wet-out the dry fibers in the mold and to fill up any air voids in the cavity. RTM makes close-tolerance molding of net parts possible.

 

 

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