EDO Fiber Science is one of the most technically advanced designers and manufacturers of light weight advanced fiber-reinforced composite products in the world. For over 33 years, EDO innovation has designed and produced advanced composite products for a virtual "Who's Who" of major corporations and government agencies throughout the world.

 

Today, EDO Fiber Science continues to design and produce advanced composite structures using the latest in filament winding, laminating, Resin-Transfer-Molding (RTM), and autoclave cure processing.

EDO Fiber Science is located in a 100,000 sq. ft. fully equipped facility located in Salt Lake City, Utah. This advanced facility encompasses complete design, tooling, fabrication, inspection, testing and product support operations. EDO Fiber Science is an ISO 9001 registered company and routinely qualifies to specific customer and program requirements.

AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE PRODUCTS
Since the early 1990's, EDO Fiber Science has produced many different exterior panels, fairings, and structures for use on commercial and business aircraft.

Rinaldo Piaggio, Italian manufacturers of the P-180 business turboprop, selected EDO Fiber Science to supply several complex exterior components including the wing trailing edge panels, nose radomes, and the complete engine nacelle assembly.

EDO Fiber Science uses the latest and most sophisticated design tools and manufacturing processes to ensure customer reliability and exacting performance of the finished product. All aspects of the design, through final delivery process, are controlled and monitored within EDO Fiber Science. This ensures the customer of absolute quality, on-time delivery and product consistency. Using all these tools to manage technical aspects of a program also assure optimum budget control.

Composite aircraft structures provide improved strength and stiffness to weight performance, versus conventional fabricated aluminum structures. They offer improved fatigue life. They can be primed and painted like the rest of the airplane, and then corrosion eliminated in those areas of the airplane.

The manufacture of composite secondary structure calls for tight tolerances on interfaces to other primary and secondary items on the aircraft. Other design challenges include aerodynamic and thermal loading, complex contours, and local stiffness requirements, in order to achieve aerodynamic performance.

MISSILE LAUNCH TUBES
EDO Fiber Science has produced thousands of filament-wound missile launch tubes. These have been primarily for tactical, surface-launched antitank or anti-ship weapons. Some larger, more complex tubes have been supplied for antiaircraft and ballistic missile defense. All of these have been single use or disposable launch tubes.

Many tactical weapons designed and deployed in the 1970's and early 1980's experienced corrosion, damage, and guidance failure as a result of thin-walled metal alloy launch tubes. Improved durability and reduced weight became important design goals. Today, composite launch tubes are designed to be very light weight and cost-effective. Most are single-use or disposable.

Design Challenges: High pressure and temperature; heavy structural loading for a short time; long-term durability requirements as the long-term shipping and/or storage container for the missile.

INDUSTRIAL COMPOSITES
Both EDO Fiber Science in Salt Lake City, Utah, and EDO Specialty Plastics in Baton Rouge, Louisiana are active in several segments of the industrial products market, including chemical and petrochemical plants, pulp and paper, mining, wind energy, and hydroelectric power. Both facilities have enjoyed three-decades of successful programs in each of these segments.

EDO Fiber Science has been an innovative design and fabrication source for advancing composite technology in diverse power generation industries, typically providing customers with cost-effective and reliable solutions.

Stator Cones and Rings are used as spacers between large, fast moving parts inside hydroelectric generators. They must be very thick, very stiff, nonconductive, and durable in order to survive and perform properly in this environment.

Composite Stators: Previous versions of this product were machined from large hardwood trees. The main benefit of using composites in this application is longevity in service. EDO Fiber Science developed a unique tooling approach that allows manufacture of two ogive or cone-shaped stator cones at one time.

Stator Design Challenges: The thick laminate walls of composite stators must be fully cured and contain a minimum of air voids and impurities. The "as-wound" stators must be tight-tolerance machined and drilled to meet final dimensional requirements for installation in each generator. Of critical importance are the shoulder and chamfer angles that are wound into the assembly and then machined and resealed.

Fume Hoods
EDO Fiber Science has designed and produced large, modular-construction fume hoods for use in the phosphate processing industry. As with piping for this industry, the major benefit to using composites is the reduction of corrosion. The unit was made in large (9' by 20') gores and then assembled to form a large circular cover for a cylindrical process area below. Each section was designed to provide adequate stiffness for a man to walk on, yet be light enough for two men to carry and install easily.

WIND TURBINE BLADES
EDO Fiber Science's extensive experience in providing the aerospace industry with advanced fiber reinforced plastic products directly applicable to the design and manufacture of modern wind turbine blades. EDO Fiber Science provides complete product design, product analysis, a full range of material analysis and testing, and quality controlled production to maximize customer satisfaction.

Advanced manufacturing processes combined with state-of-the-art fiber- reinforced plastics optimize blade design for maximum performance. You are assured an affordable and high-quality blade, whether based on your existing design or one designed and produced uniquely for you by EDO Fiber Science.

Composite blades for new generation wind turbine systems require aerodynamic and dimensional accuracy, and have verifiable weight and balance characteristics. Stiffness, smoothness, and strength at the root fitting are also critical to blade performance.

ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITES
In 2000, EDO Fiber Science received authorization to proceed on the development of manufacturing processes and new tooling for unique advanced composite fin assemblies destined for a rooftop display at a major Midwest city's new art museum. The long, slender composite fins will be attached to a center keel and articulate between "open" and "closed" positions like the wings of a bird.

The fin assemblies will be constructed using advanced materials including carbon fiber, epoxy resin, and a complex system of bulkheads, doublers, and longerons, all attached to a large, high-strength metal frame where the root of each fin attaches to the keel. Completed fin assemblies will range in length from about 25 feet to over 100 feet. The longest fins will be located at the top of the articulating structure.

Unique design features and processing requirements have necessitated the development of several complex manufacturing techniques, the purchase of large rotational equipment, and may require the construction of curing ovens unlike any ever built for processing composite structures.

BRIDGE REHABILITATION COUPON TESTING
A fast growing segment of the advanced composites market is the use of fibers and resins to reinforce concrete pillars and supports on freeways and bridges around the world. Based on technology developed in California in the 1990's, many state and local government transportation agencies have embraced composites as a means to protect concrete from the elements, reduce spalling, and to extend the life of major freeway bridges.

State and local agencies contract the actual bridge rehabilitation work to construction companies. As these contractors complete composite lay-up work at various job sites, coupons (also known as "witness panels") must be sent to a third-party certified laboratory to verify mechanical properties including hardness, and chemical content, to assure that job specifications have been met.

Over its 30-plus year history in design and construction of advanced composites, EDO Fiber Science has assembled a sophisticated composites test laboratory, with state-of-the-art equipment and certified test technicians. Fiber Science provides this certified testing service to many state and local governments.

---

Privacy Policy | Copyright© 2007 | Webmaster