May 22 2012
Umeco is an acknowledged pioneer and market leader in Out-of-Autoclave (OoA) curing prepreg systems, widely used to manufacture primary and secondary structures for civil and military aircraft.
OoA processing can offer significant cost savings in the manufacture of advanced composite structures, without compromising performance.
Umeco Structural Materials (USA) will be showcasing its new MTM47 OoA capable resin system, which complements the existing family of established high toughness OoA systems including MTM44-1, MTM45-1 and MTM46.
The MTM47 system is designed for the manufacture of aerospace primary structure, and has been optimized for hot/wet notched performance up to 265°F (130°C), which often drives the design of such structures. Umeco has been awarded a contract from Naval Air Systems Command to generate extensive process and allowables data with IM7 unidirectional and woven reinforcements.
MTM47 has been formulated to allow processing options of oven vacuum bag or autoclave cures and variable cure temperatures of 250°F (121°C) or 350°F (177°C) respectively and is also manufactured in the form of slit unidirectional tape for advanced fiber placement.
Umeco's focus on OoA technology has recently been acclaimed by the Composites Consortium (TCC) as they presented the company, as part of a consortium, with the first annual TCC Technical Achievement Award. This award recognizes Umeco's participation and support in the OoA Fiber Placement program as well as its leadership in advanced manufacturing technology for composites.
The program consisted of several contracts for OoA fiber placement that Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GKN and Hitco placed with Umeco. Umeco's involvement consisted of the supply of slit MTM45-1/IM7 tape to these companies and their subcontractors as well as technical support from its Oklahoma facilities (Tulsa) and on-site.
To discover what the one name in composites brings to the industry, please visit us on stand 217 at SAMPE Baltimore.