A change in the International Building Code will affect fabricators who supply products to the building and construction markets. Previously, the code failed to give guidance on how to use fiberglass reinforced plastics in various applications. It was treated as an exception to other materials, including aluminum, concrete, glass, stone, steel and wood. Revisions to the 2009 IBC will correct the discrepancy and give architects, engineers, specifiers and code officials a benchmark from which to approve the uses of FRP.

However, the change in the IBC requires fabricators to engage in product listing and labeling. Specifiers and code officials rely on third-party agencies such as Underwriters Laboratories and Southwestern Research Institute for assurance that products meet certain standards.

During the educational session Ensuring Success in the Building Code with Product Listing and Labeling at C+P 2009, speaker Nicholas Dembsey, PhD, associate professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, will talk about the content of the code change and what composites companies can do to implement a successful listing and labeling process in their facilities.

“Step one for the fabricator, if they want to be involved in the building environment, is that they need to know what products they want to sell to the building market, and then they need to contact a listing agency,” Dembsey says. A task group formed under the auspices of ACMA is working on a document to help fabricators with best practices in dealing with the process. For instance, when fabricators don’t  give agencies enough information about their products upfront, they can find themselves paying for more testing than is necessary.

Once the agency gathers information from the fabricator, it performs test on the products. “The agency will come to a facility and evaluate how a product is being mad. The fabricator works with the listing agency to develop a quality control process, and the agency verifies that’s what the fabricator is doing,” Dembsey says. “The agency will give a listing saying you passed certain tests, and will give you a label to put on the products saying you passed.”

Labeling allows specifiers and code officials to approve products without needing to know the technical differences between them. “The officials working with FRP needing to verify the safety of the building. They don’t necessarily know how to distinguish different  types of FRP,” Dembsey says. “Labeling gives the local authority who’s using a local amended version of the IBC a way to talk with FRP fabricators about getting products into buildings that makes sense.”

Dembsey’s session takes place on Thursday, Jan. 15, from 3 p.m. to 3:50 p.m. For more information, click here.

Composites already have begun to replace steel and other traditional materials, but typically they’ve been limited to low- and medium-volume markets. “The high-volume markets for composites have been limited,” says Dan Buckley, manager of R&D at American GFM, Chesapeake, Va. “There has been movement in that direction with thermoplastics composites, but thermoplastics won’t handle structural applications, because they won’t handle continuous loads.”

In his educational session Preforming Engineering Fabrics For High Volume Structural Applications at C+P 2009, Buckley will talk about how to make complex, high-volume performs. “We’re talking about things you want to make many of, we’re you’re going to be making 3,000 to 5,000 parts or more,” he says. “We’re not talking about twenty minutes or an hour to fill a part. We’re talking about 20 to 40 seconds.”

The session is geared towards manufacturers who use closed molding processes for structural and semi-structural applications. Buckley will discuss a process for using different materials in different locations, and the ability to include core materials, fasteners and metal inserts in the preforms. “The first things you need to think about are the volume—whether it will justify preforming—what type of infusion process you’re  going to use, and most importantly the conformability of the material,” he says.

Some of the markets that could benefit from products made by this process include aviation, automotive, marine and recreation. “It could be as simple as a manhole cover,” Buckley says. “Anything that has to take a high load repeatedly.”

Buckley’s session takes place Thursday, Jan. 15 from 11 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. For more information, click here.

Greg Rose, southwest regional manager at ITW Plexus, asked four different chemists at the company to share their thoughts about what it means to be “green” in the composites industry. “The responses were all over the board,” he says. “There were four completely different responses of what they thought was green.” It illustrated to him the need for a common vision internally and externally about how the industry communicates its greenness. “Having different sets of ideas didn’t invalidate any one of the ideas,” he says. “We just need to think about what we mean and be able to communicate what we mean when we talk about green so that it doesn’t make people feel like they’ve’ been tricked or there was a major omission.”

Rose plans to bring up this topic during his education session “Measuring Green in Composites Adhesives” at C+P 2009. “What I’ve seen is that many people mean different things when they say ‘green,’” he says. Some people measure green products in terms of their health effects and others define green in terms of their overall environmental impact. “There are whole systems out there that are based only on the exposure of the material,” he says. “Others take a broader look at the sustainability of the product.”

Defining standards for green in the composites industry may take time, but it’s important to start now, Rose says. “People are incorporating green in part of their decision making process, but it’s like you are deciding which product to buy based on price, but I haven’t told you how much your money was worth,” he says. “Most industries haven’t gone beyond a superficial definition of green. So what you have are a lot of people who are reaching for goals that aren’t well defined.”

Rose’s session takes place on Friday, Jan. 16 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. For more information, click here.
 

It’s nice to feel needed, but a small business that depends too heavily on its owner’s day-to-day involvement can actually inhibit growth. “What happens is that small business folks don’t really have a business. It’s more like a 24-hour-a-day job,” says Douglas Caudle, president of Piedmont Fiberglass, Taylorsville, N.C.

Caudle says that owners who get too involved in every aspect of the business—from production to sales to operations—don’t have the time or energy to plan for the future. He’ll share ways to go from working in a business to working on a business during his educational session “Can Your Small Composites Business Operate Without You?” at C+P 2009.

The two most important things an owner can do are hire the right people and create a process-based operations plan. “Evaluate your staff. Look for folks that can run with the ball,” Caudle says. Piedmont underwent its own two-year process of finding the right people and documenting its processes. “Our company was a one-person operation. One person handled everything from sales to ordering toilet paper to production and shipping.”

Now the company has plant managers and supervisors in the production department and a dealer liaison to handle sales. It also has its processes written down so that when people change, the system remains in place. “A critical part is having these systems written out, including how we ship things and package things. It’s taking the person out of it and operating according to the system.”

Caudle’s session takes place Thursday, January 15 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, click here.

Composites business owners should take more advantage of information technology, says Tom Deller, president of Danicose Inc., a Chagrin Falls, Ohio-based consultancy. In his education session Manage for Competitive Advantage at C+P 2009, Deller will focus on how IT systems can help owners and entrepreneurs streamline their management functions, which include planning, leading, organizing and controlling.

Adopting robust IT systems is important because they help integrate day-to-day tasks performed in various departments. For instance, data on sales calls and bookkeeping can more easily be aggregated and shared with the right technology. “You need to see the interrelationship of these different departments, and what better way to do that than with information technology?” IT systems are also necessary to collect date for other reasons, such as ISO certifications. “You’ve got to generate or actively inspect and chart and understand the processes in order to control them.

Deller also will speak about the importance of continuing education, whether it’s through formal, accredited programs or informal classes. “You can take courses in selling, management and finance areas. These are all courses that can be taken through the years,” he says. “There are a million of them. You need a constant ongoing involvement in some kind of educational process that builds on your experience."

Lifecycle assessments help companies and their customers determine the social, environmental and economic impact of the products they make. Different modeling methods are used to calculate life cycle impact, depending on your companies’ purpose, says Dr. Michael Lepech, assistant professor at Stanford University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Some lifecycle assessments focus solely on internal process improvements. More rigorous assessments are conducted for companies that want to make an “environmental product declaration,” and market their green processes. Going through the assessment supports your marketing claims with credible data. “When your customers ask how green you are, you have real numbers to give them,” Lepech says.

Lepech, who earned a PhD for his research in making cement-based composites greener, will describe the stages of a lifecycle during his session Life Cycle Assessment Methods for Design and Manufacturing of Sustainable Composites at C+P 2009. He’ll address some of the metrics used in assessments to calculate impact, including global warming potential, acidification and energy resources consumed.

Lepech points out that, unlike other materials, composites are characterized by their “embodied energy” as well as their “combustion energy.” The former describes any material that could potentially be used as fuel, while the latter is the amount of energy it takes to make the product. Composites contain embodied energy while materials such as aluminum and concrete don’t. “There a much more efficient and limited use of energy,” he says.

For more information on Lepech’s session, click here.

If you think blowing air on a laminate helps the resin cure faster, you should attend The Validity of Myths About the Lamination Process, an education session at C+P 2009. “That’s one of the most common myths,” says John Hewitt, technical service manager at Interplastic and one of the session’s presenters. “It does air dry, but it’s not curing. It’s not a paint. If you dry too much off on a thin laminate, you can actually cause undercure, especially now that the industry has moved to a low monomer product.”

Hewitt and two other presenters will answer questions you have about the lamination manufacturing process. “Many people are doing things they think are helping their process, but they’re actually hurting their processes,” Hewitt says. Here are some of the myths Hewitt says he hears regularly:

Myth 1:The higher the peroxide, the better the resin cure.

Myth 2: After a long time, the secondary bond to an ortho or Iso resin is much better than to a DCPD resin.

Myth 3: The exotherm of skincoat laminate should be higher than that of the bulk resin.

Myth 4: Shrinkage of the resin is the major factor in prerelease

Myth 5: Thix index is a good indicator of resistance to drainage.

Myth 6: Covering a laminate will slow down the cure rate

The panel will address these common beliefs and answer questions from attendees. To submit your questions ahead of time, email jhewittresinguy@hotmail.com.
 

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