Archived Defence Sector News - 2011

Editors - please refer to the Notes to Editors for background information on Umeco plc and its operating divisions.

ACG Presents its Defence Portfolio at DSEi 2011

ACG’s MTM®45-1 Prepreg used in Antarctic Ice Sheet Mapping Mission

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Defence

30th August 2011

ACG Presents its Defence Portfolio at DSEi 2011

Advanced Composites Group Ltd. (ACG), part of Umeco Composites Structural Materials (UCSM) – a division of Umeco plc, will be exhibiting on Stand No.: N6-571 at the DSEi show in the ExCeL centre, London between the 13th and 16th September 2011.

Prepreg products from ACG are used extensively in an ever-increasing variety of defence applications. These range from ballistic and blast protection systems in armoured fighting vehicles to structural components for vehicle, naval and aerospace applications, including: UAVs, radomes and communication dishes. The dismounted soldier is also well-provided for with advanced composite materials used in lightweight helmets and body armour.

To demonstrate its expertise in the ballistics arena, which encompasses vehicle and body armour applications, ACG will exhibit a number of shot panels manufactured using a hot press moulding technique with ACG’s S2-Glass® reinforced MTM®82 phenolic resin and MTM®248S epoxy resin prepregs. These panels can be moulded to the requisite shape to manufacture spall liners which match the contours of the vehicle interior, thus increasing the protected area while reducing overall component weight. The materials are currently in full-scale production and ballistics protection parts have now been supplied for fitment to an in-service fleet of vehicles. ACG will also demonstrate how some of these materials can be used in structural blast applications by simply changing the processing technique.

ACG’s extensive R&D facility includes a team dedicated to developing a wide variety of materials for specific customer needs. This activity has resulted in world-leading technologically advanced prepregs, adhesives and ancillaries which provide oven/vacuum bag and autoclave processing options. Customer, design and manufacturing support completes the picture, all of which can be seen on ACG’s stand at DSEi this September.

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For further information, please contact:

Advanced Composites Group Ltd

Jon Stowell - Sales and Marketing Director - ACG UK
Telephone: +44 (0)1773 766200
E-mail:jstowell @ acg.co.uk

20th June 2011

ACG’s MTM®45-1 Prepreg used in Antarctic Ice Sheet Mapping Mission

MTM®45-1 prepreg material from Advanced Composites Group (ACG), part of Umeco Composites Structural Materials (UCSM) - a Division of Umeco plc, have been used in an exciting project by Kansas University’s school of Aerospace Engineering (KUAE) to build a fleet of Meridian unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) destined to monitor the flow of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

KUAE selected ACG’s MTM45-1 for the Meridian’s wings, empennage and fuselage structure because its combination of properties makes it ideal for the out-of-autoclave (OoA) production of aircraft primary structures. Indeed, MTM45-1 has a flexible curing temperature, high performance and toughened epoxy matrix system optimised for low pressure vacuum bag processing.

MTM45-1 may be cured at temperatures as low as 80°C (176°F), allowing the use of low cost tooling for prototypes and short production runs. OoA process cost savings for aircraft manufacturers can equally be applied to other less critical structures such as fairings, which are normally produced via autoclave curing. MTM45-1 can also be autoclave cured, meaning that it can be used for more critical structures.

A flame-retarded variant of MTM45-1 (MTM45-1FR) is also available and has been shown to meet the requirements of FAR 25.853.

Under a 5-year, $19 million research grant from the National Science Foundation to Kansas University’s Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS), KUAE's mission was to provide an aerial platform for ultra-sensitive ice-penetrating radar developed in Kansas University’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department. Information on the morphology of the ice, especially the condition of the ice where it meets bedrock, is being derived from radar data, which is improving glaciologist’s predictions of the flow of ice sheets into the oceans.

The Meridian UAV, developed by a team of current and former students under the guidance of faculty members, including Rick Hale, Shah Keshmiri, Mark Ewing, Dave Downing, Ray Taghavi and Richard Colgren, will operate in Greenland between July and August 2011 and then in Antarctica between December 2011 and January 2012.

Images courtesy and copyright of KUAE flight test team:

• Upper image: Meridian unmanned air vehicle (UAV) in flight
• Lower image: Members of the KUAE flight test team

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For further information, please contact:

Advanced Composites Group Inc

Jeff Cross - Business Development Manager
E-mail: jcross @ acg-us.com
Telephone: +1 512-492-2040

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Other News	2010	2009	2008
Defence