Although the application of composite materials in high-performance terminal markets such as aerospace and automotive is often widely concerned by the industry, in fact, most of the composite materials consumed are used in non-high-performance terminal markets. The industrial end market falls into this category. In this category, material properties usually emphasize corrosion resistance and durability, especially in applications involving chemical and gas storage.
In fact, it turns out that composite material storage tanks have shown increasing value in several geographic regions. In South America, Tecniplas (Sao Paulo, Brazil) has a reputation for manufacturing large composite storage tanks that can hold everything from water to fertilizers to industrial solvents. In the United States, Ershigs (Billingham, Washington, USA) has a place in the market as a supplier of composite storage tanks, pipes, conduits and scrubbers.
A typical representative in the field of industrial composites is Hudson Products (Hudson, Bideley, Texas, USA), a manufacturer of air-cooled heat exchangers and axial fans. The company's glass fiber Tuf-Lite axial fan has been produced for more than 60 years, and has been used more than 250,000 worldwide. The Tuf-Lite fan blade series began in 1955 with Tuf-LiteI, a blade featuring glass fiber reinforced composite materials. Since its creation, this series of blades has undergone several iterations. Tuf-Lite II was launched in 1984 to improve the manufacturability of blade parts, and then Tuf-Lite III was launched in 2004. The Tuf-Lite II and Tuf-Lite III blades are designed to use proprietary vinyl ester resins in the manufacturing process of the resin transfer molding (RTM) process. For the latest version of Tuf-Lite IV, the company uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology for design, with a focus on reducing noise and improving airflow efficiency. The volume of Tuf-Lite IV has also increased by 20%. Hudson turned to Wickert Hydraulic Presses (Hebron, Kentucky, USA; Landau, Germany) to obtain a new custom press that can change the layering order, fiberglass type, material configuration, number of layers, Resin infusion point and vent line location line. Finally, a more efficient and effective fan blade is obtained.
In recent years, the most special application of composite materials in industrial equipment is track bogies, which are four-wheel or six-wheel bogies that support rail vehicles and provide traction and braking effects. The prototype bogie developed in the United Kingdom is mainly made of recycled carbon fiber composite materials, but supplements the original carbon fiber composite materials where additional strength or rigidity is required. The bogie was developed by ELG Carbon Fiber Company (Coseley, UK), which provided recycled carbon fiber and conducted extensive material testing on it; Magma Structures (Portsmouth, UK) was the designer and Manufacturer; University of Birmingham (Birmingham, UK) sensor and composite materials team and Magma company developed an embedded health monitoring system for the bogie; and University of Huddersfield (Huddersfield, UK), the prototype will be in its Perform an initial comprehensive test on a dynamic test device. Alstom U.K. (London) helped form a consortium and provided additional support through consultation and existing bogie design information. The consortium chose ELG ’s CarbisoM, a non-woven felt made from standard modulus fibers (strengths of 4 to 5 GPa) in an epoxy matrix. The results show that recycled carbon fiber / epoxy composites Fatigue performance is comparable to traditional woven carbon fiber laminates, and is superior to structural steel. The finite element analysis (FEA) conducted by Applied FEA Ltd. (Southampton, UK) verified its fatigue service load and excellent static load. The prototype is 36% lighter than steel substitutes. The composite frame itself can save 64% of the weight, but the prototype needs a little more emphasis due to the paint and the tapping plates needed to connect the steel parts. Considering the frame alone, it can reduce the weight of 590 kg, and depending on the type of train service and mileage, it can save 8,000 to 62,000 pounds in operating costs each year. In addition, each bogie frame can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 68 metric tons throughout its life cycle.
In addition, composite materials are increasingly used in storage tanks for storing cryogenic liquids. Along this line of thought, Cimarron Composites (Huntsville, Alabama, USA) announced in 2018 that the company has made a leap in the development of all-composite cryogenic storage tanks, and carbon fiber reinforced composites under pressurized liquid nitrogen The material storage tank achieves 15,000 micro-strain performance. Successful operation at such a high strain level makes the structure of a linerless composite tank composed of a mixture of fabric and continuous wound fibers much thinner than previously required for the same type of tank, without the need for liner Cost and quality. According to Cimarron, due to material and processing limitations, early composite storage tank plans were limited to 3000 microstrains, which resulted in additional mass. Cimarron's new tank technology uses a material system that performs well at extremely low temperatures without generating micro-cracks, thereby creating leak channels for liquids such as liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, or liquid methane.