It was great for iCOMAT to be back at the University of Bristol in the summer for something a little different – the largest composite cylinder ever tested in the labs.
This 1.2m long straight-fibre cylinder was manufactured by iCOMAT as part of the “De-risk Technology Development – Fibre Steering for Lightweight and Cost Efficient Space Structures” contract with the European Space Agency ESA. We took the 1mm thick CFRP structure all the way to buckling @ 150kN (big bang!)
Follow us to find out what happens next as we will shortly be sharing the fibre-steered version made with Rapid Tow Shearing (RTS), which has been optimised to be much less sensitive to imperfections, giving designers a 300% increase in the 99.9% reliability load vs current straight-fibre designs = lighter launchers and central tubes. Keep an eye out for it!
In the meantime, get in touch with us info@icomat.co.uk or, even better, come and visit us at Stand N60, to learn more about RTS, the new state of the art in fibre steering.
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