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Breaking Molds : A look at innovation, achievement, and ideas in manufacturing
and the composites industry
By Rebecca D’Amico
Fore the Drink: Hypalon Liner Used at Pebble Beach Golf Course
The Forest Lake Reservoir, originally constructed in 1887, is a key part of
the recycled water distribution system that provides irrigation water to seven
of California’s famous golf courses on the Monterey Peninsula—including
Cypress Point, Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Poppy Hills. A rehabilitation
project for the reservoir, which was unlined until the early 1990s, was commissioned
by the Pebble Beach Community Services District (PBCSD), in line with the new
operating permit requirements of the California Department of Water Resources
Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD). The project was commissioned due to the DSOD’s
concern that if water saturated the reservoir embankments, the stability of
the embankments could be affected in an earthquake, according to PBCSD District
Engineer Mike Niccum. To help combat this issue, the rehabilitation included
the installation of a long-service liner of DuPont Performance Elastomers Hypalon®
chlorosulfonated polyethylene. The liner meets stringent leak-proofing, soil
stabilizing and environmental demands, and is expected to have a minimum service
life of 25 years. In addition to these properties, Hypalon also has a low thermal
expansion coefficient allowing it to remain stable, yet flexible, in high and
low temperatures. This new liner and leak detection system is designed to keep
any stored water from entering embankments, providing the stability required
for the reservoir. The high-performance liner material was manufactured by San
Jose, Calif.-based Burke Industries, consisting of three layers of Hypalon and
two layers of woven fabric scrim. Layfield Plastics then fabricated the roll
stock of Hypalon supplied by Burke Industries into approximately 175 larger
panels totaling nearly 1 million square feet. Layfield Environ¬ mental Systems
of San Diego, Calif., handled the onsite installation by installing the panels
over the graded and re-excavated site, using a hot wedge welding system and
cross-seaming with adhesive patches of Hypalon. Hypalon was selected by Burke
Industries, who have used the material in their liners for nearly 40 years,
due to previous success with the product. The product provides excellent tear
and puncture strength, and dimensional stability, according to Steve Roades,
vice president of Burke Industries. Roades also reported that with Hypalon,
additional cross-linking develops after installation producing an even tougher
and more weatherable liner. The newly commissioned reservoir covers approximately
23 acres, and has a permitted water storage capacity of about 105 million gallons.
www.dupontelast omers.com; www.burkeindustries.com; www.layfieldgroup.com
Naturally Small: Preliminary Research on Halloysite Nanotubes
NaturalNano, a materials science company that develops new processes for refining
naturally occurring nanotubes and other nanomaterials, has been testing its
halloysite nanotubes to determine the viability of the product in commercial
applications. Preliminary results, including findings from tests conducted at
the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR), indicate that adding specially
treated halloysite nanotubes improves polymer performance, including those that
are widely used in consumer products. The halloysite nanotubes were added to
two commercially available polymer resins for the research done at CCMR. According
to Dr. Emmanuel Giannelis, the Walter R. Reed professor of engineering and director
of materials science and engineering at Cornell, the halloysite nanotubes “appeared
to perform as well as the most advanced clay composite materials available on
the market today with the added benefit that nanotubes may be filled with various
materials to add enhanced capabilities, but with minimum impact on other properties
of the polymer.” These unique and versatile nanotubes are ultra-tiny hollow
tubes, with diameters typically less than 100 nanometers (100 billionth of a
meter) and lengths ranging from 500 nanometers to over 1.2 microns (millionths
of a meter). The diameter and length of the nanotube will determine the functional
characteristic of the specific applications. Halloysite nanotubes are naturally
formed in the earth over millions of years, formed by surface weathering of
aluminosilicate minerals, and are composed of aluminum, silicon, hydrogen and
oxygen. These nanotubes can be coated with metallic and other substances to
achieve electrical, chemical, and physical properties. In addition, they can
be filled with active ingredients to extend the release in commercial applications,
including cosmetics, household and personal care products, and pharmaceuticals.
NanturalNano President Michael Riedlinger reported that the company is aggressively
researching and developing future applications for advanced formulations of
polymeric nanocomposite materials. The company is currently working with plastic
manufacturers for opportunities to leverage this technology, and is exploring
the benefits of using these nanotubes in new composite products. www.naturalnano.com
Get To The Top! Climbing Center Takes Shape at USNWC
The U.S. National Whitewater Center, the world’s largest artificial whitewater
river, is incorporating a climbing center, which will be one of the world’s
largest outdoor climbing facilities. The climbing center will have indoor and
outdoor climbing areas, as well as a bouldering area, and will have paths for
climbing novices and experts. The climbing wall will be more than 30 feet tall
with 20 climbing routes, and will be covered by a pavilion for all-weather use.
The climbing tower, which is completely outdoors, is nearly 50 feet high and
also has 20 climbing routes. The walls were manufactured by Entre Prises USA,
a Bend, Ore.-based firm that designs, manufactures, and installs climbing walls
worldwide. To create the 30-foot wall Entre Prises used their Imprint™
Panel System, which uses 45 different molds to create different topographies
that closely resemble the look and feel of real granite. The company uses a
molded three-dimensional panel system, with panels that are 1 square meter.
Using a vacuum molded process, the panels are created with polyester resin,
catalysts, and a mix of sand. Chopped fiberglass is put in a matrix, then the
back is covered with fiberglass mat material. The 50-foot tower uses the company’s
Freeform™ system, which utilizes a polymer cement and fiberglass based
construction, to make it more durable, and therefore more suitable for the outdoor
structure. The Freeform uses the same materials as the Imprint system, except
it is hand sculpted. Entre Prises builds up the framework, creating the overall
shape of the tower. They then create a fiberglass structural shell. A polyester
resin is molded over the shell to create the look of a rock-like surface. The
Whitewater Center opened at the end of August in Charlotte, N.C., and the climbing
center is scheduled for completion this fall. www.usnwc.org; www.epusa.com
Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Enabling or Stalling Business
Evolution?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems integrate all business functions
into one computer system. They are intended to make business run smoother and
in a more organized fashion as employees from any department—be it marketing,
sales, manufacturing, or shipping—access the same system and information.
Any update logged by shipping is viewable by marketing employees and vice versa.
Once the first stage of an order is complete, it is automatically routed to
the second stage. Sounds pretty terrific, right? According to The ERP in Manufacturing
Benchmark, a recent report from Aberdeen Group, however, two thirds of manufacturers
say their ERP selections are based primarily on functionality, but on average
they use only 27.6 percent of the available features and functions. ERP systems
have been around for nearly three decades and the study found that many aging
implementations, which are based on outdated technology, are limiting the business
process evolution and the ability for a company to grow in today’s marketplace.
The study—which included more than 1000 companies including Ford, Lockheed
Martin, Kraft Foods, and Johnson Controls—showed that broader use of ERP
functionality is directly linked with derived business value. Thirty-one percent
of companies interviewed reported an ERP system that was more than 10 years
old, with 14 percent looking to replace their current system. One of the major
hurdles involved in implementing an ERP system is change. Although ERP systems
are by nature made-to-order, it is expensive and burdensome to create an entirely
customized system and business practices sometimes need to be adjusted in order
to fit. In addition, all employees must be trained in order to gain all benefits
from the system, and they must be willing to change. According to Cindy Jutras,
Vice President, Manufacturing & ERP Research at Aberdeen, “The chief
ERP implementation challenges were associated with the alignment of business
processes with software capabilities. Companies struggle to balance customization
related issues with business process re-design amidst costs associated with
upgrades, replacements, consolidation and latent integration costs.” In
order to avoid these problems, Jutras suggests resisting replacement strategies
that simply duplicate business processes currently in place and carefully weighing
the business value brought to the enterprise by consolidation decisions. Paul
Cervello of CCM Enterprises suggests that one of the most mistaken expectations
of ERP is immediate return on investment. “Most new systems don’t
reveal their value until after companies have had them running for some time
and can concentrate on making improvements in the business processes that are
affected by the system,” said Cervello. Adjusting the work habits of an
entire organization is no easy task, but once complete, the rewards exceed all
expectations. www.smallbizerps.com; www.aberdeen.com
Move Over Men
Between 1997 and 2002, U.S. firms grew by seven percent. In the same time frame,
women-owned firms grew by 19.8 percent, reported the Office of Advocacy of the
U.S. Small Business Administration. The most significant markets for women-owned
businesses were in the professional, scientific, technical services and healthcare/social
assistance realms, but the largest shares of receipts were in wholesale and
retail trade and manufacturing. In fact, in 2002, women owned 6.5 million or
28.2 percent of non-farm U.S. firms. More than 14 percent of these women-owned
firms were employers, with 7.1 million workers and $173.7 billion in annual
payroll. Women-owned firms also accounted for 6.5 percent of total employment
in U.S. firms in 2002 and 4.2 percent of total receipts. Firms owned by women
increased employment by 70,000 while those owned by men lost 1 million employees.
These accomplishments certainly bring smiles to the faces of the National Association
of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), a group focused on public policy issues of
national and statewide interest impacting women entrepreneurs and small businesses
since 1974. The organization recently released information regarding the benefits
of supporting women-owned businesses, including the comments of Leslie Grossman,
author of Sellsation!, which explains how to target the burgeoning market of
women business owners. According to Grossman, targeting women business owners
makes sense because their prevalence and spending power are growing by leaps
and bounds. Another recent study found that in 2001, small business-owning households
were more than twice as likely as non-owning households to be high income, and
over eight times more likely to be high wealth households. www.sba.gov/advo;
www.nawbo.org
FRP on Top of the Mountain
LeConte Lodge, located at the top of Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s
6,593-foot Mount LeConte, is only accessible by strenuous hike and offers no
electricity. But thanks to three fiber-reinforced polymer composite storage
tanks made with Vipel® resin technology from AOC, the lodge has offered
23 years of running water. At outdoor faucets, guests can fill canteens or splash
down after the hike up. Some water is propane-heated to provide wash-basin bathing,
and the readily available water is essential to food and beverage preparation
in the Lodge’s dining hall. However, one of the most welcome amenities
running water offers is the availability of flush toilets. The three horizontal,
aboveground tanks were airlifted by helicopter to the mountaintop in 1983 when
the Lodge upgraded its water system and increased capacity 50 percent by replacing
a redwood storage tank. The first is a 6-foot diameter, 3,000-gallon holding
tank. The other two are 8-foot, 7,600-gallon supply tanks installed side-by-side.
They were made by the former Tank Division of Owens Corning who sold the division
to Containment Solutions in 1995. Tank end caps and cylindrical shells were
manufactured using a resin and chopped fiberglass spray-up process. The resin
was isopolyester engineered for potable water use by the Owens Corning Resins
& Coatings Division, which became a co-founding partner of AOC. Each tank
has two exterior ribs that allow the tank to be supported by setting the ribs
in metal cradles covered with a layer of resilient material. The shell wall
thickness was increased in the locations where the ribs were applied. The ribs
were fabricated by wrapping the tank with a hollow rib form over which fiberglass
woven roving, chipped fiberglass and resin were applied. The crown or top of
the rib form incorporated continuous glass fibers that provide maximum stiffening
by creating high modulus at the maximum distance from the shell wall. To resist
ultraviolet degradation, a UV inhibitor was incorporated into the resin for
the exterior layers of the tank and ribs. For additional UV protection, the
tanks were coated with a gel coat consisting of highly-pigmented resin. According
to Tim Line, general manager/owner of the Lodge, the tanks are virtually maintenance-free.
“On occasion we’ve wiped off a film that naturally builds on the
exterior over time, but that’s about the extent of any tank maintenance
we’ve had to do,” Line said. The smaller holding tank is near the
mountain’s ever-reliable Basin Spring. Spring water naturally accumulates
in three adjacent collector units that feed the holding tank. Gravity-powered
water from the holding tank activates the hydraulic ram of a pump that transfers
water uphill through piping in the supply tanks. When the sun is shining bright
enough, the ram can be activated using solar power. In rare cases when holding
tank water levels run low and sunlight is insufficient, a gasoline-powered pump
is available for back-up. To create enough head pressure for good water flow,
the two supply tanks are at an elevation higher than lodge facilities. To meet
Tennessee State requirements, the water is batch-chlorinated through manholes
atop the storage tanks. The Lodge water supply has consistently passed monthly
State inspections and quarterly Park Service inspections for water quality.
At the end of the Lodge’s March through November season, the tanks are
emptied for the winter when temperatures can drop to –20 degrees Fahrenheit.
The tanks also withstand total annual snowfall accumulations that can exceed
60 inches, annual rainfall totals that can exceed 70 inches, and high winds
and debris. www.aoc-resins.com.
V is for Victory
A new carbon fiber sport boat will hit the market beginning in 2007. The V-38
was designed and built by Brad Robinson, who created Victory by Design with
his wife, Susana, reported Sailing Breezes online magazine. His first stepping-stone
on the way to the V38 was the fiberglass-hulled “Victory.” Designed
and built in 2003, it featured many elements intended to help the crew achieve
speed with less work and better control. Robinson says he has been fascinated
by the possibilities of lighter weights and applications of space-age materials
for the purpose of making sailboats go faster. The V38 is strictly a “super-high-performance
sport boat,” according to Robinson. The boat is 38 feet and cast in the
same mold as its predecessor, “Victory.” However, carbon fiber roving
will be used in the haul in order to reduce the weight and maintain stiffness
and durability. In addition, the vang and adjustable bowsprit, unique rudder
linkage system connecting dual rudders to a single tiller, a self-tacking jib,
and a set of carbon fiber sideboards and rudders add to the appeal. The all-new
V38 is expected to be available in the spring of 2007. All totaled, it weighs
1,300 pounds with an 8’6” beam, 95 cubic feet of sealed flotation,
and a side board system designed to self clean any weed problems. The mast,
rudders and sideboards are all made of carbon fiber. www.sail ingbreezes.com;
www.victorybydesign.org
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