FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact Info:
Shannon Downey
KaZaK Composites, Inc.
sdowney@kazakcomposites.com
781-569-2542
KAZAK COMPOSITES INTRODUCES PULTRUSION-BASED FABRICATION OF PHENOLIC FOAM
Composite Foam is a Replacement for Balsa in Navy Ship Structures
ARLINGTON, VA, June 2, 2008 – KaZaK Composites, Inc., a premier provider of high value-added composite engineering and design, today announced at the 2008 Navy Opportunity Forum that they have developed and manufactured an alternative composite material to replace the balsa core currently in use by the Navy in ships’ sandwich panel structures. This new core material, when used in combination with the automated pultrusion process to manufacture ship panels, reduces costs due to both less expensive materials and fewer labor costs.
“While balsa is both strong and lightweight it can also be comparatively expensive,” says John Schickling, EVP and COO of KaZaK Composites. “Additionally, it is sensitive to moisture and has widely variable mechanical properties. The phenolic foam replacement developed by KaZaK offers a comparable weight to balsa but is less expensive because it is produced from more readily available materials.”
Another requirement for the Navy is that the core material must pass all the necessary fire, smoke and toxicity (FST) tests and its structural properties must also meet performance requirements. KaZaK’s foam core material meets the Navy’s FST requirements and the design can be tailored to meet specific density and structure property needs. The end result is an economical proprietary composite which is immune to environmental degradation and its made using readily available materials. In addition, manufacturing automation using pultrusion gives the finished product a significant cost advantage of labor intensive, difficult to automate, traditional sandwich panel construction methods, thus saving the Navy money without compromising quality.
About KaZaK Composites
Headquartered in Woburn, MA, KaZaK Composites, Inc. integrates engineering design and low-cost manufacturing to produce high performance composites for the aerospace,
military and commercial markets. With specialization in large and unusual pultrusion processing, KaZaK Composites, Inc. provides product value in the area of material sciences that has enabled engineers to develop new and creative ways to build structures.
KaZaK Composites, Inc. also has a facility in Hudson, NH. For more information, please visit www.kazakcomposites.com. |
