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Machine design and manufacture is the key to the advancement of manufacturing industry. Before any machine can be designed, it is important to establish requirements of the machine. Identifies quality function deployment (QFD) as one of the tools that can be used to identify customer needs and link the needs to product design. By bringing forward customers’ requirements into the design process, design rework and unnecessary iteration between design and manufacture can be reduced. In this project, QFD for a pultrusion machine design has been chosen as a case study. QFD was applied at the front end of the design process. The QFD process started with identifying the customers and determining their needs. These needs were translated into engineering requirements which were then used to formulate general specifications of the machine. A step by step approach was introduced to make the QFD process more manageable. Reports on the first phase of a research project in which QFD was used to capture all vital information from the customers and translated that into engineering requirements.

The purpose of this study is to develop jute-glass hybrid fibre reinforced polyester-based bio-composites using an indigenously developed pultrusion set-up and to present a detailed discussion on their mechanical characterization.

The work was carried out to observe the hybridization effect of natural and synthetic fibres in combination with hybrid fillers loading mainly on strength and other properties. The used hybrid fillers were a combination of 9 Wt.% of carbon black%, 6 Wt.% of eggshell ash powder and 6 Wt.% of coconut coir ash powder. A lab-based developed pultrusion set-up was used to develop these hybrid GJFRP composites of 1,500 mm length. The developed composites were tested for tensile strength, compressive strength and impact strength.

The maximum tensile, compressive and impact strength obtained are 88.37 MPa, 56.13 MPa and 731.91 J/m from 9 Wt.%, 9 Wt.% and 0 Wt.% of hybrid fillers loading, respectively. Breaking energy was found maximum as 7.31 J in hybrid glass-jute hybrid fibre reinforced plastic composites with no filler loading and it was observed that filler loading was decreasing the impact strength of developed hybrid composites. Shrinkage and its variations in the diameter of the finally developed cylindrical shape composites were observed after cooling and solidification. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the internal cracks, bonding of fibres and resin, voids, etc.

Development of hybrid filler based novel eco-friendly bio-composites and its experimental investigation on the impact strength, tensile strength and compressive strength has not been attempted yet.

This paper seeks to focus on material combinations for flexible matrix composites (FMCs) and the production methods thereof. These materials enable a high flexibility in one direction while being very stiff in the other.

Tested were rubber, silicone and thermoplastic elastomer matrices with carbon fibers using different production methods. These tests focused on the impregnation of the fibers with the different matrices and the orthotropy of the produced materials.

In the paper, a production capability for large quantities of easy to use off‐the‐shelf material was developed. The produced material handles similar to prepreg material known from “classical” composite materials. Test specimens were manufactured and characterized for mechanical properties using tensile tests.

These FMC materials are envisaged for a new pneumatic actuation system for an aircraft's droop nose to replace the electro‐mechanical system designed in the SADE and SmartLED projects. Combining a tube‐like geometry and a variable fiber‐angle lay‐up enables a wide range of deformation possibilities (large design freedom of movement behaviour).

PERA is launching a project to increase the potential applications of pultrusion, giving new confidence to end users in the quality and reliability of pultruded material.

PRE‐EMINENT in the manufacture of fibre‐reinforced composites for general use and in these particular applications, for aerospace purposes, the CIBA‐Geigy company has circulated information regarding the many types of matrix resins, fibres and processes that are used in their production. An evaluation of the particular fibre/resin/processing combination that is best for a defined task may be accomplished by means of polymer selection (i.e. the range of available materials) and following this, a more detailed consideration of the matrix aspects of processing. Matrix resins are generally divided into thermoplastics and thermosets and the following could be considered representative of the first of these: nylon polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polybutylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polysulphone. Typical thermosets could be epoxy, melamine, phenolic, polyester, polyimide, and ureas. Reinforcing fibres may be natural, synthetic organic or inorganic such as sisal, flax, nylon, glass, aramid, carbon, boron, alumina and silicon carbide and the fibres may be employed as short lengths or continuous filaments. They can be used as appropriate to the type of application and presented in prepreg form in various ways such as unidirectional (UD) continuous filament tape, aligned UD short filament, woven fabrics or papers, or as injection and compression moulding compounds. To form these prepregs into finished parts, the most commonly used processes are autoclave moulding, press and matched tool moulding, compression, injection, vac‐bag and expanding rubber moulding, filament winding and pultrusion.

The aim of the present study is to find the tribological properties of newly developed polyester-based hybrid glass-jute fibre reinforced plastic composites loaded with different weight per cent of hybrid filler particles were investigated under a dry sliding medium from room temperature to 75°C.

The study was carried out using a pin-on-disc wear test set-up. The design of experiments was carried out in a controlled way using a central composite design based on response surface methodology to observe the effect of various parameters i.e. sliding velocity, sliding distance, the temperature of counterface and different applied load conditions during dry-sliding.

The maximum wear resistance was found at 9 Wt% loading of filler, 4 ms^-1 sliding velocity, 30 N applied load, 54°C temperature of the counterface and 1,100 m sliding distance condition. Optimum values of hybrid filler loading, sliding velocity, applied load, the temperature of the counterface and sliding distance for the minimum coefficient of friction value and minimum friction force are 9 Wt%, 4 ms⁻¹, 30 N, 54° C, 1,100 m and 12 Wt%, 3 ms⁻¹, 20 N, 59°C and 1,100 m, respectively. The worn surface morphology was studied using scanning electron microscope, for wear dominant mechanisms.

The tribological properties of newly developed polyester-based hybrid glass-jute fibre reinforced plastic composites loaded with different weight % of hybrid filler particles, were investigated under dry sliding medium from room temperature to 75°C has not been attempted yet.

The AVX‐553BR is designed to extend the length of a single 1553 bus by regenerating the data on a remote bus. The maximum transmission distance of a MIL‐STD‐1553 bus is 300ft — this may be extended a further 300ft with the Bus Repeater. By daisy‐chaining repeaters the bus may be extended indefinitely with minimum accumulated delays.

Leading aerospace equipment manufacturer Dowty Rotol has received orders from British Aerospace for a further batch of A320 main landing gears which will result in further business worth over $40 million, giving the company an all time record order book.

STRUCTURAL composites which are load bearing materials in which fibres or particles have been introduced into a matrix, have been in use in aerospace for some time. Used more and more in military aircraft, their civil applications were very restricted initially. Increased confidence gained over the years has shown their reliability however, and they are now employed extensively in the largest transports. Their use has been accompanied by improvements in methods of manufacture and enhancement in mechanical properties. Further improvements are needed if composites are to be fully competitive in all the applications envisaged. In addition, designers are now looking forward to composites formed of reinforced metal, ceramic or other matrices.

This paper gives a review of the finite element techniques (FE) applied in the area of material processing. The latest trends in metal forming, non‐metal forming, powder metallurgy and composite material processing are briefly discussed. The range of applications of finite elements on these subjects is extremely wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore the aim of the paper is to give FE researchers/users only an encyclopaedic view of the different possibilities that exist today in the various fields mentioned above. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on finite element applications in material processing for 1994‐1996, where 1,370 references are listed. This bibliography is an updating of the paper written by Brannberg and Mackerle which has been published in Engineering Computations, Vol. 11 No. 5, 1994, pp. 413‐55.