Welcome to S.A. Composites
S.A. Composites (SAC) is an advanced composite technology company that specializes in the custom fabrication of carbon fiber, fiberglass, and filament wound parts and products. The company focuses on providing complete solutions to its customers' composite material needs. These composite solutions are accomplished by a staff of experienced composite technicians who know how to design and fabricate exotic composites parts. SAC's composite work ranges from two-inch fiber radomes to twelve foot carbon fiber fairings. The company also offers engineering assistance for the complete design cycle, from concept to tooling to production. Whether you are looking for a new composite prototype or a production run in the thousands, SAC has the composite experience, knowledge, and energy to help you succeed.
Resourceful Composite Links
-
Composite Industry Links:
- www.sampe.com
- www.tcrcomposites.com
- www.compositepro.com
- www.hexcel.com
- wikipedia.org/Composite Materials
- Composite Fairing
- Waffers Arms
- Hand Lay-Up
- Winding
Composite Fairing Help to Re-Build Air Force
The October 5, 2009, issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine included an article about the race against time to rebuild the Iraqi Air Force. One of the milestones on a now shortened timeline to rebuild this military is the announcement that the AC-208 Combat Caravans are capable of firing laser-guided Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. S.A.Composites builds the fairings for the missile pylon that allow the military to fire Hellfire missiles from a Cessna Caravan. This fairing showcases S.A.Composites' ability to produce quality, composite parts for military aviation as well as our ability to provide World Class Solutions.
Wafer Support Arms
S.A. Composites completed another order of composite wafer support arms. These arms are used to pick up and move silicon wafers that are 150 or 200 mm in diameter. The wafer support arms are only 0.045" thick, but are hollow to allow a vacuum to be applied to the base of the arm. The material used to make these arms is 3 times stiffer than steel. Once the vacuum is connected, the arm is lowered to the wafer and the vacuum is applied to the 200 mm wafers at three points, allowing the arms to pick them up. These parts are hand laid-up with vacuum passages, cured in a press at 10,000 psi, then CNC machined to final shape.
Carbon Fiber Hand Lay-Up
S.A. Composites has extensive composite experience with hand lay-up carbon fiber and fiberglass parts: radomes, fairings, and composite tooling are a few of its recent projects. These composite parts all have complex contours with very specific requirements for fiber placement. SAC is experienced in producing lay-up parts that meet specific material design strength and stiffness. The SAC staff can assist in the design of the tooling, work with the machine shop to build the tools, and work with you to help design the actual lay-up of the part. Most hand lay-up parts are made with a prepreg material, either a unidirectional tape or a woven cloth. However, SAC can also tailor the fiber and the resin with a wet-lay process as needed for your project. All parts are vacuum-bagged to compact the plies and ensure proper resin/fiber content, and then cured at room temperatures. If needed, SAC can post cure parts in its autoclave, which is capable of 400 degrees F and 100 psi. Once the composite part has cured, molds are removed, leaving a part with perfect contours and material strength that will meet the customer's composite needs.
Fiberglass/ Carbon Fiber Driveshaft
Filament winding is one of S.A. Composites specialties. One example of SAC's experience producing filament wound tubing involves its relationship with S.A.Robotics, a company that has pushed the limits of the for long reach manipulator arms. SAC's smaller filament winder is a McClean Anderson, which can wind composite structures up to 3 feet in diameter and 12 feet long. In addition, SAC has a CNC Techniques 4-axis winder that is capable of winding composite parts up to 6 feet in diameter and 30 feet long. Each filament winder utilizes a very accurate, Sahm high-tension fiber delivery system for filament winding that can tension up to 24 spools of fiber to 10 pounds of tension, allowing the use of fibers from very light (1k tow) carbon to very heavy (80k tow) carbon. SAC has a large inventory of mandrels capable of producing a wide range of filament wound parts, and the company has the capability to design and build custom mandrels to meet customer requirements.