Army exhibits advanced materials at expo

By Tommy Harris, AMRDEC Exhibits ManagerNovember 2, 2014

RDECOM Exhibit at CAMX 2014
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

The Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center teamed with the Army Research Laboratory to host an exhibit at the 2014 Composites and Advanced Materials Expo in October. More than 7,000 representatives from industry, academia, and government organizations attended the event, which featured 560 exhibits and 300 technical sessions.

The expo, produced by the American Composites Manufacturers Association and the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, took place in Orlando, Florida, and brought together the composites and advanced materials communities.

Tommy Harris, operations research analyst, facilitated the AMRDEC portion of the booth, which highlighted capabilities of the Weapons Development and Integration Directorate's Composite Structures Laboratory. The lab's mission is to design, analyze and fabricate optimized composite structures to reduce weight and cost of Army systems. Taylor Owens and Daniel Carter, mechanical engineers at the Composite Structures Lab, supported Harris with the exhibit, attended sessions and held meetings with other subject matter experts.

"CAMX was a great opportunity to interface with the composite materials research community and present some of the current materials research within the AMRDEC," Owens said. "It was also a great opportunity to review some of the other great work being done by others in the community."

Owens said the lab's core technical competencies include fabrication, testing and characterization. Fabrication techniques and equipment include filament winding, fiber placement, hand layup, autoclave and oven curing, compression molding, vacuum assisted resin transfer molding and resin formulation. Testing capabilities and equipment include impact testing, structural loads testing, shearography, ultrasonic non-destructive inspection, thermal management and hydrostatic testing. Characterization capabilities include thermal analysis, rheology, gas pyconemetry and evolved gas analysis.

"CAMX provided an excellent opportunity to meet with multiple vendors that we currently work with, and discuss current projects," Carter said. "Most importantly, we met companies that have innovative ideas and materials that could help advance current weapon systems or bring a paper sketch/idea to life. It helps us stay on the leading edge of current technology so that we can provide the war fighter with the tools that they need and use every day."

AMRDEC was part of the Research Development and Engineering Command exhibit, which also included the Army Research Lab.

"CAMX provided an excellent forum to interact with the attendees engaged in R&D from industry and academia and build collaborative relationships that can enable the development of advanced technologies for materials and manufacturing science," Steve Taulbee, an engineer with ARL, said.

AMRDEC and ARL are both part of RDECOM, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for Soldiers. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the Army Materiel Command.

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The Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.

RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness -- technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection, and sustainment -- to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.

Related Links:

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