Latest news from the Labs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock West Composites Delivers Panels for 500-Watt Arrays to Astro Digital for their Higher-Power Buses This month Rock West Composites delivered panels for Astro Digital’s new 500-Watt arrays to support higher power versions of Astro Digital’s Corvus buses. RWC built the sandwich panels from trace/lead integrated skins that allowed for direct integration with solar cells, saving weight and integration time for the customer.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) June 27, 2024 – Rock West Composites (RWC) announces the delivery this month of panels for Astro Digital’s new 500-Watt arrays to support higher power versions of their Corvus buses. RWC teamed with Astro Digital to fabricate solar array substrate (SAS) panels with a unique integrated design to save volume and weight. These panels are being integrated into space vehicles, the first of which is scheduled to launch in October.

These SAS panels are unique in that RWC built the sandwich panels from trace/lead integrated skins that allowed for direct integration with solar cells. This reduced total weight and shortened the integration time. The customer furnished the G10 (fiberglass) skins that already had the integrated copper traces. RWC used specialized tooling to align the face skins on the aluminum honeycomb core to keep the traces in the right location during fabrication of the approximately 2’ x 2’ structures.

Jeremy Senne, Space Segment Director, said, “This is a great example of how we can help our customers solve their problems in innovative ways. It was a tooling and machining challenge to work with their pre-integrated skins, but our experience on other precision programs enabled successful fabrication.”

About Rock West Composites

Rock West Composites is an employee-owned, advanced composites company. RWC develops, engineers, manufactures, and tests composite products for multiple industries including Space (bus structures; solar array panels and wings; launch vehicle structures; optical, payload and deployable structures), Aerospace & Defense (radomes, munitions, unmanned systems, reflectors), Aircraft (new and replacement parts) and Commercial Equipment (automation, medical, energy, and sporting). The company is also one of the largest ecommerce suppliers of off-the-shelf carbon fiber tubes, plates, materials, and accessories.

The company’s mission is to make customers more competitive with the magic of advanced composites by delivering highly differentiated products on time and on budget, all while making the buying process easy. Rock West Composites has locations in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baja California, Mexico. www.rockwestcomposites.com

#######

For more information:
Julia Willis, Marketing Director
Phone: 858-537-6260
Email: marketing@1rockwest.com
Website: www.rockwestcomposites.com

Our Ecommerce Origins Story

In 2009, rockwestcomposites.com became one of the first online merchants for carbon fiber tubes, plates, panels, connectors, and materials. Over the past 15 years, our value proposition has always been that more than 94% of the items we stock ship within 24 hours. While this quick ship promise is great for last-minute needs, the fluctuation of demand forced us to continually scale back the number of items we listed for sale. While Rock West Composites owns over 3,000 mandrels, we were listing under 1,600 tubes for sale.

New Product Success

In 2023, we tried something different. We the first-of-offered-its-kind selection of off-the-shelf, space-ready items called STRATO™. Our value proposition was no longer centered around 24-hour shipment. It stated that we had the materials, tools, certifications, and people power to produce these standard items in 4-6 weeks, far faster than a custom solution. This approach allowed us to offer a far larger selection of tubes, plates, panels, and materials to our customers than if we tried to make them and keep them in stock. The product has been very successful. We've helped numerous customers shave weeks off their schedules while enjoying the cost benefits of using a stock item versus a custom solution.

Sitewide Product Expansion with Rapid Production

Building upon the success of the STRATO™ program, we are expanding this concept into everything we do. While we will continue to stock fast moving items, we will also list many items that we have the materials, tools, and peoplepower to produce quickly upon your order. Almost all items will be available within 4 weeks of order placement. We are also expanding the number of raw components we sell and are actively engaging with other manufacturers to sell their products on our site. We want rockwestcomposites.com to be your one-stop for everything you need to complete your advanced composites project.

Plan on Success!

We are excited about these changes as we believe they will provide you, our customers, access to significantly more off-the-shelf solutions for your projects. And while you will have to plan and order a little further in advance, you will have many more items to choose from. As always, if you do run into a time crunch, let us know. We may have alternative solutions or expedited services that can meet your deadline.

New Website in May

We are targeting May for our website launch. Please check out the new site, and if you don't see a product that you think we should be carrying, drop us an email at marketing@rockwestcomposites.com, and we'll do everything we can to add it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock West Composites Delivers to Purdue University
the Barrel Timing Layer Tracker Support Tube for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider

This month Rock West Composites delivered a large, high-precision, carbon fiber and honeycomb core tube to Purdue University. The structure is the Barrel Timing Layer Tracker Support Tube that is part of an upgrade to CERN’s Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), which is a general-purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) March 9, 2024 – Rock West Composites (RWC) announces the delivery of the Barrel Timing Layer (BTL) Tracker Support Tube to Purdue University this month. This large carbon fiber sandwich structure destined for CERN was designed by a joint team from Purdue University, led by Dr. Andy Jung and Dr. Ben Denos, and RWC, led by John Marks. The collaborative effort met key performance parameters using the most cost-effective design. The hardware RWC delivered will be integrated with instrumentation from Purdue prior to delivery to CERN.

CERN is the world’s leading laboratory for particle physics located near Geneva, Switzerland. The carbon fiber tube supports the heart of the upgraded CMS detector, a “camera” with more than a billion pixels to record proton-proton collisions at the highest ever-made energies and unprecedented resolution. In a few years, once fully commissioned, the upgraded CMS detector is expected to collect 10 times the data recorded so far in the hunt for new particles and aims to understand the origins of the Universe.

Tube under manufacture and inspection

The BTL Tracker Support Tube had to be manufactured from materials with extremely low radiation resistance, have a precise circular cylinder structure, be very strong and stiff, and meet an accelerated delivery schedule. Because the final tube had such challenging requirements, traditional tooling or manufacturing approaches would have been unaffordable. Innovative techniques were used, starting with the manufacture of curved, solid laminate arc segments rather than a full cylinder. Precision machined arc segment stiffeners help hold the arcs to strict dimensions once assembled. Low coefficients of thermal expansion are maintained in all 3 directions: radially, circumferentially, and along the length of the tube.

Completed hardware with the tooling used for manufacture

Prior to making the full-scale tube, RWC built a full diameter but much shorter version of the part as a technology demonstrator. RWC was presented with an Industry Gold Award from CERN in 2022 for this effort, and ultimately won the program from Purdue for the full-size hardware due to the success of the demonstration model and its affordability.

The delivered hardware is 5.3-meters long by 2.4-meters in diameter. It is constructed of ultra-high-modulus prepreg and Nomex honeycomb core made with PMT-F6 cyanate ester resin. There are 1680 metallic inserts made of solid carbon epoxy, titanium and stainless steel; and it includes two 110 MSI carbon fiber (K13916/ F6) rails to support scientific instruments. Surface accuracy requirements were tested to 2.4mm cylindricity inhouse before shipment.

Images show details of the interior of the tube with hundreds of inserts and railing system

John Marks, VP of Product Development, said, “We were excited to take on this challenging program and to know that we will be contributing to the advancement of humanity’s understanding the fundamental construct of matter. Our work on the demonstration model and final hardware pushed our team’s technical skills to the limit, and we couldn’t be prouder of their performance on this program.”

The Rock West team posing in front of the completed hardware the day before it was shipped

About Rock West Composites

Rock West Composites is an employee-owned, advanced composites company. RWC develops, engineers, manufactures, and tests composite products for multiple industries including Aerospace & Defense (radomes, aircraft, and weapon components), Space (bus structures, solar array panels and wings, strut assemblies, launch vehicle structures), and Commercial Equipment (industrial, medical, energy, and sporting). The company is also one of the largest ecommerce suppliers of off-the-shelf carbon fiber tubes, plates, materials, and accessories.

The company’s vision is to “make the magic of composite technologies accessible to the world” by executing flawlessly and providing customers a competitive advantage, all while making it easy to buy. Rock West Composites has locations in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baja California, Mexico.
www.rockwestcomposites.com

#######

For more information: 

Julia Willis, Marketing Director
Phone: 858-537-6260
Email: marketing@1rockwest.com
Website: www.rockwestcomposites.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock West Composites’ Components Are on Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 Mission to the Moon

Supporting the commercial space race to the Moon, Rock West Composites is proud to have provided multiple configurations of struts to Intuitive Machines for incorporation into its Nova-C lunar lander named Odysseus, which launched last week. The struts met challenging surface profile and straightness requirements for both interior and exterior dimensions, were integrated with bonded fittings, and were pull-tested in-house before delivery.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) February 21, 2023 – Rock West Composites (RWC) provided hardware to Intuitive Machines for incorporation into its recently launched Nova-C lunar lander, Odysseus. Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 Mission is sending its lander to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and Artemis campaign. RWC delivered multiple configurations of machined and tested struts with bonded fittings. The struts included both circular cross-section tubes with and without bonded titanium fittings, and rectangular tubes with a tooled surface on both the inside and outside face.

IM-1 Lunar Lander Odysseus with RWC Struts and Assemblies (Odysseus images courtesy Intuitive Machines – Nick Rios)

The RWC-provided struts were primarily constructed of HM63/PMT-F6 unidirectional prepreg with 0.010” and tighter surface profile and straightness requirements. The rectangular tubes were especially challenging due to the tooled surface requirement on both the interior and exterior with a tight surface profile requirement on both sides to allow for next-level assembly tolerances. The hardware was build-to-print, but RWC provided input on the final design for manufacturability and requirements compliance. The struts with bonded fittings were pull-tested in-house at RWC prior to final integration at Intuitive Machines.

RWC Strut Assemblies

“We are honored to support our commercial customers in this race to the Moon and ultimately a sustained human presence there,” said Jeremy Senne, RWC’s Space Segment Director. “Our precision composite components can give our customers the performance they need to succeed in this high-risk and clearly challenging business.”

For more information on this mission: https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-1

About Rock West Composites

Rock West Composites is an employee-owned, advanced composites company. RWC develops, engineers, manufactures, and tests composite products for multiple industries including Space (bus structures, solar array panels and wings, strut assemblies, launch vehicle structures), Aerospace & Defense (radomes, aircraft, and weapon components) and Commercial Equipment (industrial, medical, energy, and sporting). The company is also one of the largest ecommerce suppliers of off-the-shelf carbon fiber tubes, plates, materials, and accessories.

The company’s vision is to “make the magic of composite technologies accessible to the world” by executing flawlessly and providing customers a competitive advantage, all while making it easy to buy. Rock West Composites has locations in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baja California, Mexico.
www.rockwestcomposites.com

About Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines is a diversified space company focused on space exploration. Intuitive Machines supplies space products and services to support sustained robotic and human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Intuitive Machines’ products and services are offered through its four business units: Lunar Access Services, Orbital Services, Lunar Data Services, and Space Products and Infrastructure. For more information, please visit intuitivemachines.com.

For more information: 

Julia Willis, Director of Marketing Communications
Phone: 858-537-6260
Email: marketing@1rockwest.com
Website: www.rockwestcomposites.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock West Composites Ships First Set of
Solar Array Substrate/Back-Up Structure Assemblies for the DiskSat Program

Rock West Composites announces that this month it shipped the first four solar array substrate/back-up structure assemblies to The Aerospace Corporation in support of the DiskSat Program. The company, whose engineering team consulted on the substrate and assembly design, used their space-grade, off-the-shelf STRATO™ panels to reduce cost and lead times, plus met positional tolerances of 0.010”-0.020” without costly assembly fixtures.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) January 31, 2023 – Rock West Composites (RWC) delivered four combination solar array substrate/back-up structure assemblies to The Aerospace Corporation in support of the DiskSat Program this month. DiskSat is a NASA-funded technology demonstration program that seeks to verify the performance and deployment method of this new small-spacecraft platform. The disk-shaped satellite design has the potential to revolutionize smaller space missions through its high power, large aperture form factor that fits in the circular cross-section of a rocket fairing. By using its own off-the-shelf, space-grade STRATO products, RWC was able to significantly reduce lead time and cost, while helping define structural properties to support the mission’s innovations. If successful, follow-on missions are possible, and other prime contractors may look to use a similar form factor for volumetric and weight efficiencies.

Set of four DiskSat Assemblies

Providing additional services for this build-to-print program, the RWC engineering team consulted on the design including layup, material selection, insert design, bonding methods, and manufacturing strategy. RWC used its own product, the STRATOSubstrate™ LEO class, to ensure a cost-effective solar array substrate. The team used an insert design that allowed for self-fixturing to a tight tolerance, avoiding a costly assembly fixture. The tolerances on the in-plane and out-of-plane inserts match to a global datum scheme, and tolerances were on the order of 0.010-0.020” positional.

The use of STRATOSubstrate LEO panel blanks significantly reduced raw material and blank lead time. STRATOSubstrate LEO class panels use HR40/NB321 unidirectional prepreg, NB301 film adhesive, perforated aluminum honeycomb core, and 0.002” HN Kapton. The inserts for the deliverable were BR-127 primed aluminum bonded with EA9394. The final assembly measures approximately one meter in diameter and 25 centimeters in thickness.

Close-up of the DiskSat assemblies

Detail of DiskSat assemblies’ inserts

“Saving our customer cost and lead time for this innovative and game-changing program by using our STRATOSubstrate LEO class of panels is exactly why we developed the STRATO product line,” said Jeremy Senne, RWC’s Space Segment Director. “We are excited about the potential for this new form factor in the exploration of space.”

About Rock West Composites

Rock West Composites is an employee-owned, advanced composites company. RWC develops, engineers, manufactures, and tests composite products for multiple industries including Space (bus structures, solar array panels and wings, strut assemblies, launch vehicle structures), Aerospace & Defense (radomes, aircraft, and weapon components) and Commercial Equipment (industrial, medical, energy, and sporting). The company is also one of the largest ecommerce suppliers of off-the-shelf carbon fiber tubes, plates, materials, and accessories.

The company’s vision is to “make the magic of composite technologies accessible to the world” by executing flawlessly and providing customers a competitive advantage, all while making it easy to buy. Rock West Composites has locations in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baja California, Mexico.
www.rockwestcomposites.com

About The Aerospace Corporation

The Aerospace Corporation is a nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and
development center, providing technical expertise and objective analysis for our nation’s space programs. aerospace.org

For more information: 

Julia Willis, Director of Marketing Communications
Phone: 858-537-6260
Email: marketing@1rockwest.com
Website: www.rockwestcomposites.com

We often have customers who need a custom product fast, and at high volume. Here is one of those products. This week we delivered a series of about a 150 radome covers that were custom designed, manufactured, machined, painted and finished within a short turnaround window.  While we can do large, complex structures with all the rigid requirements needed for space applications, we can also handle a fast turnaround, simple programs that can meet baseline technical requirements affordably. 

Rock West worked in close collaboration with this customer, from the initial concept to full production run. We went through multiple design iterations to achieve RF performance and manufacturability. Several prototypes were created and performance tested before the design was finalized. Using in-house machining and painting capability helped to keep schedule short and low risk.

Radomes are an area of specialization for Rock West. You can read more on our Radomes page.

Radome covers, corner view

Subset of the radome covers delivered to our customer

Generally speaking we love the composites business, but we really get excited about programs that test the limits of carbon fiber technology and contribute to scientific discovery.

Last year we told you about this amazing prototype project we were working on with Purdue University for CERN. The prototype was designed and built for the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) detector. We are now hard a work on the final hardware and it’s looking great!  Here are some in process pictures. We look forward to sharing more once it’s finished!

Layup of large, curved, carbon fiber panel with honeycomb core

Large panel with inserts, large tool for assembly, and edge detail

Telescoping tubing has so many practical uses and can be used in everything from window washers to selfie sticks. But sometimes you can't find the right length you need for your purposes. While building your own set can get you exactly what you want (and we are happy to provide all the supplies you need to do it), the process can be time consuming to design and assemble the structure. We have a great solution for you! We now offer fully assembled telescoping tubing from two of our lines:  INFINITubeV  and  INFINITubeUL .

Our  INFINITubeV Telescoping Tubes  provide the perfect balance of strength and lightweight design. This product utilizes our standard modulus tubes, with a classic carbon fiber twill weave strength and esthetic. Engineered for seamless extension and retraction, these tubes offer unmatched versatility for a range of applications, providing exceptional strength without the added weight of heaviest material. For this line, you can choose between our compression ring twist clamps or our new proprietary Flip and Twist locking clamps (more details below!).

Our  Ultralight Telescoping Tubes  utilize standard modulus unidirectional tubes and provide the strongest strength to weight ratio of our telescoping tube options. This set provides the same seamless extension and retraction, versatility and strength. This is just much lighter. This model utilizes compression ring twist clamps.

Both of these lines have medium, long, and extra-long options with 3, 4 or 5 segments respectively. The collapsed and extended length depends on the line since each line has different tube lengths. For details, review the specifications on the individual product pages.


Compression ring twist clamps (left) and our flip and twist locking clamps (right)

NEW Flip and Twist Locking Clamps

These  flip and twist locking clamps  are made specifically to work with our  INFINITubeV Telescoping Tubes , and they are faster to lock and release than our compression ring twist clamps. They are manufactured with PA12GB 40% glass filled & blacked nylon, meaning it has high stiffness and temperature resistance. If you are building your own telescoping tube set,  these clamps  can be secured to the base (larger) tube in the assembly with a cyanoacrylate adhesive or the supplied screw (for dis-assembly). But why build your own when  you can buy it assembled already ?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock West Composites Delivers Completed Assembly Fixtures for the NASA PASS Program

Rock West Composites announces that this month it has delivered three 9 ft. by 9 ft. assembly fixtures that are part of the Precision Assembly Space Structure (PASS) program supporting NASA’s On-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM). Designed with tight tolerances for thermal and moisture stability, the fixtures also required 0.002 in. flatness across 9 fittings and 0.002 in. positional tolerance across the holes and slots for those fittings encompassing the full 9 ft. by 9 ft. panel.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) August 18, 2023 – This month Rock West Composites (RWC) delivered three assembly fixtures for NASA’s Precision Assembly Space Structure (PASS) program supporting the On-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM) efforts. These fixtures are part of NASA’s push for next generation manufacturing technology that will enable in-orbit construction of high-precision hardware, such as reflectors and antennas, for programs such as Artemis.

Left: CAD image of NASA PASS Reflector assembled (Credit: NASA Langley) Center: CAD image of segment of structural supports with assembly fixture (Credit: NASA Langley) Right: RWC Program Team with completed assembly fixtures

RWC helped define the requirements and designed the hardware to meet the challenging operational parameters for these fixtures. There are 9 holes and 9 slots on 9 fittings which required a positional tolerance of 0.002 in. The 9 fittings also required a flatness across the fixture of 0.002 in. The panel has to interface with a strut assembly and have very low coefficients of thermal and moisture expansion to ensure high precision and repeatability.

Laser tracker inspection results of panel tolerances

RWC used a spliced panel design to meet the 9 ft. by 9 ft. sizing. Innovative soft fixturing with fine tuning adjustment capability was used to meet tight tolerances in a cost-effective manner. A laser tracker was used to verify tolerances during manufacture.

Left: Panel in manufacturing on adjustable fixtures for precision tuning Right: Detail of single insert adjustable fixture

“We are proud to be part of this program supporting NASA’s mission infrastructure and pushing forward space technology,” said Jeremy Senne, the head of RWC’s Space market segment. “When we can find ways to innovate our manufacturing process that ultimately save our customer time and money, it’s a win-win. We hope to recycle this process for similar large and tight tolerance structures to continue to push the envelope of what’s possible.”

For more information on Rock West Composites’ capabilities, visit www.rockwestcomposites.com.

About Rock West Composites

Rock West Composites is an employee-owned enterprise that develops and manufactures composite products for multiple industries including aerospace, defense, space, radomes, commercial, industrial, medical, energy, and sporting goods. The company is also one of the largest Ecommerce suppliers off-the-shelf carbon fiber tubes, plates, materials, and accessories. Specializing in carbon fiber and RF-transparent composite materials, RWC offers custom products and off-the-shelf solutions that enable customer success by finding innovative solutions to complex problems across the product lifecycle, from concept to design, and prototype to final hardware production. Rock West Composites has facilities in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baja California, Mexico.

www.rockwestcomposites.com

Originally developed in the 1980’s, the HANS device has been one of the most innovative components in racing safety, as it greatly limits the forward head and neck movement of the driver upon impact. HANS devices have been mandated in NASCAR’s top 3 series since 2001 and by Formula 1 since 2003. Many other major auto racing series followed suit and mandated the HANS device in their races after seeing the impressive life-saving results of this safety equipment.

For over 10 years, Rock West Composites has proudly manufactured carbon fiber HANS devices for Simpson Race Products. Rock West began manufacturing the HANS Pro Ultra device in our Salt Lake City facility. The product design required stringent specifications, including the ability to withstand 10G front impact without failure. The retail-quality gloss finish had to withstand a corrosive environment. As the demand for a lighter weight product materialized, we added the HANS Pro Ultra Lite to our manufacturing roster for Simpson. Rock West delivers lightweight yet strong products that continue to meet customer expectations.

In recent years, our customer needed to reduce production costs, as well as increase efficiency and throughput. We worked to adapt a solution specific to their needs with their input. Rock West relocated HANS production to our plant in Mexico, a facility focused on containing costs for production jobs with high touch labor. With an easy to access plant, Simpson was able to monitor the transition. Our team facilitated training and ensured all quality standards are being met. Our Mexico facility is AS9100D certified with a motivated and quality driven team.

HANS Work in Process

This new production modality has been in place for two years and been an ongoing success. With annual orders for over 1,000 units and with a recent order for more tooling expected to last 5+ years, RWC will continue to make these life saving devices for the foreseeable future.

Our Sporting division is executing development and production work for many customers and hope that we can bring our skills to your company to improve product quality and production efficiency. Contact us!

Sometimes it’s not just our customers who get creative with our products. Our team members like to get in on the action also.

One of our engineers, Brian, was spending hours weeding and picking his strawberry patch. As agricultural labor will tend to do, the gardening was hurting his back and knees​. So he decided to make like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible and dangle over the problematic berry patch!

The Problematic Strawberry Patch

Using a set of carbon fiber tubes and other hardware, he created a lightweight overhead gantry system to suspend himself over the patch. It worked! BUT it was still very painful in a different way and also very complicated. Brian is working on a solution that includes ergonomics in the equation. But in the mean time, take a look at this engineer overachieve at berry picking!

Brian Berry Picking, Mission Impossible Style

We are constantly thinking about the types of projects on which our customers might be working and also about what sort of products they might need to achieve their finished handiwork. So we have just added to our store two products you might find useful in your projects!

Forged Carbon Fiber Blocks

These forged blocks are made with very small chopped carbon fibers and resin and then put at immense pressure as the resin sets. The result is a very strong block of material with isotropic properties.

We offer a variety of thicknesses, and these blocks are fully machinable. They can also be hand shaped using abrasive Dremel tools and sandpaper. Rock West offers machining services for customers who need assistance.

Key Points:

• The blocks have isotropic strength
• They are fully machinable and can be shaped
• Thicknesses range from 0.05″ to 3″

Learn More About CF Blocks!

DIY Resin Infusion Kits

We have put together five different sized kits for infusing your own carbon fiber parts. All kits include tubing, COMPOFLEX flow media, vacuum bag material, sealant, and resin infusion hubs. Carbon fiber fabric comes with the three larger kits. Resin and hardener is included in the two largest kits.

These kits are great for the DIY enthusiast who is carbon fiber curious or a seasoned carbon fiber hobbyist who already has some necessary supplies on hand. This can also be a great buy for educational institutions. 

Key Points:

• There are five levels of kits to fit your project needs
• You can save money with the kit, which is less than the price of buying all the individual components

Learn More About Our Resin Infusion Kits!

Our forged carbon fiber blocks are currently in stock, and our resin infusion kits are put together when you order. Order today and dive into a new project this summer! We’d love to see what you create, so send our customer service team an email with a picture and description of your project at customer.service@rockwestcomposites.com. Have a great creative summer!

Our new Sporting Division is branching into new industries including innovative composite orthotic inserts used to improve walking biomechanics. Optimizing biomechanics to reduce pain during exercise and maximize sports performance is nothing new, but composites have become increasingly favored to facilitate these improvements.

SubioMed, Inc, a Minnesota medical device startup, has patented and designed various multilayer “suspension biomechanics” products to reduce pain, speed recovery and support health benefits through controlled motion and energy return. They chose composites to optimize flex characteristics, reduce weight, and enhance energy capture and return of their flagship product DSO (Dynamic Suspension Orthotics). Creating independent living hinges to move Ground Reaction Force through the hindfoot, midfoot and forefoot during the “three rockers” of gait was the focus of the design and construction.

RWC worked with SubioMed several years ago on some initial product development. SubioMed reengaged RWC to utilize our experience in design and manufacturing to further enhance their product design and capability. They wanted to reduce costs while increasing efficiency and volume throughput. Our ability to provide composite engineering assistance during multiple phases of manufacturing and competitive production rates with our Mexico facility were instrumental in gaining the production side of the contract.

Our development program was completed in January, and the production program has already initiated. We’ve had great collaboration on design, tooling and flow details between the customer and the RWC team. Brian Bowen SubioMed VP Marketing and Sales shared:

“The SubioMed team has been working on successfully integrating a dynamic suspension into footwear for the last few years. While the patents allow us to develop this revolutionary technology, solving the technical challenges to allow function and durability during millions of cycles of walking required composite expertise. Most recently, the diverse talents of Rock West’s responsive team delivered what we needed prior to execute our initial US launch. The results, data, and patient responses confirm we got it right.”

We are excited to join SubioMed in their mission to restore function and reduce pain to patients who need their technology!

We carry one of the widest selection of tubes available anywhere, with options of varying sizes, materials, properties, and shapes. Even with this incredible variety, we know our selection of off-the-shelf tubing is more limited for large diameter tubes. So we offer a service to cover this spectrum of products – you can Build Your Own Tube!

We have an online tube builder for larger diameter options. You may have seen this before on our website, but we have made some recent improvements. This calculator allows you to order filament wound tubes to your specifications for sizes ranging from 0.999” to 21.532” in diameter and up to 29 feet long. We have 42 mandrels to choose from and in the future, we may add more!
 

Large diameter custom composite tubes

Do you have specific structural requirements? You can choose a winding and lay up technique that optimizes your tube for lateral strength, torque, or internal pressure.

Do you have temperature-related operational needs?  These tubes can be created for either standard temperature ranges (223°F max) or for high temperature resistance (up to 400°F).

What material will support your end-use application? Our tubes can be wound with fiberglass or intermediate carbon fiber; it’s your choice!

What’s new? Because the tubes are wound on a full mandrel and then cut to the length desired, we can maximize material efficiencies, creating cost savings that we pass on to you. Given a desired length, the tool will calculate the optimal number of tubes to create the best price per tube.

Even better, the finished parts take about 2 weeks to complete and ship. So if you want a larger tube and can’t find the specifications you want, build it!

If you are on the hunt for metals, you wouldn’t necessarily expect composites to play a role in the search. But that is precisely what is happening with a customer of ours.

Thousands of people around the word use metal detectors for gold prospecting (or other metals) as their primary occupation. When a metal detector is the tool one uses to provide for their family, a high quality tool can be worth its weight in gold. And when that tool is something you carry all day, a lighter tool is essential. This is where we come in.

Our customer makes metal detectors and needs custom, collapsible, telescoping tubes to comprise the central shaft of the detector. The industry standard material for these shafts is aluminum. The customers wanted a unique product that was more ergonomic. Carbon fiber lightened the load and allowed for organic curves. The tubes are a custom shape that provide smooth nesting for its collapsed state, tight clocking for stability when at full extension, exceptional performance for extreme field conditions, and a lighter swing weight.

These parts also need to have a beautiful finish since they are used for a premium quality product line with a high price point. Using modified closed mold techniques, we are able to provide high gloss surfaces that highlight the beautify of the carbon fiber material. In order to maintain the surface quality, a wipe-on ceramic coating is used to protect the finish.

Carbon fiber in the shop and in the field

Our customer chose us because of our developmental approach to the work and our ability to handle the type of production required for this kind of finished piece. High-speed production lines cannot match the level of surface quality the customer needs. With greater than 250 sets per month and over 3000 units per year, this type of production job is in our sweet spot for exceptional quality and reliable delivery.

We are always excited to tackle a new challenge but it’s even more gratifying when you know you are helping individual people around the world put food on the table.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock West Composites Completes Development Model Design for Canadarm3

Rock West Composites announces that it has completed the design for the development model for Canadarm3 this month as part of its contract with MDA, a Canadian space company. Over the course of the contract, two primary booms and one qualification boom will be built and tested to support the Canadarm3 robotic arm, which will be supplied by the Canadian Space Agency as part of the lunar Gateway Program.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) May 1, 2023 – This month Rock West Composites (RWC) has completed the design of the development model for Canadarm3. RWC is collaborating with MDA, a leader in advanced technology solutions for the space industry. The team will design, analyze, manufacture, and test the two primary boom structures and supporting spare units for Canadarm3, Canada’s next-generation robotic arm for the lunar Gateway Program.

According to the Canadian Space Agency, “Canadarm3 will be Canada’s contribution to the US-led Gateway, a lunar outpost that will enable sustainable human exploration of the Moon. This highly autonomous robotic system will use cutting-edge software to perform tasks around the Moon without human intervention.” MDA is tasked with establishing the technical requirements for the program, and RWC is developing the boom structures with MDA.

As a critical component of the Canadarm3 system, the boom structure will be responsible for supporting the robotic arm’s operations and ensuring its stability and reliability over its 20+ year service life. The structure must meet challenging structural and weight requirements, as well as tight dimensional tolerances, operate within wide temperature ranges, and withstand radiation.

“Our collaboration with MDA builds upon our proven track record of delivering innovative solutions for the space industry,” said Jeremy Senne, the head of RWC’s Space market segment. “We are excited to contribute our expertise to this project, work alongside MDA to advance Canada’s space robotics capabilities, and support future deep space presence and exploration by mankind.”

Canadarm is an Official Mark of His Majesty the King in Right of Canada as represented by the Ministry of Industry.

An artist’s concept of Canadarm3, Canada’s smart robotic system, located on the exterior of the Gateway, a small space station in orbit around the Moon. (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, NASA)

For more information on Rock West Composites’ capabilities, visit www.rockwestcomposites.com.

For more information on MDA’s Canadarm3 program, visit https://mda.space/en/canadarm3/.

About Rock West Composites

Rock West Composites provides composite products for a variety of markets and customers. Specializing in carbon fiber composites, RWC offers custom products and solutions, such as product development, engineering services, prototyping, and manufacturing, as well as off-the-shelf products, including tubes, plates, complementary materials, and their space-ready STRATO line. Manufacturing processes include filament winding, roll wrap, resin infusion, bladder molding, modified closed mold, compression molding, autoclave cure, and precision assembly. Rock West Composites has facilities in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baja California, Mexico.  www.rockwestcomposites.com

#######

For more information: 
Julia Willis, Director of Marketing Communications
Phone: 858-537-6260
Email: marketing@1rockwest.com
Website: www.rockwestcomposites.com

Our new Sporting Division is branching into new industries, in particular athletic shoe composite orthotic inserts. Optimizing biomechanics to maximize sports performance is nothing new, but composites has become increasingly favored to facilitate these improvements.

This customer designs biomechanical products to reduce pain, speed recovery and support health benefits though controlled motion. They wanted to use composites to enhance this product’s response while reducing the product’s weight. The hindfoot, midfoot and forefoot were the focus of the design and construction.

RWC worked with this customer several years ago on some initial product development. That customer has reengaged RWC to utilize our experience in design and manufacturing to further enhance their product design and capability. They wanted to reduce costs while increasing efficiency and volume throughput. Our ability to provide competitive production rates with our Mexico facility was instrumental in gaining the production side of the contract.

Initial design tests from earlier product development

Our development program was completed in January, and the production program is completing this month. We’ve had great collaboration on design, tooling and flow details between the customer and the RWC team.

We will be excited to join the customer in their formal product launch in the near future!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock West Composites Is Expanding Its Short Lead Time, Space-Ready STRATO™ Product Line

This month Rock West Composites announces the expansion of its space-grade STRATO product line, which now has two classes created for LEO, GEO and Deep Space applications. These selections of tubes, plates, sandwich panels, and solar array substrates are some of the Space market’s fastest turnaround products with most lead times ranging from two to four weeks.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) April 11, 2023 – Rock West Composites (RWC) announces the expansion of its STRATO space-grade product line this month. Originally focused on tubes for Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) applications, a secondary line will now include products appropriate for Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) and Deep Space use. STRATO products now include plates, sandwich panels, and solar array substrates for both orbital types.

The STRATO line is designed to provide businesses and government agencies high-quality components commonly needed for spacecraft, but RWC offers dramatically shorter lead times—approximately two to four weeks—than competing providers, and the order can be placed easily online.

The entire STRATO line meets key requirements for space, with properties that include low outgassing, low to zero CTE, high modulus materials, and a wide operational temperature range. RWC can offer significantly reduced lead times because it stocks raw materials such as M55J/PMT-F33 Cyanate Ester and HR40/NB321 Epoxy for its ecommerce business.

The STRATOLeo class is a more cost competitive option for meeting space requirements without the additional high-performance capability typically associated with GEO orbits and Deep Space flights. The STRATOGeo class uses top-of-the-line materials in all cases where performance can’t be compromised. The table below details some of the differences of the product classes.

Each order includes a certificate package with dimensional inspection, material certificates, traceability, and a certificate of conformance from RWC. All products are serialized and traceable. Additional options for some products include full traveler verification, resin content testing, and short beam shear testing.

“Our goal is to make space quality hardware readily available in a cost effective and efficient manner,” said Jeremy Senne, head of RWC’s Space market segment. “Whether it’s a start-up business building cube sats or large prime contractors looking to optimize operations, agile organizations in a rapidly growing industry need high quality solutions quickly. Our hope is to help minimize design and build timelines by standardizing available products.” 

For more information on RWC’s STRATO line, visit www.rockwestcomposites.com/strato.

About Rock West Composites

Rock West Composites provides composite products for a variety of markets and customers. Specializing in carbon fiber composites, RWC offers custom products and solutions, such as product development, engineering services, prototyping, and manufacturing, as well as off-the-shelf products, including tubes, plates, complementary materials, and their space-ready STRATO line. Manufacturing processes include filament winding, roll wrap, resin infusion, bladder molding, modified closed mold, compression molding, autoclave cure, and precision assembly processes. Rock West Composites has facilities in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baja California, Mexico.  www.rockwestcomposites.com

#######

For more information: 
Julia Willis, Director of Marketing Communications
Phone: 858-537-6260
Email: marketing@1rockwest.com
Website: www.rockwestcomposites.com

We are proud to support the US Navy through this SBIR program making affordable broadband high-speed radomes. While we’ve talked about this radome program before and even written a case study about it, we’re excited to have been highlighted as a success story by the Department of the Navy’s SBIR/STTR Transition Program office.

We have a total order for 160 radomes to be delivered over four years and are delivering on schedule or earlier.

“The new radomes improve RF transmission, enable faster flight profiles, and are capable of higher temperatures for a significantly lower cost than the radomes they are replacing. A nose radome that can withstand the supersonic environment and have broader bandwidth inherently allows the sensor designer and the mission planner more flexibility in design of the antennas that can be included in the nose radome.”

Read more in the Success Story document below:

Rock West’s best and most important asset is its team of employee-owners. We know that our talented and engaged people are the primary reason why we are able to provide world-class products and services to our customers. We value our team and understand that keeping a healthy environment for everyone matters.

In line with this priority, we are pleased to announce that Cigna has selected Rock West Composites as a recipient of their Silver-level Healthy Workforce Designation for demonstrating a strong commitment to improving the health and well-being of its employees through a workplace wellness program. Rock West’s program focuses on the wellbeing of the whole person, it has leadership buy-in, and it has financial commitment from the company. For example, we engage in activities and challenges around fitness, financial wellness, healthy eating, mindfulness, and career growth, just to name a few.

“We are honored to be recognized with the Cigna Healthy Workforce Designation” said Grace Hernandez, Director of Human Resources. “We understand the important role employee well-being plays in a company’s success and the relationship between healthy employees contributing to a more productive, satisfied workforce and positive business performance.”

As an employee-owned business, the entire team benefits from the enterprise’s success. Investing in an effective workplace well-being program drives value for employee-owners. Senior executives surveyed as part of an Economist Impact study commissioned by Cigna reported greater productivity, stronger staff morale and motivation, and greater retention and loyalty as the most significant business outcomes of a healthy workforce. Additionally, a Gallup Report finds that on average, companies with high employee engagement are 23 percent more profitable.

The Cigna Healthy Workforce Designation evaluates organizations based on the core components of their well-being program, including leadership and culture, program foundations, program execution, and whole person health. Organizations recognized with this designation set the standard of excellence for whole-organization health.

Rock West is proud to offer a healthy and engaging workspace for its people. Join our team if you want to be a part of this terrific group of people!

Reflecting on the Past and Planning for the Future

As we move into our 16^th year of business, we are filled with optimism for the future. A business that started as two friends working in a garage has grown to a team of over 200 people in four locations. This growth has been driven by our culture centered around continuous improvement. We always assess past performance to inform how we plan for the future of our business in the world of composites.

People

Our people are our most important asset, which is why we always seek to improve our workplace culture and benefits for Rock West employee-owners. It seems to be working because our San Diego and Salt Lake City locations were named to the 2022 Top Work Places by our local newspapers for the second year in a row! Last year we began building an employee wellness center, which should be completed this year, and our benefits have been expanded based on feedback from our annual survey of benefit preferences. If you want to be a part of a motivated, engaged, and fun group of people, join our team!

Business Markets

Last year we grew revenue over 60%! We made inroads in new markets and reorganized our business development and program management teams around these markets, improving focus on niche requirements and engineering needs as we move forward. You can read more about our Market focus on our recently updated website.

Facilities & Capabilities

We continue to grow and expand our capabilities. Last year we added an additional 5-axis machine to support the manufacture of larger substrates for space hardware, and we built a custom thermal chamber 50-feet long for thermal cycling long narrow substrates. Also, we added new precision assembly tables, a filament winder, a laser tracker for quality assurance, a laser ply placement system and new software for our CNC ply cutting. This year we’ll be adding a large platen press for oversize plate cures, another 6-spindle filament winder, more precision inspection equipment, and another CNC 3-axis router. We’ll also be expanding our Mexico operations. Our plans are adaptable based on the needs of our customers as we move into 2023.

Laser Ply Placement

Infrastructure

When a company grows this rapidly, its infrastructure has to be updated to keep up with the organization’s needs. This year was an optimal time to upgrade many information systems we use to run our business. We are already noticing the gains of changing to more powerful platforms and anticipate the efficiencies becoming more pronounced as 2023 continues. Saving time and keeping smooth operations helps keep our overhead rates competitive and ensures we continue to provide great value to our customers.

Moving Forward…

We hope your 2022 was wonderful and wish you the happiest of years in 2023! We look forward to working with you!!

Like all of you, our colleagues and customers, we are looking forward to taking time off to celebrate and spend time with our friends and families this holiday season. At Rock West Composites, we take this time to rest and recharge seriously, and as we do every year, we will be closing for a week during the holidays.

Plan Ahead and Order Now!

Do you have projects that need composite supplies during the holidays or at the beginning of the new year? You will be able to order online at any time, but fulfillment will be delayed from when we are closed to when we catch up on back orders in January 2023.

Order now! We will work hard to get your product out the door before the break so you have it when you need it.  Due to our holiday closure and a planned system upgrade, there may be additional delays on orders placed after December 22nd.

The Details

Our online store will be open for business 24/7, like always. Our offices will be closed from December 24, 2022 to January 2, 2023. Customer Service will be back at the phones Tuesday, January 3, but order fulfillment will resume later in January. 

We take pride in being timely with our shipments, and we appreciate your patience as we start the new year taking care of all your composite needs and also spending some time making our systems work better for you.

The team at Rock West wishes you a safe and happy holiday season!

We are proud to sponsor a new composites forum, the Composites Community. It’s a place to find people interested in composites and talk with experts in the field. You can ask our team and other members of our community about products, technical questions and almost anything related to composites.

It’s easy to register! Go to the Composites Community website and click on the Sign Up button in top right corner. You just need your display name, email and password. Then fill out your profile.

We’ve got videos and experts to answer tough questions. For example, community user Mark had a bike repair he was working on and needed some process information. John Kimball, one of our technical experts helped him evaluate the damage and then let him know what process to follow depending on the amount of delamination that occurred. 

Our community is new and will be growing fast. We want to invite you to the neighborhood so you can be a part of that growth and interact with people who love composites as much as you do!

JOIN TODAY!

We are proud to announce that both our Salt Lake City and San Diego offices have been named Top Workplaces for the second year in a row. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization, including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.

Our San Diego headquarters was named by the San Diego Union Tribune as a Top Workplace, joining a limited 115 local companies with the honor. We placed #49 in the small business category.

Our Salt Lake City office was named by the Salt Lake Tribune as a Top Workplace, joining only 155 companies in the region on the list. We ranked #53 in the small business category.

We take employee satisfaction seriously at Rock West. We conduct quarterly surveys about work satisfaction and annual surveys about benefits. We translate this feedback into concrete action. For example, we’ve incorporated popular employee requests, including switching from a 40-hr work week to a 9/80 work schedule. As an ESOP company, all employees are owners. Being personally invested in the company makes for a highly engaged team. Rock West is rapidly growing, and we are hiring. If you are looking to join an amazing team of employee-owners, apply today!

This week Rock West was happy to host 15 engineering students who are currently taking a composites design class at USCD. We provided a short overview on the manufacturing processes that Rock West performs and then gave a tour of the factory floor. This included taking the students from the freezer, to the kitting room, layup and assembly, curing, machining, paint, and quality inspection.

Afterward we provided some pizza allowing for some informal Q&A time. RWC engineers noted that it was great to interact with the next generation of engineers who asked all sorts of great questions! 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock West Composites Introduces New Marine Division Before DEMA Show 2021

Rock West Composites announces the launch of its new Marine Division a week in advance of its attendance at DEMA Show 2021 in booth #1424. Initially focusing on supplying original equipment manufacturers with composite components, Rock West will display new custom products, in addition to off-the-shelf products and materials, relevant to the marine market.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) November 9, 2021 – Rock West Composites (RWC) announces the launch of its new Marine Division in advance of its attendance at DEMA Show 2021, a premier trade-only event for businesses in the ocean diving and watersports markets. RWC will be in booth #1424. Targeting original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), RWC believes that its unique experience with high-performance industries and commercial markets will enable it to provide high quality products that are both cost effective and schedule sensitive, key issues that are challenging to OEMs.

RWC will be focusing on applications including carbon, glass, and hybrid composite free dive fin blades, wrapped and filament wound pole spear tubing, speargun chassis, gaffs, harpoons, technical diving backplates, and mechanical component substructures.

At DEMA Show 2021, the company will highlight a new product, a composites fin blade, which will be on display in the New Product Showcase. The materials are 100% carbon fiber, woven, uni-directional prepreg epoxy. The laminate is quasi-isotropic, strategically stepped and balanced. It has a medium- and soft-flex version available. Blade dimensions are 752mm X 210mm, and it weighs 235 grams. The attachment tendon is a 22-degree angle designed to fit most popular foot pockets. RWC fin blades are designed for high-performance continuous use conditions and are made using the highest quality carbon fiber, fiberglass, and epoxy resin systems and processes.

It was only a couple of years ago that SpaceX founder Elon Musk unveiled an all-carbon-fiber rocket body for his interstellar spaceship to Mars. Then, seemingly without warning, Musk pulled the plug on the project. He scrapped the carbon-fiber rocket body, closed the Port of LA fabricating facility, and walked away from a lease on land he intended for a full-scale production facility.

Those who follow Musk and his SpaceX exploits were shocked. They had heard for years that carbon fiber was the key to making Mars colonization possible. Learning that he was scrapping carbon fiber in favor of stainless steel was puzzling, to say the least. Well, now we know what happened. We finally know why SpaceX abandoned carbon fiber.

We Now Know Why SpaceX Abandoned Carbon Fiber

A Massive Transport Project

Carbon fiber was the material of choice when SpaceX first began designing its Starship (formerly BFR) rockets. The reason was simple enough: carbon fiber’s impressive strength-to-weight ratio makes it superior to steel and aluminum for massive spaceships carrying unimaginable volumes of cargo.

Understand that a single trip to Mars will take years. The first waves of colonists will not be able to rely on regular supply deliveries similar to that which the International Space Station receives. They will have to take everything they need with them. Practically speaking, you are talking massive ships carrying everything from food to medical supplies and construction materials.

Musk determined that stainless steel would be impractical for building such large ships. Carbon fiber gave him a license to think as big as he wanted. But after a few years of research, building, and testing, he finally reached the conclusion that carbon fiber was not the way to go after all.

Two Big Concerns

Carbon fiber proved to be everything SpaceX thought it would be. However, there were too big concerns. The first is temperature resistance. While carbon fiber stands up extremely well to temperature extremes here on planet Earth, it wouldn’t do so well during atmospheric reentry. It just doesn’t stand up to that much heat.

In order to make carbon fiber work for a reusable rocket, the entire body would have to be insulated. That is certainly possible to do, but it adds to the expense. It also adds to the weight. A stainless-steel rocket body would only have to be insulated on the windward half. The rest of the body would be just fine. Why? Because stainless steel is much more temperature resistant.

The other concern was cost. SpaceX determined that it would spend upwards of $130,000 per ton to use carbon fiber as the primary rocket body material. On the other hand, it would spend just $2,500 per ton for stainless steel. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that spending 50 times as much on carbon fiber would put considerable strain on the Starship project.

A Long Way Off

Musk and SpaceX are now in the process of trying to re-establish production facilities at the Port of LA. Rumor has it they want to begin manufacturing stainless steel rocket bodies and other parts from that location before shipping them across the United States to other facilities. In the end, however, a viable Mars spaceship is still a long way off.

Who knows what SpaceX will learn between now and the day it is ready to launch its first prototype? By then, the cost of carbon fiber materials will likely have dropped significantly. Perhaps improvements in manufacturing technologies will have made carbon fiber as heat-resistant steel. Who knows? SpaceX could eventually scrap stainless steel and go back to carbon fiber again.

If you can build something out of steel, aluminum, or wood, you can probably build it with a composite material as well. Take utility poles. Composite utility poles make up about 1% of the total now deployed around the world. One company in Turkey aims to increase that.

Ankara-based Mitas Group was originally established as a steel company back in 1955. It was formed by the Turkish government to help build the nation’s energy infrastructure. Privatized some 30 years ago, the company produces steel utility poles that are used domestically as well as being exported throughout Europe and to North America, the Middle East, and Africa.

Mitas recently took possession of a filament winding machine that it will use to produce up to 1,000 composite utility poles per month. The automated machine will make Mitas the first such company in Turkey to produce composite poles.

Why utilize composite poles instead of steel and wood? Below are the top five reasons. The rest of the world should pay attention to what Mitas is doing here.

5 Reasons The World Needs To Switch To Composite Utility Poles

1. Composites Don’t Corrode

Composite materials do not corrode like steel. For the purposes of this article, we will assume that Mitas poles will be made of carbon fiber. The poles can be installed with complete confidence that they will not rust. That makes them ideal for coastal areas exposed to salty sea air.

2. Composites Don’t Need Regular Maintenance

Both steel and wood utility poles require regular maintenance. Wood needs more maintenance than steel for obvious reasons. However, a composite utility pole requires no maintenance at all. Once installed, nothing more than routine inspections need be done. A composite utility pole does not need to be re-coated with a protective layer. It does not need to be painted.

3. Composites Are Pest Proof

Wood utility poles are vulnerable to a long list of natural hazards. One such hazard is pest infestation. Everything from termites to wood boring beetles can be problematic for wood utility poles. Replace them with composite poles and the problem is solved.

4. Composites Are Lightweight

Utility poles made of carbon fiber are exponentially lighter than both steel and wood poles. This is important in terms of installation. Imagine attempting to install new poles in a remote, rural location without road access. Getting the poles into position becomes a logistical nightmare. On the other hand, composite poles can be carried by hand and assembled on site.

Because composite poles are so light, they are also easy to install in dense urban environments without the need for heavy cranes and other large equipment. A single pole can be installed in just a couple of hours without major disruptions.

5. Composites Are Strong

Finally, carbon fiber is stronger than both steel and wood. Carbon fiber utility poles will hold up better against everything mother nature can throw at them. For example, they are better able to withstand high winds and the heavy loads such winds generate. Where wood poles might snap, carbon fiber poles will stand tall.

Given that Mitas exports their utility poles around the world, it could be only a matter of time before their products reach our shores. Maybe their success will prompt American manufacturers to secure their own filament winding machines to make composite utility poles domestically.

Image Source: Mitaş Composites

As a leading provider of composite materials in Salt Lake City, we frequently sell products to home fabricators. This includes glass and carbon fiber fabrics, tubes, plates, epoxy resins, and even adhesives. Working with any of these materials does pose some amount of risk to human health. As such, we recommend our home fabricating customers be smart about using personal protective equipment (PPE).

The pros use appropriate PPE whenever working with carbon or glass fiber. We use PPE at all of our facilities. If you are a home fabricator, you should too. Do not take any chances with your health. There is no valid reason to risk injury when a few pieces of PPE will keep you safe. We recommend the following four types of PPE:

4 Pieces Of PPE For Carbon Fiber And Fiberglass Home Fabricating

1. Protective Clothing

At the top of the list is protective clothing that will keep both carbon and glass fibers from contacting the skin. The fibers can be irritating to the skin even among people who don’t normally have reactions to potentially irritating materials. Why? Because both glass and carbon fibers are extremely small. If they get stuck to the skin, they can irritate pretty easily.

Protective clothing should include long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. A hat and work boots are also advised. After working with glass or carbon fiber, your protective clothing should be washed. Do not hang it up dirty and reuse it later as you run the risk of transferring fibers stuck on the clothing onto your skin.

2. Nitrile and Work Gloves

Next, we recommend two different types of gloves. During the fabrication stage, use nitrile gloves to prevent contact with epoxy resin and loose carbon and glass fibers. Nitrile gloves do the job and are very inexpensive. Best of all, they are disposable. That means you do not have to try to clean your gloves after handling epoxy.

Post fabrication, we recommend a pair of heavy-duty work gloves to protect your hands during grinding, cutting, sanding, etc. The purpose here is to protect your hands against any splinters that may result from machining finished parts.

3. Eye Protection

It is absolutely imperative to protect your eyes whenever you are working with composite materials. During the fabrication stage, you don’t want glass or carbon fibers in the air to make contact with your eyes. You do not want epoxy to accidentally splash up into your face either. During machining process, eye protection keeps you safe from carbon fiber dust and splinters. In both cases, safety glasses are the bare minimum.

4. Face Masks

Finally, it is wise to protect your respiratory system by wearing a face mask. A mask reduces the risk of exposure to small carbon fibers and carbon fiber dust. A filtered mask can protect you against the sometimes-overwhelming fumes put off by epoxy resins.

In addition to a mask, it’s advisable that you fabricate with carbon and glass fiber in well ventilated areas. Ventilation allows for faster dispersal of annoying fumes. With good ventilation, you will breathe easier and have a lower risk of being overcome.

One last thing we advise: familiarize yourself with appropriate first aid. For example, it’s best to treat skin irritation and rashes by washing the affected skin with soap and warm water to remove fibers. There is no need to scrub, and you probably shouldn’t if your skin is already irritated.

We applaud your desire to fabricate with glass and carbon fiber at home. Both materials offer a tremendous number of applications for home fabricators. Just do yourself a favor and be safe. Wear the appropriate PPE whenever you are working on composite projects.

Take a close look at a section of carbon fiber or fiber glass tubing or plate and you will see that the fibers go in different, specific directions. Comparing different styles of tubing you might notice that fiber direction, also known as orientation, is not always uniform. Composite tubing and plate manufacturers use different orientations depending on what they want to accomplish with the finished product.

In this post, we will explain how fiber direction influences the properties of carbon fiber and fiberglass tubing. Specific properties are often ideal for specific applications. By the end of this post you’ll know how fiber orientation affects the tube and how to pick the right fiber orientation for your project.

TOP THREE FIBER ORIENTATIONS

Fibers can be oriented in any direction between 0° and 180°, although fiber orientation beyond 90° is usually referred to as a negative angle value. For example, a 135° fiber angle is equal to a -45° angle. Most carbon fiber and fiberglass tubing on the market today utilizes a combination of two or more of these orientations:

• 0° – Zero-degree fiber angle is the most frequently used orientation. When fibers are oriented in the direction of the load they are the strongest and stiffest. On tubing, the zero-degree direction is along the length of the tube and contributes to bending stiffness strength.
• 90° – Ninety-degree fiber angle is used when bending both directions is required. In a tube the ninety-degree fibers are oriented in the circumference of the tube. They help keep the tube from crushing or buckling when loaded.
• ±45° – Forty-five-degree angles are often used in conjunction with zero and ninety-degree plies to create a quasi-isotropic layup. A positive forty-five-degree layer is almost always paired adjacent to a negative forty-five-degree layer. When used on a tube, forty-five-degree layers contribute to twisting stiffness and strength.

Woven fiber is often referred to as having a 0/90 degree fiber angle since there are fibers in both directions, but in a single piece. Some woven materials can contain even more fiber directions; for example, triaxial weaves have fiber in three directions and are usually quasi-isotropic by themselves.

How Fiber Direction Influences Tube And Plate Properties

THE FIBER ORIENTATION’S EFFECT ON PROPERTIES

The way fibers are oriented in a carbon fiber or fiberglass layup influences its properties for making everything from tubes to space-ships. Builders must consider those properties during their design process. Below we will explain how each of the common fiber orientations affect the properties.

1. 0° ORIENTATION

If a part will only be loaded in one direction it’s ideal to have all the fibers oriented in that direction. Pultruded rod and tubing are examples of a part that contains only 0° fibers. Since most parts aren’t loaded in only one direction we need to add other angles to maximize strength. A tube that sees only bending and no twisting would still likely benefit from some additional fiber angles. Adding 90° layers helps the tube maintain its shape better so that it doesn’t buckle prematurely.

2. 90° ORIENTATION

As previously mentioned, 90° layers are often added to tubes to make them more resistant to buckling and crushing. High concentrations of 90° or “hoop” layers can also be found in pressure vessels. Since the force is trying to enlarge the tube in a pressure vessel, 90° layers resist the force best. When 90° layers are used in conjunction with 0° layers in a plate, its referred to as bidirectional. Using woven cloth can be an easy way to quickly build parts with fiber in both 0° and 90° directions.

3. ±45° ORIENTATION

Carbon Fiber Olates

Carbon Fiber Olates

45° layers serve different purposes depending on the application. You’ll almost always see a +45° paired adjacent to a -45° layer. This is to keep the laminate “balanced” and from forcefully twisting when loaded. When 45° layers are used in a plate that already contains an equal mix of 0° and 90° layers the plate becomes quasi-isotropic. Whereas a bidirectional plate has equal properties in two directions, a quasi-isotropic plate has quasi-equal properties in any direction. In a tube, 45° layers perform the job of adding torsional strength and stiffness. That’s because when a tube is twisted, the force acting on the laminate is actually at forty-five-degrees. Some laminates will use angles other than 45° as a compromise between bending, crushing and torsion performance. Since 0° layers aren’t possible on filament wound tubes it’s common to see 10° or 15° layers use instead.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT FIBER ORIENTATION

Now that you know how each fiber orientation affects the properties, you can choose the right layup. If you need a tube that performs in a wide variety of conditions, a bidirectional layup is ideal. If you need a tube that performs well in twisting, pick a product with more 45° layers. If you need to increase thickness quickly, a woven material might be a good choice.

Rock West Composites offers plates and tubes with layups to meet almost any demand. If you need a custom or engineered layup for your project give us a call or shoot us an email. If you have more questions about how fiber orientation affects the performance of a part, our customer service representatives would be happy to help.

A bicycle maker purchasing carbon fiber tubing for the first time from Rock West Composites will likely inquire about the grade of the carbon fiber in our products. That’s because we offer four different grades: standard, intermediate, high, and ultra-high modulus. When it comes to grades, tensile modulus is the defining factor.

Standard modulus carbon fiber is the most commonly used grade across industries. It is used for items like sporting goods, bike frames, and general-purpose tubing, as well as aerospace applications. Standard modulus carbon fiber is rated at 33 MSI. This means the resulting material has a tensile modulus of 33 million pounds per square inch. Ultra-high modulus fiber is the least utilized and most expensive of the grades. With a modulus rating up to 135 MSI, this grade is rather brittle and is used primarily for space applications. Remember, tensile modulus is a measurement of stiffness and should not be confused with tensile strength.

Carbon Fiber Grades: It’s All About Tensile Modulus

HOW WE GET TO MODULUS RATINGS

To make most types of carbon fiber, manufacturers start with large groups of carbon atoms that are aligned in a long plastic string. Through a pyrolyzing process that applies extreme heat to the carbon atoms, impurities are gradually burned away leaving just the carbon atoms. Modifications to the pyrolyzing process can produce higher purity strands with higher MSI ratings.

High modulus and ultra-high modulus fibers are sometimes called pitch fiber. Pitch fiber starts as a different raw material than standard or intermediate modulus fibers and uses a different manufacturing process. High modulus carbon fiber has a rating of at least 42 MSI while, ultra-high modulus is rated beginning at 65 MSI.

The downsides to creating more pure strands of carbon fiber are increased cost, increased brittleness, and decreased strength. However, the upsides outweigh the downsides for some applications. High and ultra-high modulus carbon are often used when maximum stiffness is the priority.

Carbon Fiber Olates

Modulus Carbon Fiber

CARBON FIBER TOWS

As impurities are burned away from the carbon atoms, the remaining material is reduced in size. Once fully pyrolyzed, the diameter of a single carbon fiber is a fraction of the size of a human hair. Since a fiber that small isn’t very useful, they are bundled into groups called “tows.” A carbon fiber tow is like a string made up of thousands of carbon fibers. Tow sizes are typically 1K, 3K, 12K, and 24K. The “K” refers to how many thousands of fibers are in a tow.

The weave typically associated with the “carbon fiber” look consists of 3K tows in a twill weave. 3K makes up the majority of carbon fiber materials since it can easily be woven or spread flat into a thickness that’s convenient for making laminates. If thicker layers are required, a 12K tow might be used, or for thinner layers a 1K tow is often used. You may see some materials referred to as “spread-tow” which means that the tow has been spread especially flat to reduce the thickness of the layer. An example of spread-tow can be found in the 12K plain weave on the outside of Rock West Composites’ intermediate modulus tubes.

HOW GRADE RELATES TO TOWS AT ROCK WEST

Rock West Composites uses different tow sizes and weaves to help you identify the grade of fiber used in a tube. Tubes with a 3K twill weave are made with standard modulus fiber, and tubes with 3K plain weave are made with high modulus. As previously mentioned, tubes with spread-tow 12K weave are made with intermediate modulus fibers. 1K plain weave can be found on our ultra-high modulus tubes.

We hope this helps explain the difference between the grades of carbon fiber, and helps you spot the difference when looking for your ideal tube. Remember though, higher modulus fiber means a stiffer fiber but almost always a weaker and more brittle fiber. If you still have questions, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you select the right carbon fiber grade for your application.

Customers routinely call Rock West to inquire about tubing materials. We tell them that we carry both carbon fiber and fiberglass tubing, then ask which material they prefer. Most already know what they want when they call, but how about you? Do you know the difference between carbon fiber and fiberglass? And do you know whether one is better than the other?

Fiberglass is definitely the older of the two materials. Its Created by melting glass and extruding it under high pressure, then combining the resulting strands of material with an epoxy resin to create what is known as fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP).

Carbon fiber consists of carbon atoms bound together in long chains. Thousands of fibers are then combined to form tow (aka strands of bundled fibers). These tows can be woven together to create a fabric or spread flat to create a “Unidirectional” material. At this stage, it is combined with an epoxy resin to manufacture everything from tubing and flat plates to race cars and satellites.

Carbon Fiber VS. Fiberglass Tubing: Which Is Better?

STIFFNESS

Fiberglass tends to be more flexible than carbon fiber and is about 15x less expensive. For applications that don’t require maximum stiffness – like storage tanks, building insulation, protective helmets, and body panels – fiberglass is the preferred material. Fiberglass is also frequently used in high volume applications where low unit cost is a priority.

STRENGTH

Carbon fiber truly shines with respect to its tensile strength. As raw fiber it’s only slightly stronger than fiberglass, but becomes incredibly strong when combined with the right epoxy resins. In fact, carbon fiber is stronger than many metals when fabricated the right way. This is why manufacturers of everything from airplanes to boats are embracing carbon fiber over metal and fiberglass alternatives. Carbon fiber allows for greater tensile strength at a lower weight.

DURABILITY

Where durability is defined as ‘toughness’, fiberglass comes out the clear winner. Though all thermoplastic materials are comparably tough, the ability of fiberglass to stand up to greater punishment is directly related to its flexibility. Carbon fiber is certainly more rigid than fiberglass, but that rigidity also means it is not as durable.

PRICING

The markets for both carbon fiber and fiberglass tubing and sheets have grown dramatically over the years. With that said, fiberglass materials are used in a much broader range of applications, the result being that more fiberglass is manufactured and prices are lower.

Adding to the price difference is the reality that manufacturing carbon fibers is a difficult and time-consuming process. In contrast, extruding melted glass to form fiberglass is comparably easy. As with anything else, the more difficult process is the more expensive one.

At the end of the day, fiberglass tubing is neither better nor worse than its carbon fiber alternative. Both products have applications for which they are superior, its all about finding the right material for your needs. Here at Rock West we pride ourselves in maintaining an extensive inventory of composites to meet the needs of each and every customer.

Most of the customers who purchase carbon fiber materials from Rock West Composites are pros. They use what they buy from us to fabricate individual parts and finished products they intend to sell to their own customers. But believe it or not, some of our customers are DIY fabricators. Yes, DIY fabrication is entirely possible.

It is true that carbon fiber and similar composites are complex materials with a lot of science behind them. But you don’t have to go through the expensive and labor-intensive process of creating carbon fiber for your own layouts. You can buy carbon fiber sheets and prepregs from us. Rock West and our suppliers have done all the hard work for you. You take what you purchase from us and do the layup process at home.

If you are interested in learning more about DIY fabrication, there are great videos all over the internet. We found one series demonstrating how to make carbon fiber-reinforced propellers for drones. The fabricator who produced the videos started with a foam core that he then reinforced with carbon fiber sheets to create some pretty impressive props.

1. BUILD YOUR TOOL

The first step in DIY fabrication is to build your tool. In the composites world, a tool is a mold. You can build a tool in one of two ways. The first is to make a traditional mold into which you will place carbon fiber sheets in multiple layers. Once cured, you remove the part from the mold.

Carbon fiber propellers for a quadcopter drone.

The other option is to do what the drone prop fabricator did. He created a tool that acted as both the mold for his layup and the core of the finished product. Rather than laying carbon fiber sheets into his tool, he wrapped the tool with the sheets. He was left with one solid piece after curing.

2. PREPARE THE CARBON FIBER SHEETS

The next step is to prepare the carbon fiber sheets by cutting them to size and impregnating them with epoxy resin. Note that you don’t need to impregnate if you’re using prepregs. Prepreg sheets are already impregnated with epoxy.

Cutting carbon fiber to size does take some practice. One of the things the fabricator in the drone prop video does is mark his cut lines and then apply cellophane tape on either side before cutting. That way, when he does eventually cut the material, the raw edges on either side of the cut do not start to unravel. It’s little tricks like this you learn as you go.

Carbon Fiber Drone Propellers

Carbon Fiber Drone Propellers

3. LAYUP THE MATERIAL

Step number three is to layup the carbon fiber material in or over your tool. With each layer, you are going to apply additional epoxy resin to make sure the entire surface of each sheet is impregnated. A lot of DIY fabricators use a steel roller to firmly press the layers into place and simultaneously remove air. To reduce the amount of air bubbles or “voids”, it’s also a good idea to vacuum bag your layup to remove air during cure.

The number of layers necessary to complete your layup depends on the design of your part. Some parts call for more layers than others. At any rate, the final step is to place your mold in an insulated environment and apply some heat. Typical epoxies cure at about 250F, but there are also room temperature-cure epoxies available that just require a bit more time to fully cure.

What we’ve described here constitutes the basics of DIY carbon fiber fabrication. Obviously, there’s more to it as parts get more complicated. The point here was just to let you know that DIY carbon fiber fabrication is possible.

If you understand how carbon fiber tow and fabric are manufactured, you know that it is a complex and energy-intensive process that requires aligning carbon atoms, subjecting them to high heat, and then coating them with a chemical to help resin stick.  But how do those fibers and fabrics become Shaped Tubing?

It is easy to look at a cross section of composite tubing and assume it’s a single-piece construction. The finished product certainly is a single piece, but that is only because the resin and curing process bonds everything together. That section of tubing did not start out as a single piece. It started as multiple layers of fiber or fabric that were combined with resin to create the finished tube.

There are four primary processes for creating composite tubing. These are:

1. ROLL WRAPPING

Roll Wrapped is typically done with a prepreg product to ensure consistency. A prepreg is a composite product consisting of fabric or fiber already impregnated with the epoxy resin necessary to hold everything together.

The prepreg material is cut into layers of different fiber orientation. Those layers are then rolled onto a cylindrical rod known as a mandrel. The mandrel and prepreg are then wrapped in a plastic film to contain the epoxy resin and compress the layers during curing. Once curing is complete, the mandrel is removed from the center of the finished tubed.

Roll wrapping results in maximum consistency across both carbon fiber and fiberglass tubing. The process also affords more customization in terms of both fiber/mandrel configuration and production quantities. Roll wrapping is the preferred process for producing small runs.

3. PULTRUSION

The Pultrusion process gets its name from its combination of pulling and extrusion principles. Where extrusion forces material through a die by pushing it, pultrusion accomplishes the same thing by pulling the material through the die. Pultruded tubing is created by pulling carbon fiber or fiberglass tow through a heated die as it is being impregnated with epoxy resin. The material is pulled over a mandrel that ensures it holds its shape during the curing process.

The advantage of this process is that it produces a continuous, unidirectional length of tubing that can be cut to size after curing. Since pultrusion is highly automated, it’s a much more cost-effective production process than both roll wrapping or filament winding. Pultrusion makes it easy to produce tubing in various lengths and thicknesses simply by changing up both mandrel and die.

The downside of pultrusion is that all the fibers are oriented along the axis of the tube. Having all the fibers in one direction means the tube is very good in tension but can easily split in compression or torsion. The quest for an automated process that can produce balanced tubes brings us to pullbraiding.

4. PULLBRAIDING

Pullbraiding is an extension of pultrusion. This process is essentially the same as pultrusion with one added feature: the fibers are braided together as they are being pulled through the heated die and onto the mandrel. Layers of different angles can be made by varying the braid, and even unidirectional layers can be inserted.

Both pultrusion and pullbraiding create finished products with high stiffness and strength-to-weight ratios. But the main advantage of the pullbraiding process is that it creates a more balanced tube that performs under a wide range of loads. It also adds an element of aesthetic beauty since the braid is more in line with the traditional “carbon fiber” look. And since this process is highly automated like pultrusion, pullbraided tubes are often less expensive than roll wrapped or filament wound products.

Georgia Tech students shot for the skies with one of their latest projects with the main goal of designing, building, and then launching a rocket. There are a lot of factors that make rockets difficult to design, including having to account for heat, weight, and durability. Georgia Tech Ramblin’ Rocket Club and Georgia Tech Experimental Rocketry (GTXR) came up with a design for “Mr. Blue Sky” and chose Rock West Composites to provide them with parts needed to make it.

Detail of the Rocket (left) and the Georgia Tech Team (right)

Our engineering group designed custom fiberglass filament wound tubing with high-temperature resin. Using our tubes, Georgia Tech’s teams pushed what is possible with homemade rocketry design and had a successful launch! The team’s goal for Mr. Blue Sky was to achieve speeds past Mach 3 and reach a height over 100,000 ft. While this first launch did not reach ideal results, only hitting speeds of Mach 1 and a height of 19,000 ft., it still remains impressive and provided a lot of valuable information for the team to learn from. A new set of our high temperature tubes—this time made of carbon fiber—were recently delivered, and they are set to fly the Summer of 2023.

“Rock West was the only supplier capable of providing the high temperature composite solution our team needed, with tubes delivered to spec and with a short lead time.” — Joey Gemini, Georgia Tech

Mr. Blue Sky Successfully Launches

Rock West Composites is happy to support teams of any size in their endeavors, always inspiring people to achieve greatness. If you have your own project like Georgia Tech, then check out our student discount page. We provide students and teams in STEM education programs 15% discounts on our stock products. We wish Georgia Tech Ramblin’ Rocket Club and Georgia Tech Experimental Rocketry (GTXR) best of luck in designing future iterations of Mr. Blue Sky!

The Rough Side of Rocketry

Composites are typically used as a material that is both lightweight and strong. There are many major applications composites can be used for, like marine or space technology. Even then, it is important to admire the smaller, everyday projects for which anyone can use our composites.

Meet John Kimball, our Technical & Applications Specialist. He finds joy in working with carbon fiber and likes to utilize it in his own personal projects. Ideally, he likes to create any product that benefits from not only the capabilities of carbon fiber, but its futuristic look as well. Two years ago, John started a project utilizing one of our products to create a knife, which is a perfect application for carbon fiber.

John Kimball’s Knife

He initially began this project with Rock West’s release of a new product, carbon fiber chip board, a few years ago. This chip board is known as “forged carbon” or “Damascus carbon,” which is short strands of carbon fiber pressed into a plate.He explains his creation process as, “I just dissembled the old knife and traced the general shape from the original handle pieces, then used sandpaper and hand grinders to finalize the profile. After the shape was finished, I used fine sandpaper to remove the scratches and then used a polishing compound to give it a nice smooth finish. Locating the screw holes was the most challenging part as all three holes need to meet a very tight tolerance.” Amazingly, even after two years have passed, he says the knife remains in great condition.Rock West is always encouraging engineers and DIYers alike to try utilizing composites outside of major projects. There are many simple items that could benefit from a material that is lightweight and strong, like pens, bows, or in this case, a knife.

As we announced on social media earlier this month, Rock West Composites (RWC) received the CMS Gold Award for Industry from CERN for “excellence in collaborative design finalization and subsequent fabrication of the BTL-Tracker Support Tube Prototype.” The prototype was designed and built for the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) detector. Rock West Composites was nominated for the award by Purdue University, with whom we worked on this complex and difficult project.

Rock West was one of five companies, and the only US company, to get one of these prestigious awards for 2022. But what’s really interesting is the innovation that enabled this project to meet its objectives. The demonstration tube—2.4 meters in diameter by 1 meter long—had to meet all technical requirements, using tools and processes that were scalable to the future version that will be 5.2 meters long, PLUS remain affordable. The length of the future full-scale tube significantly magnifies the complexity and cost.

The prototype required collaboration with Purdue University to configure the design for manufacturing. If the composite laminates had been laid up traditionally, the prototype would have been 8 to 20 times more expensive. It would also would have been more challenging to hold an exact diameter since curved composite laminates distort when cured. The solution the Purdue/RWC team devised was to machine the circumferential stiffeners as precision arc segments from a thick laminate of carbon fiber (instead of laying them up on a round mold). This took advantage of the in-plane properties of the laminate, namely, isotropy and low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). This avoided the complications due to the high CTE through-thickness. Building in arc segments also allowed for modularity in the manufacturing process, avoiding very large (expensive) tools and easing construction.

Vitruvian Man takes a break. That’s Lee with the final stiffener ring.

Completed Prototype of the BTL-Tracker Support Tube

The BTL Tracker Support Tube prototype appeared as a simple cylinder from the outside, but it had multiple circumferential stiffeners, 100s of inserts, extremely stiff rails for instrument loading, and lengthwise splice plates. It met all CTE, stiffness and dimensional tolerances- as well as budget and schedule. RWC’s Director of Product Development, John Marks, worked closely along with team at Purdue University, Dr. Andreas Jung and Dr. Ben Denos. RWC collaborated with Purdue to have them do the tool design which saved budget and helped Purdue fund its team. Our RWC technicians, including Chad Williams, Lee Bridges, and Jose San Vincente, skillfully executed the prototype.

Rock West Team with the arc tool.

“Starting in 2000, the CMS Collaboration has honored industrial companies that have made outstanding contributions to the construction of the experiment with the CMS Gold Award. Companies who have demonstrated their excellence and engagement and who provide parts within specifications and on schedule are considered for this award.” – CERN/CMS

We are particularly proud of this award not only because of the technical challenges this program presented, but because of our successful collaboration with the team at Purdue. Thanks to the Purdue team for the nomination and for all our colleagues who helped make this program succeed!

Since the reformation of Rock West Composites Marine Division in August of 2021, we have received orders from two proven, trustworthy brands within diving’s Spearfishing market sector. Rock West is now a proud supplier of pole spear and dive fin components to these high profile, reputable OEMs.

Late last year, Rock West Marine was approached by one of the largest high-end pole spear brands to develop precision tubes to their brand requirements. We received a paid development order to make specific, same diameter roll wrapped and filament wound composite tubes to perform a head-to-head comparison study. As part of their qualification process, our customer ordered enough sample tubes to perform field testing with their professional staff and athletes. Both field tests and static lab tests were run in parallel. Our customer diligently evaluated performance before choosing the optimal solution and then placed a second small production order with RW early this year 2022. Our customer is happy with Rock West’s performance and is placing additional orders for tubes of this qualified design in the future. New designs for pole spear tubing and other related products are being quoted. Eric Thorstensen, the GM of the Marine division, sends a big thank you to Brian Shelby and Anthony Fairhurst for technically heading up development and delivering our first pole spear production order to our customer.

In August of 2021 Rock West Marine put together a small R&D tiger team lead by Ethan Gormican to develop two different (medium and soft) flex carbon composite fin blades to offer future OEM customers. Rock West Marine attended DEMA (Diving Equipment & Marketing Association) Show in Las Vegas last year and showed our newly designed fin blades, along with other products. We received excellent feedback from interested OEM’s, dive shops and individuals confirming our entry into this market space. Eric thanks Julia Willis, Ethan Gormican, Brian Shelby, and Rylan Hayes for their help working the DEMA Show. Early this year, 2022, Rock West received a production order from one of the dive industries top spearfishing brands to manufacture 500 pairs of carbon composite dive fin blades. This customer’s goal is to grow RWC supplied fin sales into 2000+ pairs of fin blades annually.

Eric said, “These are exciting times and opportunities for us in this market. We know that we can provide excellent quality and consistent delivery for OEMs who are challenged by vendor reliability. These orders are a great start to a healthy market presence.”

At Rock West’s new headquarters, we have an RF test lab to support our many radome, antenna, and integrated RF structure programs. Recently we had a radome that required physical characterization of performance as part of its testing and verification plan.

For this particular program, the radome provides high-performance, low loss protection for modern radar equipment. It has both military and commercial applications and is built under the support of solution provider R4 Integration, Inc.

The radome is a multi-layer sandwich construction using low dielectric materials that are optimized to provide low transmission loss over wide broadband frequencies. This customer had narrow frequency bands of interest, and we were able to tune the radome for best performance within those specific frequency bands.

Radome being mounted on test frame

This program required physical test verification at a large amount of view angles, to map the radome’s performance over the entire surface. To test many view angles efficiently, our team had commissioned a custom structure to position the radome at 5 degree increments in both the azimuthal and elevation planes. It’s built mostly of wood and fiberglass to minimize structural RF interference. These are images from the testing process.

Transmission Loss testing for radome at different view angles

The successful testing and characterization of this radome enabled our customer to provide system-level performance feedback to their customer, meeting requirements for both the airborne terminal and the satellite-based communication systems.Rock West produces radomes from L-band to Ka-band with transmission loss typically below -1.0 dB, with many radomes tuned for loss below -0.5 dB in primary transmit and receive bands. Our in-house testing capability enables us to quickly test prototypes, shorten program schedules and reduce risk for programs with strict RF requirements.This radome is designed, analyzed, and qualified to FAA Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) requirements. Rock West has heritage in FAA qualification for wide range of aircraft and radome types.

Full Test setup

Rock West has been in business for 15 years! The business was started by Jim Gormican and Keith Loss, two former colleagues, who decided to pursue an entrepreneurial endeavor together in Jim’s garage in late 2006. Since then, Rock West has grown into a business with four locations and nearly 200 people.

From the Garage to the New Headquarters in 15 Years

The initial work was centered around aerospace engineering and the commercialization of carbon fiber composites, which had been historically expensive, too expensive to use beyond specific, highly demanding applications. The business grew in 2009 through the acquisition of the former Maclean Composites in Salt Lake City, and the Rock West Composites brand was born. The new office pursued the online sales of carbon tubing and pioneered ecommerce for composites.

Ecommerce Pioneer: flashback from a decade ago (left) to our current site (right)
Ecommerce operations are located in our Salt Lake City facility (bottom right)

Joining the Rock West team shortly thereafter was a group of applied sensor specialists located in Santa Barbara. They became the Rock West Solutions division. In 2017, the business launched a venture in Mexico to help reduce labor costs while allowing easy access to facilities. As part of the CaliBaja Mega Region, Rock West is working to re-shore jobs that have gone offshore, bringing work back to US in partnership with our neighbors in Mexico.

Santa Barbara office (left), Baja California (right)

Jump ahead to today and our headquarters in San Diego is now in over 100,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space. Our Salt Lake City facility has expanded to encompass its entire building. Santa Barbara has grown to include more office space and new secured labs. Tijuana has continued to expand and improve its facility and equipment. Rock West has come a far way from the original garage office.

Facilities: San Diego warehouse (top left), Salt Lake City filament winding bay (top right), Baja California resin infusion area (bottom left), Santa Barbara offices (bottom right)

From four customers in the first year in business to over 4,000 in 2021, it’s a story of exceptional growth. And while the years of the pandemic have had an impact, they have not dampened the ambitions of our business, which is poised for significant growth in 2022. But most importantly, the growth has enabled us to better service our customers, provide growth opportunities for our staff, and better return for our owners, which include every employee. In 2018, Rock West Composites became an ESOP company, with an Employee Stock Ownership Program, guaranteeing the entire team is invested in the success of the business.

Several of our team members are into racing and not just as spectators. Some even go out to test their metal at what is billed as the “fastest racetrack on earth,” the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

One of the Rock West team, Nick Montoya, is part of a local group, Bean Bandits Racing Team Est. 1949, and has raced with them for five years. He has worked on cars since he was a kid and raced at Bonneville before, but in 2021 he joined the Bean Bandits team at the famous track to test a car they built. Nick said, “We built this car from scratch in Barrio Logan in San Diego. The body is an original 1927 Ford Roadster, heavily modified. The chassis and all other components are custom and built by us.”

Nick is joined by Derby Pattengill, the senior driver for Bean Bandits, and has his HANS device at the ready

Safety is always the top priority for the team, and the objective of last year’s run was to tune the chassis and make sure the car acted accordingly at speed. This was a test run. Derby Pattengill, the senior driver for the Bean Bandits, has driven over 242 MPH and has over 20-years driving experience. He drove the car the first time to ensure Nick could get behind the wheel safely.

Derby Pattengill with the Bean Bandits XF Gas Modified Roadster

In addition, Nick drove using the HANS Pro Ultralight safety device, a head and neck restraint, in his test run. Rock West Composites manufactures the carbon fiber structure of this HANS device for Simpson Motor Sports.Now that the car has proven sound on the track, in 2022 the team plans on racing for a world record in the car’s class by meeting and beating 160 MPH. We wish them luck and safe racing in 2022 at the Bonneville Salt Flats!

The Bean Bandits XF Gas Modified Roadster

Rock West Composites is now offering an extensive collection of PRO-SET epoxies and adhesives, which are a great solution for composite lamination, fabrication, and assembly. These epoxies can withstand the harshest of environments and are optimal for today’s high-performance composites manufacturing. PRO-SET epoxies have a long shelf live and can be stored at room temperature. We offer multiple types of epoxies depending on your application: laminating, infusion, high temperature and adhesives.

The PRO-SET laminating epoxies are designed for laminating reinforcement fabrics, resin infusion processes, and bonding many materials, including metal, core materials, and even wood. They cure at room temperature. You can mix and match resins and hardeners to create your own custom blend of cure times and viscosity. With excellent moisture resistance, they are tough against heat and structural fatigue. We also carry PRO-SET absolute clear laminating epoxies that offer colorless clarity and UV stability in addition to offering excellent sandability.

Our PRO-SET infusion epoxies meet strong structural requirements with a room temperature cure and have superior strength with an elevated temperature cure. These are very low viscosity systems designed to work well with modern infusion processes.

PRO-SET high-temperature epoxies offer excellent thermal stability and work when cosmetics matter. These resins are stable in temperatures up to 300°F (149°C) and are moisture, heat and fatigue resistant.

PRO-SET adhesives are pre-thickened, two-part epoxy adhesives used for secondary bonding of laminated composites as well as steel, aluminum, cast iron, concrete, stone, and most woods. They are great for assemblies, offer a wide variety of options (speed, strength, color), and require no welding, fasteners or rivets.

Designed for the professional but also excellent for the DIYer, this new series we offer can meet your projects most demanding structural needs. Check out our PRO-SET epoxies and adhesives now!

Working at Rock West is always fun, but sometimes challenging because we are a rapidly growing business. One of the strategies we use to help our team succeed and address challenges is to treat every employee like a business owner, which they are.

Today we had our quarterly meeting which covers our company’s financials and business direction. We celebrate our successes, recognize key contributors, discuss our challenges, and review our plans to maximize growth. Everyone has the opportunity to ask questions throughout the presentation to clarify information or better understand the “why” of decisions that affect the larger vision of the business.

It is a major financial investment for the business to have the entire staff at every level of the business take one hour of their day every quarter to hear the CEO discuss sales, orders, EBIT and cash flow. But it is representative of what we value: transparency. Our CEO Jim Gormican says, “People make better decisions if they have better information.” This is true in our relationships with employees and customers.

At Rock West, we are all owners through our Employee Stock Option Program and are invested in the success of the business. Understanding the financials helps every employee be a better business owner, whether they are a composites technician or program manager, a facilities tech or staff accountant. Every employee makes a difference.

All employees from every facility join our Quarterly Meeting updates. People can join in person or via video conferencing.

If you are interested in being a part of a growing business that values its employees and becoming an owner invested in the whole team, learn more about careers with us because we are hiring!

In 1975, Business Week declared that office automation would make paper redundant and predicted with the introduction of the personal computer, we would soon see a paperless office. Fast forward nearly 50 years and it seems quite the opposite has happened. The advances in spreadsheet software have generated thousands of new ways to look at the data. And rather than look at that data on our screens, we print it out, scribble our notes, then update the electronic version for another round of printing. All this printing, and the subsequent storing of documents, contributes to the continuing global climate crisis. According to the American Forest and Paper Association, paper manufacturing accounts for the 3rd largest use of fossil fuels worldwide.

At Rock West, we strive to do our part to drive green initiatives that will help address global warming. Our work producing parts from advanced composites helps lighten a myriad of products across many industries. Lighter products require less energy to transport, drive, or even fly. And the durability of carbon fiber means it will last much longer than metal alternatives, without risk of rust or corrosion. Now we’ve turned our attention to the paper piling up in our business. While document retention will always be needed, we’ve implemented a new document management program that will digitally store everything we need. This will not only eliminate the need to print out many of the documents we receive electronically, but it will also eliminate the wasteful practice of boxing up records and storing them for years to come.

We’ve all been taught to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – in that order. Reduction in paper printing, just like reduction in the weight of an airplane made with advanced composites, should be our priority. It’s awfully hard to reuse that piece of paper, and recycling uses more energy and water. Kudos to our Finance team for leading the way on this green initiative!

Ethan is a Manufacturing Engineer who works on our marine programs. Like so many of our Rock West team, he enjoys outdoor activities of all types. While experienced in several ocean sports, Ethan is relatively new to diving and has jumped into the action with the focus and passion of a new convert. He’s been instrumental in our composite fins’ manufacture and has enjoyed taking them out for real-life testing in San Diego’s coastal areas.

On a recent weekend trip to the mountains, Ethan went out to Big Bear Lake and decided to test our Rock West-designed, medium-flex, carbon fiber fin blade prototypes in a different environment. It just happened to be a little colder than expected that day with frozen precipitation on top of already cold temperatures. He said, “I thought the water would be 45°F but it was closer to 35°F. But in the cold and stillness of winter can come incredible clarity.”
< First, a man and his dog, then Ethan finding clarity the hard way (that’s dedication to the craft!).