Date

Subject

Speaker/Affiliation

Sep. 2005

Talk: Composite Bicycle Frame Design

At Calfee Design we build carbon fiber bike frames featuring a unique carbon fiber gusset construction. These frames are built to endure the most rigorous conditions.. Our durable frames have performed well in world class competitions like the Ironman and the Tour de France and have been ridden by topnotch professional riders. Maximizing the benefits of carbon fiber requires more than just an extensive knowledge of composites and sophisticated software programs. It requires combining these with a thorough understanding of how they apply to real life. Too often, too much emphasis is placed on only one of these areas while neglecting the other. Extensive product testing under extreme and demanding conditions needs to be followed by design refinement based on that experience - and the process needs to be ongoing.

Craig Calfee is the founder and CEO of Calfee Design.

He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY. His first experience with composites was with Composite Engineering, W. Concord, MA where he was involved with the production of high end composite rowing shells and kayaks that won a Gold medal in the 1988 olympics. In 1988 he founded Carbonframes Inc. in San Francisco with an idea for a better carbon fiber bicycle frame. He worked with 3 time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and LeMond Bicycles from 1990 to 1992 until LeMond folded into Trek Bicycles. In 1997 Craig founded Calfee Design, where he is currently CEO and Technical Director of the company that produces a line of technically superior carbon fiber bicycles considered by many as the best road bike on the market. His areas of expertise encompass bicycle frame design, construction and failure analysis; bicycle handling and dynamics of stability; composite bicycle fork structure and failure analysis; composite tube design and construction; composite bicycle handlebar and stem design; and composite bicycle crank design, structure and failure analysis.

Oct. 2005

Talk: James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (aka the “Next Generation Space Telescope” or the “First Light Machine”) aims to capture a glimpse of the first light in the universe. Scheduled to be launched in 2013, JWST will be the largest telescope ever flown in space and will succeed the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes in providing astronomers amazing new capabilities. The primary instrument onboard the observatory is the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which serves dual purposes as an imager (to provide science data) and a wavefront sensor (to help align the 18 segments of the primary mirror). Stringent thermal, structural and mechanical requirements on NIRCam demand unique material and design solutions. The NIRCam team at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology center has developed an Optical Bench Assembly which meets these requirements by utilizing the unique properties of Beryllium. Two bonded Beryllium optical benches are bolted back to back and provide the stability, alignment and structural support for the NIRCam instrument.

Dr. Alison Nordt, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center

Dr. Alison Nordt is the lead of the mechanical systems on the Near Infrared Camera for the James Webb Space Telescope. Her work encompasses design and analysis of precision structures, opto-mechanical systems and mechanisms for cryogenic instruments. Previously she worked on several other optical space programs including the Space Interferometry Mission and the Full Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin in 1999 she obtained her PhD from Stanford University Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Structures and Composites Lab. Her PhD work on the Design of Alpine Skis won the Ballhaus prize for the best thesis.

Nov. 2005

Talk: The Space Elevator – from science fiction to science reality

The Space Elevator was first proposed in the 1960's by a Russian engineer (Yuri Artsutanov) as a far-reaching engineering concept. The scientific principles underlying it are well understood and do not require any fictional inventions, except for the super-strong material required for its construction. Since existing materials are not strong enough to build the Space Elevator, it has been relegated to the status of science fiction, and as such appeared in several books, the most famous of which is Sir Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise. In 1991 a new class of carbon molecules were discovered carbon nanotubes (CNTs). CNTs have a theoretical strength four times as strong as the material needed to build the Space Elevator. The present Space Elevator design was conceived by Dr. Brad Edwards. This design differs greatly from the science fiction Space Elevators which would require billions of tons of infrastructure in space and cannot be built within the foreseeable future. In contrast, Dr. Edwards’ design requires a handful of launches on existing rockets and is extremely close to being achievable.

The concept has been studied by NASA and the early indications are that it would be possible to lower the cost to take something into space from around $20,000 per pound to about $10 per pound which will change the world in some unpredictable ways! The presentation is fairly technical and will cover the materials, construction, challenges, and status of the space elevator effort.

Ben Shelef, The Spaceward Foundation

Ben Shelef is the Director of Engineering for Gizmonics, a mechanical design firm which specializes in precision equipment for the space industry. Ben is also a co-founder of the Spaceward Foundation. Spaceward has partnered with the NASA centennial challenge to host the Space Elevator games this fall where various teams will compete for a $400,000 purse in an effort to accelerate technology development.

Dec. 2005

December Social Dinner

Scott Bonneville, LMSSC, Coordinator

Jan. 2006

Composite Workshop

Stan Peters, Process Research, Chair

Feb. 2006

Talk: Workshop on The Power of Plasma

This hands-on workshop demonstrated myriad surfacemodification techniques.

Topics reviewed included:

·          Explanation of surface modification techniques

·          Gas plasma versus wet chemistry

·          Debunking of common myths about shelf life

·          Industry applications

·          Equipment selection

Plasma treated samples will be available for use by the audience to demonstrate certain applications.

Many industries from aerospace to life sciences utilize cold gas plasma for permanent re-engineering of the molecular surface properties of materials. Materials modified include polymers, elastomers, metals and ceramics. Example applications are:

·          corrosion resistance,

·          etching,

·          enhanced wear resistance,

·          biocompatibility,

·          adhesive bonding,

·          altered wetting properties such as creation of either hydrophobic, oleophobic or hydrophilic surfaces, and

·          providing unique vapor barrier or gas transport properties.

Mikki Larner, PTS General Manager

Ms. Larner is responsible for operations, sales and customer coordination of PlasmaTechSystems.  Her background includes 15 years in engineering operations management and 5 years in sales and project management with 4th State, Inc., a company focused on plasma process development, consulting and service.

Mikki is well known to our NorCal SAMPE chapter members. She has been an active member and attended most of our monthly meetings and Composite Workshops during the past 5 years.

Mar. 2006

Plant Tour: BAE Emerging Technologies Division

The tour included visits to BAE's Ground System's divisions Systems Integration Lab and Prototype Shop, but we will focus more on the Emerging Technologies Div. portion of the tour. BAE SYSTEMS, Emerging Technologies is a commercial technical consulting group, providing product development support to industrial clients around the world. From concept creation to defining a product specification, from initial prototype design to readying a product for launch, We offer clients a customized mix of technical expertise and practical problem-solving.

Emerging Technologies occupies 50,000 sq.ft. of office and laboratory space in the heart of Silicon Valley, near the San Jose International Airport. Emerging Technologies now employs about 50 professionals averaging more than 15 years of experience; including 30 Engineers specialized in Mechanical, Materials & Metallurgy, Welding, Polymers, Paints and Coatings, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computational Solid & Structural Mechanics, Dynamic Simulation of Machinery & Vehicles, Modeling & Analysis Software, Industrial Design, Human Factors, Product Development, and Component & System Testing.

Samantha Holdener, BAE Systems, Tour Coordinator

Apr. 2006

Fiber Composite Highway Bridges -- Why? What? Where? How? Who?

Polymer-matrix fiber composites are attractive materials for highway bridges because of their natural corrosion resistance (avoiding a major problem plaguing reinforced-concrete bridges) and high stiffness-to-density (enabling rapid on-site assembly of bridges from lightweight factory-prefabricated modules). During the mid-1990’s, several agencies, universities, and companies (Lockheed included) investigated various applications of glass- and carbon-fiber composites to highway bridges. This talk reviews a number of composite bridge projects with which the author was associated, including bridge decks (since commercialized as “Duraspan”), short-span bridges, and longer cable-stayed bridges. Examples of other composite bridges worldwide will also be shown. The audience will have the opportunity to lift and load-test some of the stiff, lightweight scale models that were constructed during this work, and can examine full-scale end trims from actual composite bridge beams and decks.

Dr. Alan K. Miller, LMSSC

is a Senior Staff Materials Engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. within both the Advanced Technology Center and Materials and Process Engineering organizations. His B.S (Cornell, 1967) and M.S. degrees (Stanford, 1968) are in Mechanical Engineering while his Ph.D. (Stanford, 1975) is in Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to joining Lockheed in 1990 he was a Professor (Research) of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University for 18 years.

For the past 40 years he has focused on technical challenges involving materials and structures. At Stanford, he originated the “MATMOD” unified constitutive equations for creep and plasticity of metals and alloys. More recently at LMSS, he has contributed to the engineering and fabrication of polymer-matrix fiber composite structures for aerospace (and occasionally civil infrastructure) applications. He led the Sunnyvale effort on compliant adhesives used for bonding metallic heat pipes to carbon composite face sheets in several deployed satellites, and was the Principal Investigator for LMSS work exploiting VARTM for complex missile structures, integral deep space antennas, and large composite tooling. Currently his work focuses on new composites for high-precision satellites.

He has published 100 technical papers and 4 book chapters, has edited one book, holds seven U.S. patents, and was the principal supervisor of 17 completed Ph.D. students at Stanford.

May 2006

The Materials and Processes of Brewing Beer

We wrapped up our 2005/2006 season by looking at the materials and processes of brewing beer. This event will include a tour of the Tied House brewery led by brewmaster Dr. Ronald Manabe. Following the tour, there will be a beer tasting led by Phil Montalbano, homebrewer and owner of Fermentation Frenzy. Phil will then give a talk after dinner on the materials and processes of home brewing your own beer.

Dr. Ronald M. Manabe, Tied House

oversees the overall brewing operations for the Tied Houses. He was part of the founding partners who started the original Tied House in Mt. View. Ron worked closely with Cheuck Tom on the original formulations of the Amber, Dark or Brown Ale and the Pale Ale. Ron has a Ph.D. in chemistry. He has worked for many years in the analytical instrumentation field. Following in the footsteps of our founding Brewmaster Cheuck Tom, Ron is also a graduate of the Siebel Institute of Technology Diploma Course on brewing science. He is also a member of the Master Brewers Assoc. of the Americas.

Phil Montalbano, Fermentation Frenzy

is the owner Fermentation Frenzy in Los Altos which supplies ingredients and supplies to home brewers and home vintners. Phil is also a certified Beer Judge and President of the local homebrewing club, Worts of Wisdom. Phil graduated from Santa Clara University in 1988 with a Finance degree and worked at several different semiconductor companies until 1996. He’s been homebrewing since 1991 and owned Fermentation Frenzy since 1997. Last, he was recently been seen talking about homebrewing on CBS' Eye on the Bay on April 24^th.