"Resort to ad hominem - just exudes confidence and maturity. The insults don't help."
To put it bluntly, you started it. Your original response to me was in fact nothing shorter than an attack upon me, the very thing of which you accuse me. I insulted no one. I merely added some comments based upon my years of experience in the composites industry as an engineer/designer/consultant. For some unknown reason you choose to attack me for simply providing some relevant items for consideration.
""I won't engage with you because you're too far below me", more confidence."
Who are you quoting? Are there voices in your head? From where do the insecurities you have come?
"Your job does not make you smart nor right. Overconfidence."
I never claimed to be right. I only added comments based upon my individual experience, in which I feel certain. However, I never claimed some sort of superiority in my knowledge beyond my experience.
"Your individual experience doesn't control the truth about a massive and complex global industrial sector."
To what massive and complex global industrial sector do you refer? Composites? Because the composites industry is a relatively small contributor to the automotive industry due to some unavoidable realities. Much of the elements used in composites require the use of resins that are almost entirely incapable of being recycled because they are toxic. This fact alone prevents their use from being widespread in an industry that has high volume production i.e automotive. It's one of the reasons that composites are not used more commonly in automotive production applications.
Furthermore, as any experienced engineer will know, excessive scrap rates can kill a product. The fact that composites often contain toxic materials (matrix elements i.e.resins) and you have a product that resists efforts to be recycled. On top of that, many composite designs cannot be fully tested until the product is fully cured (i.e. infrared testing of matrix integrity). So it is very possible to complete an entire production sequence and end up with an unusable part that cannot be recycled. Have you any concept of the costs involved jn just this portion of composites use?
What about the fact that many composites require hand application? Hand layup of composite panels is roughly 80 years old in use and is fundamentally unchanged during that time. The materials have improved and designs are smarter due to the introduction of analysis and simulation advances, but the production is almost unchanged. A part is assembled one ply layer at a time, the matrix added during this process. Then the part is placed in an autoclave, often using a vacuum bag process. If everything works as designed you have a quality part, but you cannot know until final testing whether the part is devoid of gaps that will cause the integrity of the part to fail. Do I really need to go on about how composite production is incompatible with the realities of automotive production?
"I too worked in an adjacent industry very intimately involved in composites and was able to work with leaders in R&D in composites and folks making them work in real applications."
I don't know what qualifies an industry as adjacent and whether that has any relevance, but let me provide some tangible examples of my own experience.
I worked as a technical liaison between Sigorsky and The University of Delaware Composites Laboratory in the development of a composite housing intended to replace the traditional cast housing of a transmission used in the main rotor assembly of the BlackHawk helicopter. It was my responsibility to ensure the continuity of communication throughout the project and among the entities involved. This design evolution was proposed during a weight reduction analysis (because weight is one of the main enemies of fuel efficiency, a foremost concern of aviation design). All of the issues mentioned earlier regarding limitations of production efficiency apply here even though the part is fundamentally different from a panel assembly (which was the example of hand layup). A large production run on any aircraft might be 50 parts. In automotive a large production run might be 500,000. In automotive they can find ways to compress production cycles to save money. High volume allows for that flexibility. That flexibility does not exist in composites. Composite design has very exacting requirements.
One thing I haven't addressed is the examples you provided to prove your case that composites are used throughout the automotive industry. Take note that everyone of your examples is one of low volume (brake assemblies for Porsche is low volume, F1 body panels are low volume) and unless I missed one you cannot provide an example of a high volume automotive composite part.
"When you're mature and respectful enough to actually engage and discuss like the educated adult you are pretending to be, let's do so. Until then you're just another nobody with an opinion."
So according to you I'm just an immature, disrespectful, uneducated nobody. You seem very sure of yourself and your convictions. I've attempted (against my better judgment) to provide you with some tangible, real world examples from my own experience to counter your assertions. Now it's time to put up or shut up. I'll warn you that I only scratched the surface of my experiences so I can provide many other relevant arguments if pressed (even though I'm thoroughly bored with this discussion). To remind you, you launched into unprovoked attacks upon me from the beginning. I would suggest that the burden of greater integrity lies firmly upon you.
To put it bluntly, you started it. Your original response to me was in fact nothing shorter than an attack upon me, the very thing of which you accuse me. I insulted no one. I merely added some comments based upon my years of experience in the composites industry as an engineer/designer/consultant. For some unknown reason you choose to attack me for simply providing some relevant items for consideration.
""I won't engage with you because you're too far below me", more confidence."
Who are you quoting? Are there voices in your head? From where do the insecurities you have come?
"Your job does not make you smart nor right. Overconfidence."
I never claimed to be right. I only added comments based upon my individual experience, in which I feel certain. However, I never claimed some sort of superiority in my knowledge beyond my experience.
"Your individual experience doesn't control the truth about a massive and complex global industrial sector."
To what massive and complex global industrial sector do you refer? Composites? Because the composites industry is a relatively small contributor to the automotive industry due to some unavoidable realities. Much of the elements used in composites require the use of resins that are almost entirely incapable of being recycled because they are toxic. This fact alone prevents their use from being widespread in an industry that has high volume production i.e automotive. It's one of the reasons that composites are not used more commonly in automotive production applications.
Furthermore, as any experienced engineer will know, excessive scrap rates can kill a product. The fact that composites often contain toxic materials (matrix elements i.e.resins) and you have a product that resists efforts to be recycled. On top of that, many composite designs cannot be fully tested until the product is fully cured (i.e. infrared testing of matrix integrity). So it is very possible to complete an entire production sequence and end up with an unusable part that cannot be recycled. Have you any concept of the costs involved jn just this portion of composites use?
What about the fact that many composites require hand application? Hand layup of composite panels is roughly 80 years old in use and is fundamentally unchanged during that time. The materials have improved and designs are smarter due to the introduction of analysis and simulation advances, but the production is almost unchanged. A part is assembled one ply layer at a time, the matrix added during this process. Then the part is placed in an autoclave, often using a vacuum bag process. If everything works as designed you have a quality part, but you cannot know until final testing whether the part is devoid of gaps that will cause the integrity of the part to fail. Do I really need to go on about how composite production is incompatible with the realities of automotive production?
"I too worked in an adjacent industry very intimately involved in composites and was able to work with leaders in R&D in composites and folks making them work in real applications."
I don't know what qualifies an industry as adjacent and whether that has any relevance, but let me provide some tangible examples of my own experience.
I worked as a technical liaison between Sigorsky and The University of Delaware Composites Laboratory in the development of a composite housing intended to replace the traditional cast housing of a transmission used in the main rotor assembly of the BlackHawk helicopter. It was my responsibility to ensure the continuity of communication throughout the project and among the entities involved. This design evolution was proposed during a weight reduction analysis (because weight is one of the main enemies of fuel efficiency, a foremost concern of aviation design). All of the issues mentioned earlier regarding limitations of production efficiency apply here even though the part is fundamentally different from a panel assembly (which was the example of hand layup). A large production run on any aircraft might be 50 parts. In automotive a large production run might be 500,000. In automotive they can find ways to compress production cycles to save money. High volume allows for that flexibility. That flexibility does not exist in composites. Composite design has very exacting requirements.
One thing I haven't addressed is the examples you provided to prove your case that composites are used throughout the automotive industry. Take note that everyone of your examples is one of low volume (brake assemblies for Porsche is low volume, F1 body panels are low volume) and unless I missed one you cannot provide an example of a high volume automotive composite part.
"When you're mature and respectful enough to actually engage and discuss like the educated adult you are pretending to be, let's do so. Until then you're just another nobody with an opinion."
So according to you I'm just an immature, disrespectful, uneducated nobody. You seem very sure of yourself and your convictions. I've attempted (against my better judgment) to provide you with some tangible, real world examples from my own experience to counter your assertions. Now it's time to put up or shut up. I'll warn you that I only scratched the surface of my experiences so I can provide many other relevant arguments if pressed (even though I'm thoroughly bored with this discussion). To remind you, you launched into unprovoked attacks upon me from the beginning. I would suggest that the burden of greater integrity lies firmly upon you.
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