260 nosecones later...

After another Avon decent the composite nosecones we make for Spirit Paddle sports were in demand again. Since we began making these parts for Spirit they have proven to be tough and reliable when it comes to bashing into rocks! Neither Spirit nor us thought we would make so many and after 260 parts its time to retire the old moulds and move into RTM.
The new nosecones will look and prove to be better than the originals with a clear finish to reveal the kevlar reinforcements and an RTM (resin transfer moulding) method of construction to efficiently mould the both the outer and internal shapes to ensure a correct fit to the kayak and a more streamlined leading edge to part the way.

2011 International Moth World Championships

I had 2 weeks off work early this year to make my way to Lake Macquarie (NSW) to participate in the Moth World titles.

Preparation prior to the event was unfortunately non existent, but the journey was well worth it as I had 2 whole weeks to learn how to sail the boat and conduct boat prep, which to date has never happened

The regatta was quite windy and with multiple races per day - my lack of sailing over the past 5 years and low level of fitness showed and this did not help any of my race results.

I was happy to say the boat held together and as the regatta went on I felt more comfortable with all the systems and controls.

Now that I am back there is a list of new parts to make and refine in order to get the boat to some sort of race pace.

I look forward to have a working boat again and spending some time on the water this summer(whats left of it).

completed projects and recent events

Forlano Design http://www.forlanodesign.com/ engaged us to manufacture 3 furniture pieces last year to made to be made from Walnut. Although composites is our main line of work, years as a pattern maker, boat builder and model maker mean I can still accomplish wood craftsmanship when required.

The 3 pieces are: 'Ruby' for the 3 dimensionally faceted stool, 'Stride' the chest of drawers hall unit, and 'Terrain' the fractal set of shelves.

For Stride I enlisted past employee, friend and wood craftsperson Evan Gist, he selected the walnut from the yard, machined and dressed the wood and superbly built and coated the carcass and door fronts. I took over from there and aligned and installed the drawers into the carcass and designed and integrated the rebated and angled handles.

To create Ruby was a challenge, my first thoughts were to look at 5 axis CNC machining, however it proved an extremely difficult and expensive exercise to machine all 56 pieces both sides with variations on the champers. So I fell back to doing it by hand - with a 4" grinder and some 80 grit sandpaper.

Using the CAD model to help with reference points for both sides of the 56 pieces I got through most of the pieces in an intense 5 hour session. The alignment of all three parts was tricky but was worth the effort. The piece looks amazing and complex ...a great design.

Terrain, was much simpler, based on the same method of manufacture as Ruby, the shelves came together quickly and were painted in an off white, they are able to fit on a wall in a variety of combinations and rotations. (4 of the six pieces are shown)

As a parting note, 2 of the 3 pieces - Ruby and Terrain - have been selected to be shown at the 'Embracing Innovation' exhibition held in Canberra from 31st of March to the 7th May at the Craft & Design Centre ACT.

completed projects and recent events

Thales is one of Australia's largest defence suppliers and working with them on high level projects has been and continues to be a great experience. Early last year we were designing and building a carbon fibre housing for a collection of electrical and computer equipment. The 'ATAC system' objective was "to create something small and lightweight that would offer almost the same power as one of our (Thales) existing 100 kg servers". The arrangement of internal parts and overall design and composite material selection was very much a collaboration between Thales technical staff and composite components working together.

Although it looks simple the design and manufacture of this housing was not, many elements had to be taken into consideration from the electrical resistance properties of the selected composite materials to how Thales technical staff can work on and upgrade the components and how to keep the operators from tampering or accessing the very same internal components!


The ATAC project was seen as a success by the Thales 'deployables team' and has now led to further work for us on similar defence oriented electrical and computer based projects for Thales.

completed projects and recent events

We have been quite busy since the last post and keeping the 'news' up to date has unfortunately slipped way behind.
We completed some major works and a lot of minor works in the time that has passed, and I have listed with images some of these projects.
UAV Vision: after working with UAV Vision for the past 3 years we were contracted to create a complete set of steel production tooling and component parts for a new design. The steel tools were based on 3D models received from the client and from these we drew the 3D mould models and organised all the CNC machining. The moulds were made over a 2 week period and shipped to us polished and ready for use. The quality of the moulds was great and we have not needed to rework or maintain the moulds other than the occasional re-prep of the release agent after a series of parts.

Some of the details were quite small with rebates for 2.5mm machine screws and 3mm 'O' ring seals on 4 of the parts. Photos of the moulds receiving a release coat and the prototype camera housing and a 'primed' camera housing are shown

The Cerebral Palsy Association has kept us busy over the last 5 years we have been suppling their composite seats and last year was no different. After discusioins with the specialists we made some changes to the manufacture of the seats to improve the build time and quality and they now come out better than ever, coincidentally a study conducted by Curtin University (for the Cerebral Palsy Technical department) demonstrated that the composite seats we produce were superior in most aspects to the traditional materials and the existing seat construction method for the particular tasks they must perform. We look forward to continuing to produce these seats in the coming years.

long time between posts

Its been longer that I would like between posts. Its been pretty busy and I don't see it letting up anytime soon.

So to recap the last 3 months, whisper sailed and unfortunately broke 2 days prior to the nationals, a plastic component was the culprit. To say I was disappointed would be using far less words to describe the situation than I did on the day.
After some thought, I decided not to rush around and fix the boat as I think that could've been a pre cursor to a heart attack, there was just too much else going on at the time with the recent birth of our second boy and moving into a new house in the following week. So with insurance paid up I decided to 'use their services' and just recently I received the money to repair the hull (the rig was undamaged).
I look to being back on the water in the next month.

To current projects, we have been tendering on some large scale projects of late, and one to come off has been the manufacture of a 12m sculpture in the heart of the city. It borders on the 'can't be done' in terms of complexity but we have a good team at hand to see it through. I will post images when I am allowed and as they come. No doubt it will be on the news as they have to close St Georges Terrace for the delivery truck - apparently the road has only been closed a few times, the last was delivery of a vary large tree to Kings Park!

Latest news would be the launch this week of our new website www.carboncyclerepairs.com.au we have been repairing carbon fibre bicycles for about 2 years now with good results and good relationships with over the 60 stores in Perth, so with a growing audience we are now dedicating a section of our staff and time to this business, we will be taking this venture national in the very near future.

Another coup of late was getting to know Thales (Australia's largest defence supplier) and hosting a meeting with the Australian Managing Director in our factory. Fresh off that meeting we completed our first project for the 'deployables team' the ATAC system that 'sets new standards for size, weight and computing power'. That's about all I can say about that project.

This is going to be the biggest year for Composite Components and Carbon Cycle Repairs in terms of growth and capital expenditure as we make a concerted effort to get involved in larger markets with bigger requirements and higher expectations.

We have a top staff on board with 2 of us having Formula 1 experience and a can do attitude that always sees the job completed right. I'm excited. See you next post. BTW: Happy new year

Finally sailing

Yesterday in dying wind conditions. I launched my new moth foiler - Whisper.
It all went well, few little things, but really a relief to finally sail the boat which has taken so long to plan and build with no major issues.
Thanks, to all who have either helped or supported me during the build.

The link to the video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9-EyI6u8Xg

more power, more power!

Work on my International Moth has been furious... by comparison to the usual pace of this "seems too much like my day job" project.

I have had the rig up and working, the mast over-rotates well and the "one rope" raking system also works to plan.

The rig seems to have plenty of power and the 'no shrouds-quick exit off the front' should be a painless almost enjoyable ride, we'll see.

Our second baby is due on Monday, so the push is on for a weekend sail, then a break from work (and play) before getting back on the water just in time for the warmer weather!

See you on the water.

Architectural projects

Work has been continuing on the composite cladding for a Perth Transit Authority building throughout the last months. We are now at a stage where test fitting on site of the components is underway prior to painting and final installation.

The segments themselves are a good mix of materials combining an aluminium honeycomb core to increase panel stiffness and resistance to damage and a resin system reinforced with glass fibres that meets the demanding FST (fire, smoke, toxicity) standards required by the rail sector.

Pictured is one of the longer corner mouldings assembled in the factory confirming dimensional accuracy prior to delivery to site for test fitting.

Constant upgrades

After a fairly intensive and late round of R&D and hydrofoil prototyping. Bladerider emerged with a best placed second at the recent World International Moth Championships held at 'The Gorge' in the USA and first place at the preceding US National Championships.

During the event - which saw a range of conditions - a few of the new designs did get used in the races, most notable was the green 'tuna fin'. This particular design was conceived by Bethwaite Design who supplied the foil sections and profile plan. We completed the CAD model and oversaw the prototyping stage to deliver a part in 6 days from first contact.

Although the heavily raked leading edge design did throw up new issues and peculiarities around the race course, it adds to our knowledge base and ultimately helps us home in on improvements in performance for the future.

The work will continue on new designs and with Whisper to be launched in the coming weeks, a new round of ideas are planned to be built and tested.

1 Ton of foam

But this is no ordinary foam, is made specially for undersea applications.
We are now in the last stages of building the floatatation component for the the the new 'Typhoon' deep sea ROV.


The main float block (pictured) weighs approximately 800kg, and when the other segments are attached and fixed into place it will bring the gross weight of the floatation into the 1 ton vicinity.
When the block has been machined to final size and attached to the ROV unit, the complete ROV will be capable of sustaining depths of over 1000m for prolonged periods of time.

A best friend lost

Last evening my friend Mika left us. He died suddenly and without incident at home.

I will miss him very much, especially on the drives to and from work where he would sit in the front seat and on the late nights at work when everyone else had gone home.

He kept me company when the business was just me in a shed and was friendly to all whom came to visit.

I'm sure I'm not going to be the only one who will miss him, the factory will not be the same without him.

So long buddy.

Target Drones

A significant order was placed last month for more target drones from one of our clients.

Although we can't show images and get into details at this time, we can say these particular unmanned aircraft have an all composite airframe, with a single micro jet turbine as a power plant resulting in a seriously fast and manoeuvrable aircraft.

New weapons for Bladerider

In order for Bladerider to remain at the front of the fleet for the upcoming world titles to be held in the USA in August, a new round of R&D and on water testing has been underway.

Composite Components has been designing and testing using CAD and CFD a raft of new shapes and foil designs for the hydrofoil element of the sailing boats.

With the benefit of accurate CNC rapid prototyping of the foils - a first for International Moth component manufacture - we are seeing just how important on water testing is, over just purely computer based analysis.

Some amazing results are being posted by Rohan Veal (Bladerider team member and multiple world/national champion) on his website http://www.rohanveal.com/ with upwind boat speeds not usually seen by any sailing boat.

Progress is ensured to continue right up to the start of the world titles on multiple component design fronts to ensure that the last few percent are dragged out of each of the new designs.

Architectural mouldings

Composite components announces contract to manufacture architectural mouldings for construction of public buildings valued at around $1 million.

Work has been completed on CAD modelling and component manufacture is about to begin for this prestigious construction within Perth City.

Further details will be posted during the construction period.