Manufacturing Industry

Nanostitching could lead to stronger aeroplane skins.(RESEARCH AND DEVELOPEMENT)

Advanced Composites Bulletin, June, 2009

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, are using carbon nanotubes to stitch together aerospace materials, which they believe could help make aeroplane skins 10 times stronger.

According to the engineers, the nanostitching process involves a polymer glue being placed between two carbon fibre layers that are heated making the fibres and nanotubes become more liquid-like. Billions of nanotubes positioned perpendicular to each carbon fibre layer are then sucked up into the glue on both sides of each layer. Because the nanotubes are 1000 times smaller, they do not detrimentally affect the larger carbon fibres, but instead fill the spaces around them, stitching the layers together.

The advanced...

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