Wisconsin Oven’s Mike Grande Publishes Article on Composite Materials

Earlier this year, Mike Grande, Wisconsin Oven’s Vice President of Sales and Engineering, had the opportunity to share his insights on the curing process of composite ovens with Process Heating. Not only did Mike publish an article on Process Heating, but he was also interviewed by Editor Linda Becker on a podcast.

In his article, Grande begins by discussing the various industry needs for a lighter material. In reference to the increased demand for strong, lightweight materials, Grande writes, “Composite materials are one of the best candidates to meet these “light weighting” needs.”

He goes on to talk about the common forms of composite materials, stating, “Valued for their high strength-to-weight ratio, the most popular composite products are made of a woven base material — fiberglass, carbon fiber or Kevlar (aramid) fiber, for instance — impregnated with a resin.”

This leads into Grande displaying his vast knowledge on the subject itself, the composite cure oven. He discusses one of the most common ways of manufacturing composite materials, the vacuum-bagging method. Grande explains, “Vacuum bagging is a technique that tightly holds the composite material in the mold using atmospheric pressure, squeezing the resin-impregnated layers (the laminate) together and conforming them to the shape of the mold.”

Read Mike’s full article by visiting Composite Materials Require Specialized Processing.

You can also listen to Mike’s podcast interview, where he answers Becker’s questions regarding composite cure ovens, by visiting Podcast: Composite Curing Ovens.