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'MOVING INTO OTHER MATERIALS': Innovators leading the way in solving big challenges don't have to be startups or other new high-tech pioneers.
Sometimes, it's a company like Saint-Gobain Advanced Ceramic Composites, which traces its roots to 1665 and the reign of French King Louis XIV, his Royal Manufactory, and the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
We caught up with Anthony Grasso, marketing and business development manager for aerospace and defense, on a bit of then and now for the division of the conglomerate and world leader in glass and other materials, with numerous facilities in North America.
A mechanical engineer by training with a master’s degree in business, Grasso shares insights into the company’s legacy as well as the next-generation materials and applications it is developing for use on Earth and in space.
USACA: What are some of the advanced composite division’s focus areas?
AG: We sit at the periphery of ceramics. Right now, we make fiberglass, but we are moving into other materials in the future.
Our specific group manufactures continuous filament quartz and is in the process of developing continuous filament alumina and continuous filament mullite.
Our most popular applications are in the nose of aircraft and radomes – the bubble on top – that house the various radar or antenna assemblies. Our quartz material is used in a fabric form as the reinforcement of a composite. So, it is mixed with resin and put into a composite structure.
Quartz is almost invisible to radar. No matter what frequency or wavelength you are operating at, quartz does not interfere with the signal. The majority of our business for our group consists of radomes on commercial and defense aircraft, helicopters, and drones.
USACA: So why push the envelope beyond quartz?
AG: Quartz has this really unique property that, at 1,600C, will turn from a solid to a vapor. So, on the Orion spacecraft, it is absorbing heat and then disappearing as a vapor. It helps the heat shield heat up but heat up slower.
The challenge of reusable spacecraft like a rocket going up and down is not just a one-time use. Alumina will allow the material to maintain its strength and stability and be reused again and again and again, as opposed to quartz, which would dissipate and disappear on reentry.
USACA: What are some other strategic objectives of the company?
AG: On behalf of the greater Saint-Gobain, we have been involved in trying to develop the supply chain and infrastructure domestically, especially for some of our silicon carbide products.
USACA: Where does Saint-Gobain see the value proposition of USACA?
AG: I recently attended the Composites, Materials, and Structures Conference. The gathering was quite impressive – to have people from the various government organizations like NASA’s Ames and Glenn Research Centers and military organizations like the Army and Navy Research Laboratories.
UACA is understated, but it has exceeded expectations by drawing some of the sharpest, most plugged-in players working on the industry’s leading projects. There's a huge range of industry and government organizations and broad reach across lots of sectors, products, and materials.
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