The expanded product line includes pultruded solid and hollow profiles, the company said.
SAN DIEGO—Advanced composites company Rock West Composites, Inc. (RWC) reported in August that it added STRATOPultrusion™ products to its space-grade e-commerce line.
The new STRATOPultrusion products also include this fiberglass round profile. (Image courtesy RWC/DPP Pultrusion)
The company said in a release that the STRATO products currently include plates, sandwich panels, and solar array substrates for Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) applications and Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) and Deep Space use. In partnership with DPP Pultrusion, RWC designed the new products to fill a market demand for truss-type and other space deployables.
According to RWC, the STRATO line provides businesses and government agencies with high-quality, space-ready components at dramatically shorter lead times than custom products. STRATOPultrusion rods and tubes will have four-to-eight-week lead times, and more pultruded products are in the development pipeline, the company said.
STRATOPultrusion meets key requirements for space, with properties that include low outgassing, low to zero CTE, high modulus materials, low creep behavior, and a wide operational temperature range, according to the release.
“No other suppliers currently offer space-grade pultruded components that are predesigned, have no NRE costs, and offer such rapid turnaround times,” the release stated.
Each order is said to include a certificate package with dimensional inspection, material certificates, traceability, and a certificate of conformance. All products are serialized and traceable. Additional options for some products include full traveler verification, resin content testing, short beam shear testing, and ASTM Test specimen coupons, the company said.
“We are excited to partner with DDP on a product that we know will be a game changer for our customers,” said Jeremy Senne, RWC’s vice president of its Space Structures Business Segment, in the release. “There hasn’t been an off-the-shelf, space-grade pultrusion that can be used for the deployable truss structures used in these types of applications that we’re aware of. This product can offer the high performance required while reducing NRE, schedule, and risk in one package.”
Rock West Composites, Inc. is an employee-owned company that develops, engineers, manufactures, and tests composite products for multiple industries. These industries include space (bus structures; solar array panels and wings; launch vehicle structures; optical, payload, and deployable structures), air and defense (aircraft components, radomes, munitions, unmanned systems, reflectors), and commercial equipment (automation, medical, energy, and sporting).
The company is also reported to be one of the largest e-commerce suppliers of off-the-shelf carbon fiber tubes, plates, materials, and accessories.
Rock West Composites’ STRATOPultrusion rods and tubes include carbon fiber square profiles. The company designed the new products in partnership with DPP Pultrusion to fill a market demand for truss-type and other space deployables. (Image courtesy RWC/DPP Pultrusion)
Rock West Composites’ stated mission is to “make customers more competitive with the magic of advanced composites by delivering highly differentiated products on time and on budget, all while making the buying process easy.” The company has locations in San Diego, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Baja California, Mexico.
DPP Pultrusion develops and delivers advanced pultruded carbon and glass fiber profiles designed for high-performance applications where strength, weight reduction, and durability are critical.
“Our state-of-the-art pultrusion technology enables a wide range of innovative solutions across demanding industries,” the company said in the release. “Over the past 15 years, DPP materials have been successfully used in multiple space programs, demonstrating exceptional performance in the most challenging environments. We exclusively use premium raw materials to create semi-finished structural elements that offer outstanding stiffness, as well as high-strain stowable profiles known for their unmatched reliability during deployment.”