Press Release

San Diego, CA, Oct 7, 2009 - San Diego Composites, Inc. (SDC) has successfully developed a lightweight composite toroidal pressurant tank using an automated fiber winding process. SDC has been working on an MDA-funded Phase II SBIR effort, overseen by Mr. Eddie Japzon, to develop lightweight composite toroidal tanks to provide coolant for next generation missile defense seekers. The program has successfully demonstrated the design, analysis, material & process development, prototype fabrication, and burst strength of a small diameter composite toroidal tank. The tank tested was approximately the size of a bagel and burst at a pressure higher than 20,000 psi. The SDC composite toroidal tank design represents a 55% weight reduction compared to the baseline metal design for the application. As part of this effort, SDC designed and fabricated an automatic fiber winding machine that improves producibility and quality of the tank by controlling the winding process parameters such as fiber tension and indexing. SDC has also developed the various other materials and processes required to fabricate the tank, such as thin walled liners, fill tubes, EB welding, and RTM curing to make the project successful

On October 5, 2009, the first prototype was tested at SDC's high-pressure burst facility to a failure pressure of 21.1 ksi, or 5.5% above the design pressure of 20 ksi. See Video

Program Manager Dan Jacobson believes that a key to the programs success included SDC's ability to work through the detailed design and analysis of the composite toroidal tank while in parallel developing the unique automated fiber winding machine. The automated approach resulted in a more producible and lower cost product compared to a hand-wound tank. Hand winding approaches are not desirable due to repeatability differences between tanks which results from variation in winding tension and fiber placement; this adversely affects the tolerances, thicknesses, and performance of the tank. The automated toroidal fiber winding machine solves these problems and produces a consistent product that is more reliable and provides mission assurance to the critical hardware.

The technology developed by SDC is very applicable to other applications and very scalable. SDC is confident that this winding method can be used for geometries ranging from 4 to over 24 inches. SDC proposes to leverage this work to apply the technology to multiple applications in the aerospace and commercial markets.

SDC, with its emphasis on composite product development, composite production, testing services, and engineering services is ISO 9001 certified and ISO 17025 test accredited. SDC is committed to providing its customers high quality, innovative, and cost-effective technologies. For more information, please contact Dan Jacobson at (858) 751-0450.