Filament winding is a process that allows the precise lay-down of continuous reinforcement in predescribed patterns at a high rate of speed. This article discusses the filament winding process and includes a comparison to other compacting and curing processes. The article describes design factors, and techniques to produce aerodynamic surfaces, improve surface smoothness, and avoid slipping and bridging of filament. The article discusses tooling and the equipment used in the filament winding process, namely, mandrel design, winding machines, tensioners, and ovens.

Filament winding is a process for fabricating a composite structure in which continuous reinforcements, either previously impregnated with a matrix material or impregnated during winding, is placed over a rotating form or mandrel in a prescribed way to meet certain stress conditions. This article describes the advancements in filament winding and lists the advantages and disadvantages of filament winding. It discusses the effects of fiber tension in filament winding and the selection of fibers, resins, and materials for filament winding. The article emphasizes the three basic filament-winding patterns, such as helical, polar, and hoop. It presents information on the applications of filament winding, including rocket motors, natural gas vehicle (NGV) tanks, and sporting goods. The article presents recommendations for the basic design guidelines for filament-winding design/manufacturing process and concludes with a discussion on fabrication recommendations.

This article describes the types of fabrics and preforms used in the manufacture of advanced composites and related selection, design, manufacturing, and performance considerations. The types of fabrics and preforms include unidirectional and two-directional fabrics; multidirectionally reinforced fabrics; hybrid fabrics; woven fabric prepregs; unidirectional and multidirectional tape prepregs; and the prepreg tow. The article discusses three major categories of tape manufacturing processes, namely, the hand lay-up, machine-cut patterns that are laid up by hand, and the automatic machine lay-up. It provides a description of the two classes of prepregs. These include those that are suitable for high-performance applications and suitable for lower-performance molding compounds.

Power sources are apparatuses that are used to supply current and voltages that are suitable for particular welding processes. This article describes power sources for arc welding, resistance welding, and electron-beam welding. The more-common welding processes that use constant-current and constant-voltage power sources are listed in a table. The article describes the open-circuit voltage characteristics and power source control methods. The control methods employ either pulse width modulation (PWM) or frequency modulation (FM).

This article introduces the concept of condition monitoring (CM) and summarizes various techniques used for CM across the industrial sectors. The techniques include visual inspection, performance monitoring, vibration condition monitoring, vibration condition monitoring, lubricant oil analysis, acoustic emission testing, temperature monitoring, motor current signature analysis, and ultrasound emission. The article describes the evolution of condition-based maintenance in CM. It also describes the basics of integrated vehicle health management, a capability that enables a number of maintenance philosophies. The article concludes with a discussion on various condition monitoring in industrial sectors, including condition-monitoring techniques in nuclear power plants, road condition monitoring, and condition monitoring in wind turbines.

The goal of design is to improve the overall performance of the metal or ceramic matrix rather than to create a material with different response than the base matrix. This article focuses on the design for manufacturing polymeric composites. Specially developed methods including contact molding, compression-type molding, resin-injection molding, and pultrusion are described. The article also discusses the various factors to be considered in designing for composite manufacturing.

Through detection of the wear, risk assessment can be performed, along with a related time to failure estimation through technologies such as electrical signature analysis (ESA) and motor current signature analysis. This article discusses the principle of operation of data collectors for ESA measurements and illustrates the evaluation of broken rotor bars and a broken shaft. It describes the detection of faults in bearings using ESA and provides information on the investigation of gearboxes and related components in a wind generator.

This article reviews the generator industry experience with stress-corrosion cracking of 18Mn-5Cr alloy retaining rings. It provides a description of corrosion of magnetic retaining rings. The article also discusses the primary repair alternatives to address crevice-corrosion cracking in water-cooled generators.

Designing composites for structural performance initially involves meeting a set of desired performance specifications at a minimum cost. This article discusses the factors that are considered in designing the manufacturing of polymeric composites. It describes the various aspects of manufacturing, forming process, and post-processing and fabrication for designing the composites.