Cambium, a company specializing in the discovery and delivery of advanced materials for defense and high-performance sectors, has announced the launch of its new ApexShield 1000 high-temperature resin system. According to the company, this breakthrough allows fabricators to massively increase the speed of carbon-carbon parts production for hypersonic glide bodies and other mission-critical applications, such as rocket nozzle extensions. In addition, Cambium reports that the ApexShield 1000 resin system offers significant advantages for ablative applications, including solid rocket motor nozzles and ship vertical launch tubes.

Cambium utilized its AI-driven material discovery to optimize the processing and production of phthalonitrile-based resin systems in collaboration with US Department of Defense laboratories, industry partners, and the Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE). The optimized resin system reduces carbon-carbon parts fabrication to 1-2 polymer infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) cycles, a reduction of 70% - 80% over legacy systems. Cambium is the first to achieve this PIP cycle breakthrough, which will allow parts manufacturers to cut production time from 6-9 months to 1-2 months, and reduce costs proportionately.

Their Thermal Protection Resin System has a low melt viscosity that is ideal for Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VaRTM) or Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) applications. This system is room temperature stable, eliminating the need for freezer storage, and is being produced at metric-ton scale.

"Carbon-carbon part production is a serious bottleneck holding back the rapid and cost-effective production of hypersonic-ready products. Cambium's solution dramatically increases the production throughput with breakthrough advanced materials that can be processed utilizing existing infrastructure wholly within a domestic supply chain," said Nate Monroe, Cambium Vice President of Composite Products. "These new phthalonitrile material systems deliver a whole new level of production speed and capacity to the US DoD, prime contractors and subcontractors, a key priority for US defense today.”

Source – Cambium Biomaterials, Inc.