It seems like carbon fiber is popping up everywhere. There are carbon fiber cars on television shows, magazines tout the benefits of carbon fiber automotive accessories and carbon fiber airplanes have taken flight.

Primary and secondary structures that comprise modern aircraft are typically combinations of metals and lightweight carbon fiber- or glass fiber-reinforced polymer composites joined using high-performance adhesives.

Below are the five most-viewed new product announcements on the ASI website in 2013.*

Opportunities for composites in the North American automotive market are promising.

Over the last 50 years, the aerospace and aircraft industries have used silicone in an ever-growing number of applications. Silicone inherently has high dielectric strength (typically ≥ 500 V/mil) and a large coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), allowing it to absorb stresses during thermal cycling.

Adhesive bonding can be used to assemble identical materials or materials of different types; the purpose of such an assembly is to transfer mechanical loads in a given environment.