JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #103 - March 2016 - 55

awards
Development of unique thin ply quartz composite watch case for
Richard Mille timepiece
This composite innovation is a unique thin
ply (52g/m2) quartz prepreg, named TPT®
Quartz, which made its debut in the RM 2702 Rafael Nadal watch first worn by Spanish
tennis player Rafael Nadal at the French
Open (Roland-Garros) in May 2015.
Richard Mille is renowned for pushing the
boundaries of watchmaking with the use of
new materials and designs that challenge the
norms on every level.
In its continued search for innovative
materials offering novel appearances and
textures, while still providing the necessary
mechanical performance, Richard Mille has
now turned its attention to quartz prepreg.
NTPT developed the TPT Quartz prepreg
in collaboration with Saint-Gobain Quartz,
which supplied its Quartzel® fused quartz
fibre reinforcement for this project, and
Reichhold, which developed an ADVALITE

hot melt, monomer-free vinyl hybrid resin
for the matrix, and Richard Mille, which
led the design and validation work for this
highly demanding end use. To earn its place
in the exclusive Richard Mille watch, the
new prepreg had to meet an extensive list
of demanding performance specifications,
starting with strength-to-weight ratio. The
project team had to demonstrate that the
material was non-allergenic, would not
yellow in sunlight (UV) and was resistant
to a range of chemicals that the watch could
encounter during its lifetime. The prepreg
also had to enable the manufacture of an
intricately-shaped watch case that was
lightweight, watertight, extremely strong
and impact resistant.
This is the first use of quartz fibre in thin ply
(<100g/m2) prepreg format. Cured blocks
of this prepreg can be machined into extre-

Big Area Additive Manufacturing technology:
a new platform for additive manufacturing
of polymer and composite structures
The Big Area Additive Manufacturing
system (BAAM) is a radically new
platform for additive manufacturing of
polymer and composite structures. The
BAAM system encompasses a number
of key innovations that enable large-scale
3D printing. A fundamental advancement
is using screw-extrusion technology for
deposition, similar to what is utilized in
the injection moulding industry.
The BAAM enables components of
arbitrary geometry to be "3D printed" at
a scale that is over 10 times larger than

Dr. Sung Ha is a Professor at the Department
of Mechanical Engineering at Hanyang
University, South Korea, directing the
Hanyang Structures and Composites
Laboratory (HSCL). He received his Ph.D.
in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford
University, USA, in 1989. His current
research areas include innovative designs,

Winners: North Thin Ply Technology
(NTPT) (Switzerland), Richard Mille
(Switzerland)
Partners: Saint-Gobain Quartz (France),
Reichhold (UK)

mely complex shapes without delamination,
which means the part produced is watertight. This lightweight composite material will
not yellow in sunlight (UV), is non-allergenic and exhibits high chemical resistance. It
also demonstrates high strength and impact
resistance. The prepreg results in a contamination-free white composite laminate with a
unique appearance.

JEC Composites Magazine
Special Prize

any other commercial system. By using
a screw-extrusion technique, BAAM is
able to deposit material >200 times faster
than existing systems and uses a low-cost
pelletized feedstock to reduce the cost of
production by a factor of 20. The BAAM
system is also the first to deposit with carbon fibre-reinforced plastic pellets, which
can double the strength of components
and increase the stiffness by a factor of 4
to 7. End-to-end modelling and simulation software makes the transition from
ideas to reality much simpler. In short,
BAAM from Cincinnati Inc. and Dassault

Sung Ha, Professor, Hanyang University

Luxury

Winner: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(USA)
Partners: Cincinnati Incorporated
(USA), Dassault Systèmes (USA)

Systèmes software enables 3D design and
printing of large structures much cheaper,
faster, and better than ever before.

Life achievement award

short cycle production and multi-scale
based strength and fatigue life prediction
of thermoset and thermoplastic composite
structures including automotive parts,
wind turbine blades and aircraft wings..
He is also serving as a visiting Professor at
Stanford University and a major member of
Stanford Composites Design Team.
No103 March 2016 / jec

composites magazine 55
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #103 - March 2016
