JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #105 - June 2016 - 25

About the author
Hugo Borelli Resende graduated as an Aeronautical Engineer at
Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica - ITA. He got his Master at
ITA in Aeronautical Engineering, and finished his Ph.D. at Stanford
Universisty, US, also in Aeronautical Engineering. Both degrees
focused on aeroelastic phenomena. Hugo Borelli Resende started
at Embraer S.A. in 1986 as an aeroelastic engineer. Hugo became
in January 2014 the Director of the Lightweight Structures Laboratory of Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas.
within the IPT? What is your
background in the field of
composites?

H. B. R. : The current

LELteam is still small, composed of 14 people including
9 researchers. Four of the
researchers work full time on
composite projects, and two
others may be moved from
metal applications to composites as required, because
of their multidisciplinary
background. All of them
either have a Master's degree
or are working on their Ph.D.
As can be seen, LEL is a
young laboratory, still in its
imple¬mentation phase. I am
the Director of the lab, and
arrived on January 2014. I
am an aeronautical engineer,
graduated from the Instituto
Tecnológico de Aeronáutica
(ITA), Brazil, and I have a

Ph.D. degree in aeroelasticity from Stanford University,
USA. I worked for 25 years at
Embraer, starting as a product
development engineer, moving to applied research, and
then Chief Scientist.
JCM: What are the resources
available to the laboratory?

H. B. R. : The lab's manu-

facturing equipment consists
in production machines
dedicated to research. LEL
has a friction stir processing machine (5 axes, 30 kW
spindle, maximum axial force
of 80 kN), a hot press for
superplastic forming (150 t /
1000°C/ 40 bar), an automated fibre placement machine
(Ø 3 m x 4 m), an automated
tape laying machine (12 m x
4 m), equipment for infusion,
resin transfer moulding, and

LEL team at the cargo entrance of the 1600-m2 Clean Room

ATL machine for panels up to 12 m x 4 m

vacuum-assisted resin transfer
moulding processes (1.1 m x
0.6 m x 0.4 m), two autoclaves
(Ø 1.0 m x 1.5 m, 450°C & Ø
1.5 m x 4.5 m, 250°C), both
with a maximum pressure
of 11.7 bar, and a freezer for
prepreg materials and resins
(4.85 m x 3.7 m x 2.7 m,
-18°C). Several tests can also
be performed.
JCM: Do you work only for Brazilbased companies or also at
the international level? What
is your specific added value
that can motivate companies
to work with you?

H. B. R. : Today, LEL's

main customer is Embraer,
and the lab is better prepared
for aerospace projects. However, some small projects were
also conducted for companies
from the automotive and
oil & gas sectors. There are
also some on-going negotiations related to wind turbine
blades. The lab's uniqueness is
its capability to simulate a real
shop-floor operation, regarding the machines and the size
of the components. So, when
developing a new design and
analysis methodology, the
simulation results can be
compared to test results in
a full-size specimen. On the
No105 June 2016 /

other hand, if a new manufacturing process is to be
used for a given component,
the company can learn - in a
research environment that is
an exact replica of the real environment - all the issues that
will make a difference when
mass producing the component. Most of the companies
that have approached LEL so
far are based in Brazil, but the
lab is also ready to cooperate
with international companies.
JCM: Have you established
partnerships with centres like
yours abroad?

H. B. R. : We recently made
an effort to establish cooperation programmes with
universities, both in Brazil
and abroad, in order to conduct state-of-the-art research.
Right now, as part of a MoU
signed with TU Delft, The
Netherlands, Ph.D. students
and staff from Delft are doing
part of their research at LEL.
There are also on-going negotiations with universities in
the UK and Canada, besides
Brazil, and this list may grow
as long as it makes sense to
both sides of negotiation
table. n

More information:
www.ipt.br

jec composites magazine 25

http://www.ipt.br

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #105 - June 2016