A simple pultrusion technique is being adapted to lend its simplicity, efficiency, and cost savings to the production of complex composite structures for high-performance military and commercial hardware. With its automated composite shaping technique, KaZaK Composites (Woburn, MA) is manufacturing net-shape structures to the specifications of the user — whether it is a cylindrical utility pole or flat panels for military shelters and containers.

New collapsible designs may help reduce injuries in vehicle-pole collisions.

How it Works

The pultrusion process is completely hands-off. It starts with dry spools of fiber and/or fabric reinforcement, adds wet resin, then moves the material through a heated tool. The result is a continuously produced stream of low-cost, constant cross-section composite hardware that can be cut automatically to length at the end of the processing line. Pultruded composites, which can be reinforced with many fibers such as Kevlar®, fiberglass, or carbon, can be less expensive and lighter than metal but just as strong, making them suitable for applications ranging from small stanchions on Navy ships, to enormous shipping containers and even the structure of ocean-going vessels.

KaZaK also has an answer for wooden utility poles. The rigidity of the wooden pole that makes it so valuable for its purpose also means that fatal automobile impacts are not uncommon. KaZaK has manufactured a pultruded composite utility pole with energy-absorbing features, as well as a way to reduce replacement time and cost for poles downed by impact, weather, or age. The designed-in collapse mechanism promises to be superior to the current wooden breakaway designs. Because of the composite pole’s unique arrangement of fiber reinforcement, it can absorb some of the automobile’s energy as it bends in a controlled collapse, thus transferring less energy (better known as trauma) to the driver and passengers. Fewer fatalities and injuries should result when widely implemented by utilities.