[WRE | SPOTLIGHT]


Triton Drone awaiting lift for testing. Photo courtesy of Caldwell, via U.S. Navy.


on the Triton Drone project at the LiftEx Convention in November 2016, “ … people fly on airplanes partially held together using industrial adhesives all the time.” He went on to point out that many of those industrial


adhesives are as strong as a welding connection, and when undergoing the extensive testing Caldwell puts their Dura-Lite beams through, it is often the rigs that fail, not the adhesives.


Understanding Composites Composites have been used for decades in the automotive, aerospace, and construction industries— made from various materials including fiberglass, Kevlar®, and carbon fiber. When Caldwell decided to incorporate composites into lifting applications, they turned to other industry specialists with outside composite engineering expertise. Tey were then able to compile the hours of testing and knowledge that had gone into developing those related composite products and apply it to their drone application.


When Stitt presented the drone-lifting project at


LiftEx, audience questions abounded. Tere was a widespread desire to simply understand composites in general—everything from minimum and maximum temperatures, to weight advantages, to how the material might twist and bend. “Ten years from now,” Stitt said, “people will be


much more comfortable with composites. But there is an education process.” He believes the industry needs to get to know this newcomer before it will become comfortable with it. Tat comfort comes, in part, from testing, and Caldwell


provides a lot of it—proof testing and destructive testing every composite-made model they build. “We knew it would be radically different for people in the industry,” Stitt explained. “So we’ve gone to extremes, in terms of testing.” Caldwell even provides a testing certificate for every beam they produce. Whereas typical steel beams are designed to a B2, meaning they’re good for five thousand cycles, Caldwell’s composite


WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2017 23


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