Composites have earned their way onto various end-use industries, propelled by a long list of their advantages including high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent corrosion and creep resistance, low-maintenance cost, and lightweight. The materials have a disruptive journey of more than eight decades and are efficaciously gaining penetration in both high-performance as well as cost-sensitive end-use industries. The penetration of composites is not likely to cede here and will penetrate more in the coming years. The continuous fiber composites market is segmented into the form type as Woven Fabrics, Non-Crimp Fabrics, Unidirectional Tape, and Others. Woven fabric is projected to remain the most dominant form type in the market during the forecast period, driven by a high usage in various end-use industries including wind energy, automotive, and electronics. Non-crimp fabric occupied a considerable share of the market, driven by an increased usage in wind energy. The fabric allows an easy flow of resin and provides good mechanical strength in multiple directions. The unidirectional (UD) tape is likely to be the fastest-growing market over the next five years. UD tape offers the advantages of high impact strength, high mechanical strength at one direction, and excellent chemical and corrosion resistance.
The fiber is gaining the traction in the aerospace BMW developed BMW i3 vehicle using carbon composite passenger cell. It is the world’s first mass-produced model in the auto industry with high carbon composites content. Based on the regions, Asia-Pacific is likely to remain the largest market during the forecast period, driven by China, India, and Japan. Europe is likely to witness the highest growth during the same period, driven by aerospace & defense and automotive industries. Europe is the manufacturing capital of premium and electric vehicles where advanced composites are efficaciously gaining traction. All the major premium and electric automakers are increasingly increasing the composite content in order to address the EU norms regarding the carbon emission reduction targets. Furthermore, they would like to excel the aerodynamics and aesthetics of their upcoming models. Increasing production rates of the A350XWB and A320 family including neo versions are further likely to boost the demand for continuous fiber composites of the region in the coming years.
I was up first after parring the fourth and I hit a baby draw that started just left of the lone tree in the right rough. It looked fine from the tee and I got the 'safe' sign from my caddy so I was a happy guy. I ended up rolling into the rough and had about 125 yards downwind to the flag that was cut in the middle of the green. I was instructed to leave the putt below the hole and aim a bit right of the flag. I hit a nice gap wedge exactly where I wanted it but it rolled a little past pin high, leaving a treacherous, downhill 12 footer for birdie. I was told to aim about a two and a half feet outside left and I took a very conservative stroke, just leaving the putt short for the easy tap-in par. On the first of Oakmont's par 3 holes, go with a mid-iron shot to a small green that slopes from right to left.
Missing the green to the right leads to a sure bogey. I wasn't really comfortable on the tee here, as the wind was swirling a bit for the 150 yard shot, as the tees were playing quite a bit forward here. I ended up going up from a PW to a 9-iron and hit a beauty just right of the flag, which was front right. Harris (in the first photo above) hit a decent shot back left while Jon (second photo) committed the ultimate sin here as you can tell by his body language. He went right into the VERY deep greenside bunker, with the putting surface sloping sharply away from him. You could barely see his head poking out from the bunker below. As you can see, however, he hit a beauty out of that bunker but the ball kept rolling past the hole and ended up about 20 feet away. Still, a wonderful shot from there and you'd be hard pressed to do any better. He'd make a good bogey while Harry unfortunately lipped out hard on a short bid for par - still, it was his best score BY FAR up to that point!
