Off to the PWA Windsurf World Cup in Japan, with some of our awesome Slake Sailboard Masts.
The team at CST Composites would like to congratulate the sailors supporting CST products at the NSW NS14 Association State Championships at Mannering Park Amateur Sailing Club, with a big congratulation’s going to first place winners Peter Vaiciurgis & Indigo Savage from PYC sailing “Midnight Hour”.
Photos from Port Hacking Open Sailing Club: http://www.phosc.org.au/news/2019-ns14-state-titles-/
Despite the end of the season, CST Moth Masts are still in full production.
CST Composites have worked on many projects from land, air and sea, but back in 2012, CST would take to the stage, developing a lightweight but strong Tibetan Trumpet for the Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. The challenge was creating a composite trumpet that would not bend or dent like the existing brass trumpet but would still meet the aesthetic requirements set out by the Cirque du Soleil.
The CST Team developed 1.8mm thick carbon fibre/ Kevlar composite trumpets that were 4.25m in length, tapering from under 10mm at one end to around 180mm at the other. Specialised tooling was utilized to give the required profile of the two-piece trumpet, which was then filament wound and sleeved together. The trumpet weighted less than 3kg and had an internal woven Kevlar layer to prevent complete breakage in case it was crushed.
Unlike the brass trumpet, the composite trumpet was far more dent resistant and did not deform, being able to maintain its grand aesthetics look with every show, plus it was much lighter than the original.
CST continued to work with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, providing composite solutions for aerial acrobatics.
With the 2019 RYA Dinghy Show all wrapped up, we want to show you photos the CST Team took whilst over there. Stay tuned for more coming at the end of this week!
Sunny Skies, with the combination of waves and swell made for exciting and challenging sailing this weekend. Congratulations to Greg Junk and Ari Hume on Ella for winning the CST Composites MG14 State Titles, held at the Cronulla SC.
Check out the photos from the event.
Looking back on 2018 and into the year ahead, the 2018/2019 Australian Titles was a great year for CST Composites, our Team Sailors and everyone sailing CST products. We are proud of all our Sailors and their achievements, wanting to thank them for their continued support.
Team Sailors Josh Mcknight winning 1st place & Luka Damic winning 2nd.
2018/2019
| Place | Boat Name | Skipper/Crew |
| 1st | MANLY SURF N SLIDE | Dave O’Connor |
| 2nd | KOREMAN MARINE COMPOSITES | Felix Grech |
| Place | Skipper/Crew |
| 1st | Josh Mcknight |
| 2nd | Luka Damic |
| Place | Skipper |
| 1st | Mark Bulka |
| Place | Boat Name | Skipper/Crew |
| 1st | Bonework | Scott Cunningham & Hugo Briggs |
| 2nd | Bonus | Guy Bancroft & Louis Chapman |
| 3rd | Snatch | Craig Garmston & Aaron Horst |
| Place | Boat Name | Skipper/Crew |
| 2nd | Touring Wombat | Dave Alexander & Cameron McDonald |
Zoe Dransfield and Pearl Twomey
| Place | Boat Name | Skipper/Crew |
| 1st | On Fire | Joel Beashel & Logan Radford |
On the 16th & 17th, Feb CST is proudly sponsoring the MG14 NSW State titles, hosted by the Cronulla Sailing Club. It’s going to be a fun filled day and we hope to see you there!
In April 2005, CST received an urgent request from none other than Goddard Space Centre at NASA. That’s right NASA! The Hubble Telescope at the time was due for a refurbishment, replacing a Wide Field Planetary Camera for Service Mission #4. The problem was that they need a light weight but strong pallet to be mounted into the Shuttle Cargo Bay, which would hold the necessary equipment for the mission. To add even more pressure to the request, NASA needed the tubes in less than 6 weeks from the enquiry.
From the date of enquiry to the delivery in Florida, CST through our lean manufacturing techniques and engineering capabilities, was able to created specialized high modulus carbon filament wound tubes, all delivered in under 6 weeks to space centre.
Tom King, Senior Mechanical Engineer of ManTech International Corp. at NASA/Goddard Space Centre was very pleased with the support, delivery and quality of CST’s products. Going on to say, “This frame was used to handle & ship a flight pallet structure, called “SLIC”, that was used in the next Hubble servicing mission (aboard the Space Shuttle). By the way, it worked like a charm, and I thank you for your excellent technical support. We were all amazed at how strong the CST tubing was, and the build quality was phenomenal!!”
The component that used the carbon fibre filament wound tubing was for a Horizontal Pallet (HP) Turnover Assembly. The HP was one half of the completed SLIC assembly, which was mounted in the shuttle’s cargo bay. As previously stated, the SLIC was used to carry a replacement Wide Field Planetary Camera to Hubble during Servicing Mission #4, alongside mission support equipment.
The Composite Backbone Assembly, which is where the carbon fibre tubes were used, is the frame structure used to support the HP during handling operations and transportation.
The structure was primarily made of graphite-epoxy tubing and machined aluminium fittings, bonded together with epoxy. The backbone had four corner fittings that attach to the HP MGSE brackets. The two attachment plates (shown in the images) connect to the bearing and gearbox assembly via shafts. The underside of the frame had a second set of four corner fittings for attachment to the transporter via wire rope isolators. In the mid-span of the frame, there are two fork “pockets” for fork truck operations
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