gmhTODAY 14 gmhToday May June 2017 | Page 53

The Beauty of Technology … Developed in our Backyard

A special thanks to Michael Cichon , Director of Marketing and Kendall Oblak , Sales Account Manager for the tour of TenCate and for making it comprehensible to us non-engineer types . Thanks also to Ben Fox , Director of Quality ( not pictured ), for help understanding the testing procedures . Finally a very special thanks to our friend Addie Bryant-Habit for setting the whole thing up .
Written By Larry J . Mickartz

The TenCate manufacturing site in Morgan Hill is an extraordinary company . In very simple terms , they make cool stuff that other people make even cooler stuff out of . Think steel . Steel mills produce the frames for cars , buildings and bridges . TenCate Morgan Hill makes carbon fabric products , called advanced composites , that people use to make airplane bodies , satellite structures , launch vehicle cases , general aviation aircraft support beams , armor , and thousands of light-weight , superstrong components .

The Morgan Hill location is only one of TenCate ’ s sites throughout the world . TenCate ’ s Advanced Composites has three sites in California , ( Morgan Hill , Fairfield and Camarillo ), one in Canada , two in Europe ( Netherlands and UK ), and one site in China . Until the company went private in 2016 ,
TenCate Advanced Composites was part of Royal TenCate , headquartered in the Netherlands . It ’ s history began with fabric-weaving that dates back to 1704 . Since that time , the weaving business became more of a commodity business , so Royal TenCate invested in businesses based upon high technology fabric technologies ranging from armor , military uniforms , fire-proof fabrics , geosynthetics and advanced composites .
TenCate Advanced Composites is now a standalone entity and manufactures components that are used in : Aerospace ( aerostructures , space and satellites , launch structures , radomes , interiors , high-temperature jet engines , compression molding ); Automotive ; Motorsport & Formula 1 ; Energy ; Medical ; Consumer Electronics ; and Sport & Recreation . Did you know that high-end sneakers like the Nike Air Jordan use TenCate composites in the inner sole for lightweight and rigidity ?
In addition to the advanced composites produced in Morgan Hill , the other standalone TenCate companies produce fireproof protective clothing for first responders and the military . They manufacture a variety of synthetic turfs and geotextiles , which are synthetic fabrics with specialized uses . A good example is the TenCate GeoTube a large bag where wastewater is filtered through . It allows water to penetrate , but captures sand and debris .
Promotional materials from TenCate note that every satellite from the Western world has some TenCate composite materials in it ! Local companies that TenCate provides materials to include Loral Space Systems in Palo Alto , Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space in Sunnyvale and Applied Aerospace Structures Corporation ( AASC ) in Stockton .
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN MAY / JUNE 2017 gmhtoday . com
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