This site presents two books about composite materials. The first, “The String and Glue of our World”, is a book about the science, engineering, history, and art of making things out of composites told in a manner that is hopefully approachable, engaging, and entertaining, even for the casual reader. It is not intended to replace or even be a textbook on the subject nor for the serious practitioner who has lots of experience with composites and needs a reference book. You don’t have to be a Ph.D. engineer or scientist to understand the book and appreciate the significance and beauty of composite materials. All you need really is a basic high school education in math and science (chemistry would help) and enough curiosity to want to know how these wonderful materials are made and most importantly why.

My second book, "Sustainable Composite Materials", which has a release date of April 6 2026, is intended to be a roadmap for the industry and other practitioners, as well as the interested general public, in how to reduce and potentially even eliminate the rather large carbon footprint that composite materials represents. The biggest problem is that once you stick the strings together with your glue, when you are done using it, the strings and glues don't come apart easily. This book demonstrates how to do that and what to do with what you get back. It also provides a fairly up to date status of where this industry stands today in efforts to become sustainable.

String and Glue is available from this website, McFarland Books and Amazon, as well as some physical bookstores, and many online booksellers. Sustainable Composite Materials is available from McFarland, Amazon, and other online booksellers, and of course from this site as well.

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Are Plants the Future of Composites?

#composites, #sustainability, #biocomposites, #plantbased, #plantresins, #SAMPE This week will be the fifth tied to what I wrote in my new book, “Sustainable Composite Materials: A Roadmap to a Circular Economy”. In this post, I am going to try to answer this question based on today’s markets and today’s technologies. That means that I want to talk through the potential of plant-based precursors for both fiber and resin and biocomposites in general to transform the composit

13 minutes ago8 min read

Circularity Challenges and Opportunities for the Composites Recycling and Reuse Business

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #reuse, #recycledfiber, #recycledresin This post is the fourth in the series that introduces the ideas spelled out in my second book, just released – “Sustainable Composite Materials: A Roadmap to a Circular Economy”. In the first three posts I talked about sustainability and circularity in the raw materials supply chain, reducing the carbon footprint in the making of both fiber and resin, and reducing the carbon footprint in the pro

7 days ago8 min read

How to Make Composites Processing and Fabrication Sustainable

#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fabrication, #processequipment This week’s newsletter is the third in my series laying out the roadmap to sustainability in composites. But before I get started, I need to let everyone know that my second book, “Sustainable Composite Materials, A Roadmap to a Circular Economy” is officially released as of April 6 (Monday). The book covers the watershed of the issue of sustainability for these wonderful mate

Apr 88 min read

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Are Plants the Future of Composites?

#composites, #sustainability, #biocomposites, #plantbased, #plantresins, #SAMPE This week will be the fifth tied to what I wrote in my new book, “Sustainable Composite Materials: A Roadmap to a Circular Economy”. In this post, I am going to try to answer this question based on today’s markets and today’s technologies. That means that I want to talk through the potential of plant-based precursors for both fiber and resin and biocomposites in general to transform the composit

13 minutes ago8 min read

Circularity Challenges and Opportunities for the Composites Recycling and Reuse Business

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #reuse, #recycledfiber, #recycledresin This post is the fourth in the series that introduces the ideas spelled out in my second book, just released – “Sustainable Composite Materials: A Roadmap to a Circular Economy”. In the first three posts I talked about sustainability and circularity in the raw materials supply chain, reducing the carbon footprint in the making of both fiber and resin, and reducing the carbon footprint in the pro

7 days ago8 min read

How to Make Composites Processing and Fabrication Sustainable

#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fabrication, #processequipment This week’s newsletter is the third in my series laying out the roadmap to sustainability in composites. But before I get started, I need to let everyone know that my second book, “Sustainable Composite Materials, A Roadmap to a Circular Economy” is officially released as of April 6 (Monday). The book covers the watershed of the issue of sustainability for these wonderful mate

Apr 88 min read

Reducing the Carbon Footprint of String and Glue (Fiber and Resin) Manufacture

#composites, #sustainability, #carbonfootprint, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins Last week I wrote about the raw materials for composites and how high their carbon footprint is, primarily because at present most if not all raw materials for advanced composites are based in petroleum – big oil. This week I want to follow the roadmap outlined in my new book to the next step. That step is the production process for the fibers and resins that make up modern composites, that i

Apr 110 min read

ABOUT ME

Ned Patton, Ph.D., P.E. lives and works in San Diego California. He has more than 40 years of experience in research and technology development, and has been involved with and has been a proponent of composites for over 35 of those years. Currently working at Oceaneering International as a senior technical professional, he is actively developing composite material parts and structures for use undersea.