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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Carbon Nanotubes – What Are They Good For?

#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins Sorry about the rock and roll reference here, but there is so much hype about carbon nanotubes, I thought I would set the record a little bit more in actual applications of these interesting little beasties without all of the hyperbole that often accompanies any mention of them. First, what are these things? If you remember some of my earlier posts when I talk about “organic carbon” and the

1 minute ago7 min read

ORNL, Wind Energy, Strangely Shaped Carbon Fibers, and a Repair Robot

#composites, #carbonfiber, #windenergy, #ornl, #repairrobot, #compositesrepair Article reposted from www.nedpatton.com I saw a recent article in Composites World that had a micrograph of a section of cut carbon fibers. And this isn’t your typical micrograph that shows round fibers that have a sort of a messy outside surface and where you can sometimes see small defects in the surface. This one was completely different. So, since I’m the curious type I looked into this to s

7 days ago9 min read

Some News About Recycling Plastics to Make Carbon Nanotubes

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #hardplastics, #carbon_nanotubes I came across a company at work that one of our Senior VP’s ran across at a conference. This company has been able to recycle plastics that have little to no value and turn them into high value products in carbon particulate like carbon nanotubes and hydrogen gas. They apparently use a microwave source to get the process energy to do this. Polyolefin / Carbon Paticulate Composite Plastic Pellets (Ce

Jun 38 min read

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Carbon Nanotubes – What Are They Good For?

#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins Sorry about the rock and roll reference here, but there is so much hype about carbon nanotubes, I thought I would set the record a little bit more in actual applications of these interesting little beasties without all of the hyperbole that often accompanies any mention of them. First, what are these things? If you remember some of my earlier posts when I talk about “organic carbon” and the

1 minute ago7 min read

ORNL, Wind Energy, Strangely Shaped Carbon Fibers, and a Repair Robot

#composites, #carbonfiber, #windenergy, #ornl, #repairrobot, #compositesrepair Article reposted from www.nedpatton.com I saw a recent article in Composites World that had a micrograph of a section of cut carbon fibers. And this isn’t your typical micrograph that shows round fibers that have a sort of a messy outside surface and where you can sometimes see small defects in the surface. This one was completely different. So, since I’m the curious type I looked into this to s

7 days ago9 min read

Some News About Recycling Plastics to Make Carbon Nanotubes

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #hardplastics, #carbon_nanotubes I came across a company at work that one of our Senior VP’s ran across at a conference. This company has been able to recycle plastics that have little to no value and turn them into high value products in carbon particulate like carbon nanotubes and hydrogen gas. They apparently use a microwave source to get the process energy to do this. Polyolefin / Carbon Paticulate Composite Plastic Pellets (Ce

Jun 38 min read

There’s a New Entrant in the Sustainable Natural Fiber Composites Business

#composites, #sustainability, #flaxfiber, #naturalfiber, #recyclable, #greencomposites I’ve seen a couple of posts in Composites World about a company in Turkey that has developed a series of textile products using a mix of flax and hemp fibers specifically for use in composites. And this company, Bpreg, doesn’t just deliver the fiber product, they also pair it with a recyclable thermoplastic resin and sell their products in prepreg form – hence the name Bpreg. I wanted to h

May 278 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.