Uday Vaidya and his team of UT students created the carbon fiber composite beams for the new Friendship Bell Peace Pavilion in Oak Ridge. The team produced the beams over a period of three months from a concept that utilized several manufacturing technologies, including overbraiding carbon fiber and vacuum infusion molding.

Vaidya is the UT/ORNL Governors Chair Professor for advanced composites manufacturing, and Chief Technology Officer for the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation. The UT team that worked on the project was guided by Stephen Sheriff, process engineer at the Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Facility, and included 15 graduate and 10 undergraduates who work at the facility.

Attendees celebrated the ribbon cutting from the comfortable vantage point of additive-manufactured bench-seat backs created at the US Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Read about the Friendship Bell Peace Pavilion project.