If you go back thirty or thirty-five years or so, we were stainless cladding major press sections and so forth.  Fifteen years earlier, we were just painting carbon steel. Today, we do not bother with cladding, stainless is cheap enough that nearly all wet components are stainless without cladding.

Relative to everything else, materials are becoming less and less expensive.  We are also seeing more substitutions where traditionally items made of metals have been made of plastics.

Of course, since our beginning, LGMI has promoted plastics, especially CPVC piping.

However, recently I attended the AUVSI (Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) exhibit here in Atlanta.  I came away struck by the components being made of composites through 3-D printing.  Mostly for aerospace applications, these components are very light weight, very strong and very abrasion resistant.  

Right now, they are somewhat pricey, too, but that will change with time.

How soon will we see applications of these materials in paper mills?  I think very soon, and the first place we may see them is pump impellers.  This is a perfect application.  These are also perfect parts to duplicate with 3-D printers in your own mill.

The place I hope to see them before I go to that big paper machine in the sky, however, is in press section frames.  We are talking about real weight savings plus thinner members allowing more access.  

The point is, these materials are on the horizon and we will see them soon, I would guess in less than five years.