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                       The Laminator, Version 2.5
                Classical Analysis of Composite Laminates
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Description:
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Fully functional shareware.  Runs on Windows 95/98/NT.

The Laminator is a shareware engineering program that analyzes laminated
composite plates according to classical laminated plate theory.
Familiarity with such analysis is assumed. Input consists of ply
material properties, material strengths, ply fiber orientation and
stacking sequence, mechanical loads and/or strains, and temperature and
moisture loads. Output consists of apparent laminate material
properties, ply stiffness and compliance matrices, laminate "ABD"
matrices, laminate loads and mid-plane strains, ply stresses and strains
in global and material axes, and load factors for ply failure based on
Tsai-Hill, Hoffman, and Tsai-Wu failure theories.

To take a quick look at the program, you can request that the various
forms be filled in automatically with some sample data by clicking
"Help/Sample Data" from the menu. You can then review the data by
clicking the various tabs, and then analyze the data by pressing the
"Analyze" button.


Contents:
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The archive contains the following files:

Laminator.exe:
The executable.

Laminator.hlp:
The help file.  Place in the same directory as Laminator.exe.

readme.txt:
The file you are reading.


Installation:
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Installation is simple.  Just copy the files Laminator.exe and Laminator.hlp
to any directory you choose and double click Laminator.exe to run.


Comments:
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Any comments, suggestions, or bugs can be sent to mlindell@tni.net.
Check http://tni.net/~mlindell/Laminator.html for program updates.


History:
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Version 2.02
First major release as a Windows 95, C++ program.  (Version 1.00 was
text-based Fortran).

Version 2.03
Bug fix.  Pressing "Cancel" in the printer dialog from the Results Form
caused a program crash.  This has been fixed.

Version 2.5
A complete rewrite of the user interface.  Increased the allowable number
of materials to 10.  Added the Hoffman failure theory to the ply failure
analysis.  Added online registration option.  Added a help feature.


Registration:
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This software is fully functional and has no limitations. The program is
being released as Shareware. Once The Laminator is installed, please
see the Registration tab for instructions on registering the software.
Shareware: $20.


The Laminator.  Copyright 1997, 1999, Michael Lindell.
All rights reserved.

