COMPOSITES EUROPE 2012 Blog

When I first met Arwed on our Composites Show in Stuttgart 2007 we had some nice chat about his new developments about car rims made of carbon.

A few weeks ago we met each other again and he told me that development went well but he had some challenges regarding german law for using rims on
german streets. Although there are no thermal problems by heating the discs i.e. government gave him note that these kind of rims are not desired. Read Full Post

In addition to a lottery, which is going to reward a lucky participant with tickets for stand and paddock at the DTM race at the Hockenheimring race course, Harke Chemicals will be exhibiting a genuine racer as headturner on their booth this year.

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Functional and safety components of thermoplastic composites are being used more and more. It is therefore very important to have an understanding of the material behaviour and to develop adapted design methods.

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Lightweight means to realize a weight reduction, with sufficient rigidity, dynamic stability and strength. This is to ensure that the developed components and structures fulfill their tasks safely over the period of use.

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GLENWOOD SPRINGS, CO — 29 June 2010. Fiberforge announces today that Fraunhofer ICT and Fiberforge have started a strategic collaboration on R&D projects for various industries such as, automotive and aerospace. As part of this collaboration, Fraunhofer ICT will be installing a RELAY® Station 2000 at its state-of-the-art thermoplastics research center. This will be the first RELAY Station installation in Europe offering clients the ability to develop and demonstrate the production of thermoplastic advanced composite structures upward of 2 m x 2 m (80 in. x 80 in.) in size on a full-scale production work cell.

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The Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF presented a four-meter-high exhibit at the COMPOSITES EUROPE – which is equipped with sensor technology SHM-wing mock-up of a light aircraft.

Fiber composites offer special advantages because of their lightweight potential in the aviation sector. The lightweight advantages may be more complex because of the damage behavior in comparison with metallic materials therefore they are not always fully exploit. In the airline for example, the impact is from foreign bodies in composite structures is a particular risk factor, limits the applications and often leads to large safety factors that require a certain amount of oversizing. Sensors which recognize, for example in the wing not externally visible structural damage at an early stage can reduce the inspection effort. The operational safety of the structure is ensured by the design and inspections at regular intervals manually. Through automated monitoring with additional structure integrated sensors can be saved in future costs and weight.

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The Bodensee Racing Team, or in short BRT, is sponsored amongst others by Harke Chemicals this year. It is one of the teams that takes part in this year’s Formula Student, a competition where students from all over the world compete against each other in self-constructed racing cars. “The contact to the Bodensee Racing Team was established during a booth conversation at the Composites Europe 2009 in Stuttgart, on which we presented epoxy resin systems. After the students from Konstanz had introduced us to the project we immediately decided to sponsor the team with our epoxy resins”, says Dirk Forler, Managing
Director of Harke Chemicals GmbH.

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11 March this year saw the launch of the new international “Composites” Masters course, being held in English, at the Private University of Applied Sciences in Göttingen.  This means that now, for the first time in Europe, there is a course of studies aimed at resolving the international shortage of graduates in fibre-reinforced plastics. 21 engineers from Spain, France, the United Kingdom, India and Germany will now become experts in carbon composites during the three-semester course.

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Sustainability and energy efficiency: What does the future look like for international freight traffic? What new approach can freight forwarders and logistics specialists adopt, so that they are able to transport their clients’ large loads under favorable conditions? How can such an approach ensure high environmental standards? The solution lies in lightweight design for trucks and freight containers, where fuel consumption and transport costs are reduced, CO2 emissions are lowered and climate friendliness is increased.

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Sustainability and energy efficiency: What does the future look like for international freight traffic? What new approach can freight forwarders and logistics specialists adopt, so that they are able to transport their clients’ large loads under favorable conditions? How can such an approach ensure high environmental standards? The solution lies in lightweight design for trucks and freight containers, where fuel consumption and transport costs are reduced, CO2 emissions are lowered and climate friendliness is increased.

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