Interview with Dr. Elmar Witten, Managing Director AVK – Federation of Reinforced Plastics – Partner and exhibitor at COMPOSITES EUROPE 2012
September 18th, 2012 | By Estella Copei in aerospace, Aerospace Industry, Allgemein, Automotive Industry, AVK, Awards, Biocomposites, Business, Composite production, COMPOSITES Forum, Construction Industry, Design, Engineering, Exhibitors, General, Marine, Product Demonstration Area, Sports industry, Technology, Wind Energy Industry | No Comments »Dr. Elmar Witten is the managing director of the AVK. The AVK is the Partner of COMPOSITES EUROPE. The AVK holds its annual international AVK Conference at COMPOSITES EUROPE.
Dr. EW: Dr. Elmar Witten
CE: COMPOSITES EUROPE
CE: Could you please give us a quick overview of the AVK? What is the mission of AVK?
Dr. EW: The AVK (Federation of Reinforced Plastics) represents the interests of manufacturers and processors of reinforced plastics as well as their raw materials suppliers on a national and European scale.
The AVK currently has more than 220 member companies along the whole value chain of reinforced plastics.
The AVK is the leading organization for all companies at the German composites market.
The mission of the AVK is to provide its´ members with all services one stop and to represent their interests towards all institutions. Thereto we primarily follow up the following objectives: increase the image of composites, promote innovations, offer further trainings, expose sustainability and enlarge the composites network.
CE: What kind of projects have you undertaken for your members? How do your members profit from AVK?
Dr. EW: The companies profit from the AVK membership by attending our unique and exclusive expert task forces. The AVK offers nearly 20 up-to-the-minute as well as permanent topics which are focus of these regularly meetings. The participants of these task forces develop actions for marketing their issues. One example is the AVK task force “Euro-RTM-Group” which is – as in recent years – present at COMPOSITES EUROPE´s Product Demonstration Area. Overall the companies profit from all the AVK activities to promote composites.
CE: Looking to the future, where do you think the composites industry is headed to? What are the biggest challenges and opportunities?
Dr. EW: There are many opportunities for composites, e. g. the industries´ demand for lightweight or sustainable material. The potential for innovations and substitution is very high. The biggest challenge is still to convince the decision makers in the application industry of the often unknown advantages of the composites material and to find material mix solutions.
CE: How important is COMPOSITES EUROPE for your association?
Dr. EW: The AVK is partner of the COMPOSITES EUROPE from day one. The show is very important for us and our member companies as most of them are exhibitors and/or visitors.
The COMPOSITES EUROPE and the AVK Conference as the opening event cover all the relevant topics in the composites market.
CE: Finally, are you looking forward to the COMPOSITES EUROPE show this year?
Dr. EW: I am of course looking forward to this year´s show as we expect to see some product and process innovations, to meet interesting people and to get some inspiration how we together can help the composites market to grow.










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