COMPOSITES EUROPE 2012 Blog

The ACMA has been our guest at COMPOSITES EUROPE in Stuttgart. Have a look at Lori Luchak’s positive comment on her visit. Both shows are really good partners.  In February 2012 we will be part of the ACMA show, too.  European companies present their products in the COMPOSITES EUROPE pavillon. The show takes place in the fabulous city of Las Vegas.  http://www.acmashow.org/.  Register now and come to Las Vegas!

Maximilian Hacker is 25 years old and the owner of BRComposites. He absolved his training as procedural mechanics of plastic and rubber technology, specialized in fibre composites.

 Activities previous to his self-employment:

1. Fischer & Entwicklung Landshut
2. Pilatus Aircraft Schweiz
3. Company with Formel 1 experience   (company name is not mentioned because of legal reasons)

CE: COMPOSITES EUROPE Team

MH: Maximilian Hacker

CE: Please introduce yourself. Who are you and what is your responsibility at BRComposites?

MH: BRComposites has exists for two years now. We are a young and very innovative company with a continuous strong growth. Furthermore, we think that  well-trained employees and to the original rules of craftsmanship are very important.

I am proud to say that we are already training employees. In my opinion there is still a lack of skilled workers in the composites industry.

We develop and offer individual production to our customers. Productions up to 10,000 standard parts are easily possible. In this way the volume of production is growing. Our production is done without autoclaves and everything is hand-made.

BRComposites

CE: So how did you experience the COMPOSITES EUROPE 2011 show? What are your impressions?

MH: This is the first time for BRComposites as an exhibitor at the COMPOSITES EUROPE. Actually we have been planning the first exhibition in 2016. At least that has been the conclusion of a family dinner. However, by coincidental, I got a phone call from the COMPOSITES EUROPE team the next day. During this conversation I received information about a funding possibility through BMWi. Because of the funding possibility and the sponsoring by Jost Chemicals, which is a close partner, we decided to book a booth for the COMPOSITES EUROPE 2011.

Mr. Hacker was reacting spontaneously when we asked him about his feelings as participant of the CE 2011. He was euphorically describing the exhibition as gigantic. The company had a huge success, a great number of good meetings and contacts. The booth was constantly busy because so many visitors were interested in their products. In his opinion, the exhibition service and the whole organisation was very commendable.

We closed the interview by talking about the presentation of innovations brought by BRC.

BRComposites presented flexible carbon protectors which is already used e.g. by the v. The jacket (have a look at the picture) in the background is specially made for extreme mountainbikers and is equipped with flexible carbon protectors. All visitors have been wondering what kind of material this is. However, we could not get any detailed information.

Thank you so much for the interesting and open conversation with Mr. Hacker.

We met Michael Scharmer at our show in Stuttgart. For MSC Polymer AG it is a premiere to exhibit at CE show. www.msc-polymer.com

Q: Question

MS: Answer of Michael Scharmer

Michael Scharmer (man on the right side on the picture) www.msc-polymer.com/

Q: Please introduce yourself and MSC Polymer AG.

MS: MSC Polymer AG is a capital markets company LC. I am in the bord of directors as a director of technology and the Chief Executive Officer. 1988 the company was founded as a technical consulting company. Later on it had been developed towards a distributor of materials. Glass fibre reinforced epoxy laminates are the backbone of the classical PCB. Our customers already expected that we supply materials for premanufactured and pretooled. So we had to invest in suitable machinery and step by step we became a manufacturer of glass fibre reinforced parts for broad applications (despite PCB, our core business). We are at at the COMPOSITES EUROPE show because we had more and more inquieries asking for new materials as they are being shown here.We knew nobody in this industry, now we know a lot! Exhibitions are not only to attract new customers, but also to come in touch with the industry. We wanted to find new suitable suppliers and tool makers. In addition, we have a lot of contacts, for example to science institutions. It is really worth to come here. The next time in Düsseldorf we will bring more examples with us made of carbon fibre. In a few years we want to become an important European player in the manufacture of 3D-parts for many application industries, especially for the machinery industry.

Q: So how did you come to the COMPOSITES EUROPE show?

MS: We observed the development within the composites industry and the COMPOSITES EUROPE trade show. I asked myself where is this industry going? Looks like it is getting really important. I would have come as a visitor anyway. So why not taking a booth? The stand is also a meeting point. It can not be replaced by google or other social platforms. In the evening you also meet your visitors in the same hotel at the bar. This trade show is very well organized, not bureaucratic at all and our administration efforts to manage our participation were markable low compared to other major German exhibitions.

Moreover, it takes place in one of Germany’s most beautiful exhibition centres!

COMPOSITES EUROPE Blog met Mr. Stefan Hilbrath – divisional director of UHU Industrieklebstoffe. For the first time UHU will exhibit at COMPOSITES EUROPE 2011 in Stuttgart. We have asked him a few questions to get some interesting information.

Q: Question
A: Answer

UHU Indutry adhesives - new exhibitor at COMPOSITES EUROPE 2011 in Stuttgart - http://uhu-profi.de/

Done and dusted. The German government’s decision to withdraw from nuclear energy has also paved the way for the development of renewable forms of energy. The proportion of electricity generation from renewable sources is expected to rise to at least 80 percent by 2050. Wind energy is planned to play a major role in this. Last year the sector contributed 7.9 percent to the total amount of electricity generated in Germany.

The energy policy of the German government includes giving greater support to offshore wind farms. The remuneration for this power is to be raised to 15 cents per kilowatt hour. Operators of onshore wind turbines will continue to receive up to 10.2 cents per kilowatt hour. 0.5 cents are paid for power from new wind parks if the old equipment went online before 2002. The new turbine should also deliver twice the amount of power than the old one.

Example of how the crystal structure could be used in the rotor blade of a wind turbine. (Photo: Wüstefeld)

These factors therefore represent healthy prospects for the future of the wind power sector. The manufacturers of fibre-reinforced composites are also expecting to benefit from this development – because modern wind turbines are inconceivable without glass and carbon fibre-reinforced plastics. The organisers of the international Composites Europe (CE) exhibition, to be held from 27 to 29 September 2011 in Stuttgart, recognised this early on and are giving the industry the platform it deserves. Well-known producers and processors of fibre composites for the wind energy sector and the relevant machine producers and suppliers get together each year at the event.

But it is not only the presence of the big names which makes a visit to the exhibition so worthwhile. Jens-Hagen Wüstefeld from Starnberg, for instance, has developed a crystalline structure as a lightweight construction element. It yields an 85 percent reduction in weight, lower manufacturing costs, outstanding rigidity and design flexibility in comparison to a solid material. Starting out with a geometric concept, he made a three dimensional lattice from triangles, similar to a crystal structure. Any forces applied to such a symmetrical grid are distributed optimally to adjacent surfaces and edges.

These lightweight elements can be manufactured to any scale, from any materials and in any form – including those appropriate for wind turbines. The resulting reduced weight of the tower would allow the foundation to be simplified. And the lower weight of the rotor would result in lower bearing loads and therefore reduced wear and greater efficiency in the entire turbine. The reduced amounts of materials required would also reduce production costs. Individual segments can easily be joined together, simplifying both transportation and erection.

Audi, too, has now joined the race. Following BMW’s deployment of SGL Carbon and Mercedes’ use of Toray, Audi has now entered into a partnership devoted to the development and fully automatic production of carbon fibre-reinforced materials. In the future, Audi’s reputation as a pioneer of lightweight construction will not be based exclusively on its use of aluminium. Vehicles containing the new material will be marketed under the “ultra” label.

In collaboration with the machinery manufacturer Voith, the Audi engineers are setting up the industrial-scale manufacture of fibre-reinforced materials for the series production of cars; their main goal is to develop a fully automatic process chain. With series production their ultimate target, both partners are devoting themselves not only to the creation of processing engineering and mass production methods for conventional fibre-reinforced plastics but also to the development of new and innovative high-tech materials.

The long flap of the folding top cover and the large rear side panels of the Audi R8 GT Spyder are made from CFRP. (Photo: Audi)

To date, Audi has only used CFRPs in its high-priced super sports cars such as the Audi R8 GT Spyder. The long flap of the folding top cover and the large rear side panels of the recently launched 560 PS version of the sports car are made from CFRP. The material is also used in the modified front spoiler, in the fixed rear spoiler and in the new rear bumper. These components account for total weight savings of 5.5 kilograms.

“Low-fat vehicles” featuring fibre composites will also be highlighted at the international Composites Europe (CE) trade fair, to be held from 27 to 29 September 2011 in Essen. The BMW partner SGL Carbon will be there to demonstrate its expertise. The company supplies the carbon fibres for the Megacity Vehicle. This is the first time in which CFRP parts have been used in large-scale series production. This takes the company a step closer to producing affordable lightweight vehicles suitable for mass production based on fibre composites – putting BMW a nose ahead in the technology race. This is shown by the efforts of the rivals who are doing all they can to catch up. Take Audi, for example: it has set up an interdisciplinary carbon fibre research unit at its Neckarsulm plant aimed at adapting the CFRP technology processes for use in series production. The sister marque Lamborghini has also set up a research unit for carbon fibre technologies at the new Advanced Composites Research Center (ACRC) in Sant’Agata Bolognese.

Fantastic news for Composites Industry. VDMA “Composites Technology Forum” is now an institutional patron of COMPOSITES EUROPE. This helps to create the leading platform for serially produced composites parts. Composite Technology Forum counts on serial production

The VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau) is the largest engineering industry network in Europe. It represents 3000 mainly small- to medium-sized member companies in the engineering industry.
Accounting for sales of roughly € 173 billion in 2010, mechanical engineering is one of the largest industrial sectors and employers in Germany. Roughly two thirds of German production is exported.
VDMA has recently formed a Composite Technology Forum, a new network for machinery manufacturers engaged in the development and production of technologies for the manufacture and quality control of composite materials.

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