COMPOSITES EUROPE 2012 Blog

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.

Read Full Post

Dear reader, sympathizer and friends,

an eventful year is drawing to its end.
We would like to thank you very much for reading our blogpost, visiting our show or telling us what is going wrong or fine.

The year 2009 has the sub-title “year of the crisis”. But we never gave up. We always tried to find a solution – pretty often a creative solution. Our shoulders were closed against the vortex downward.

What will be in 2010 ? – Outlook.

Few days ago we saw that the first plane with extra-easy carbon fibers for Engine tail, Thrust reversing housing etc. is able to fly – and will save 20% of fuel.

In Copenhagen the world discusses over reduction of Co2 – We need stronger energy sources apart from the atoms energy – wind mills with especially long reinforced carbon fibres wings will play a serious role.

My last point: The weight of the battery in electric vehicles must become balanced somehow to protect the positive effects.

Fiber reinforcements are able to change characteristics of plastics. With reinforced plastics designers are able to design more beautiful things and it makes our life lighter. Who would like me a contradicting, if I said that: We improve the world with Composites!

We wish you and your familiy happy holidays as well as a healthy, peaceful and successful new year 2010!

Best regards,

Frank Mertz
Sales Manager COMPOSITES EUROPE

Looking forward to your comment:
Frank.Mertz@reedexpo.de
+49 (0) 211 90191 227
http://www.twitter.com/ceshow

Epoxy resins are the elixir for numerous composite applications. They consist of polymers, which together with suitable hardeners produce a duroplastic plastic of high strength and chemical stability. When epoxy resin and hardener are mixed, after a specific time, curing of the originally viscose mixture takes place. Depending on the formulation and temperature, this time span can take a few minutes or may last several hours. In some cases, the curing time may also take several months.

The Krempel-Group, from Vaihingen, offers with the BD system, prepregs that are based on modified epoxy resins with high impact resistance and excellent dynamic properties. These can be processed into high strength structural components with all standard processes. The curing range is between 85 and 140 degrees Celsius, the maximum dimensional stability under heat is 125 degrees Celsius.

Read Full Post

The experts of the AVK – Industrievereinigung Verstärkte Kunststoffe e.V. forecast an annual double-digit percentage growth rate for natural fibre reinforced plastics as well as for wood-plastic composites (WPC).  The reasons for this are the aspects of energy saving during production and the associated reduction in carbon dioxide.

The most important applications are the automobile, construction, furniture as well as industrial and consumer goods. Even so, the use of natural fibre reinforced plastics is stagnating in the automobile sector in the German market which currently accounts for 30,000 tons annually.

Read Full Post