JEC Asia conferences to highlight composites developments

JEC Group has revealed the programme of its five conferences organised alongside with JEC Asia composites Show 8th annual session at the Suntec Centre in Singapore to be held from 20-22 October. A panel of 20 speakers from ten countries will share and exchange with delegates expected from 43 countries. Two of these sessions are organised in partnership with TUM Asia in Singapore and Hanyang University from South Korea.

The conferences will focus on the following subjects:

Eco-designs and recycling:
With governmental legislations increasing in order to gain better control over which products are manufactured in a wide range of products, composite materials in particular, have for a while now been encouraged to go “green” by developing the use of natural fibres, cleaner resins and recycling opportunities. Speakers from Ashland, Cobra International, Ecole des Mines d’Albi and Solvay will be featured.

Simulation/Robotisation:
As the use of composite materials becomes more widespread in every major industry, the need for efficient and well-adapted simulation tools has equally grown. Indispensable for behavioural predictions thanks to the structural analysis and optimization they provide, software tools provide reliable and pre-manufacturing solutions in design.

Along these lines, the pressure of productivity rates and mass production has brought an increase in the use of flexible robotics which will be delved into during this session with speakers from TUM Asia and their partners including Duo Machinery Equipment.

Aeronautics: the challenge of light-weighting
Thanks to their high strength and lightweight properties, composite materials are becoming increasingly widespread in the aerospace industry. Light-weighting is a particularly important challenge for the industry, as it allows for fuel reductions, but it is a difficult one as aeronautical parts possess stringent quality requirements. Other major current challenges for this industry when it comes to composite materials include: reduced assembly time and maintenance, and greater impact resistance in airframes. This session will have speakers from Chomarat, Republic Polytechnic and Surface generation.

Cycle-time reduction in the automotive industry:
High-speed production is one of the biggest challenges of the automotive industry when it comes to composite materials, notably in order to achieve cost parity with metal equivalents. Thanks to process innovations and adapted epoxy resins, cycle-times for high-performance structural parts have already been significantly reduced during these last few years, but the incentive to lower them even more and thus attain the crucial one-minute cycle time. Speakers will be from Hanyang University, RWTH Aachen and Lamborghini.

Composite vessels for high pressure storage:
Over the years, these types of vessels, which hold liquids and gases under pressure, have been through different stages: from all-metal to metal or plastic lined composite tanks, and finally to a linerless tank. These high-pressure storage tanks are one of the fastest growing market for advanced composites and this session will focus both on market trends and the latest innovations. Speakers will be from Ashland, Connectra and Gruntech Polymers.