Press releases

JEC INNOVATION AWARD PROGRAMME 2011:
14 COMPANIES REWARDED FOR THEIR COMPOSITE INNOVATIONS

JEC Composites is announcing the new winners of the JEC Programme 2011.

“The composites industry is moving fast,”says Mrs Frédérique Mutel, JEC President and CEO. She comments: "Innovation is trong in four sectors. First, in environmental-friendly fully recyclable materials. Then,in advanced mould tooling.
The third sector is civil engineering with a large number of new infrastructures especially in Asia or South America. Finally in automotive, with the increaseing use of composites due to the need for lightness in new cars to compensate for the increased  weight of electronic equipment or batteries“. She adds: "As we received
numerous entries on these subjects, we had to create four additional categories that were not existing last year: Thermoplastics, Equipment, Civil Engineering and  Automotive “.

This year, 14 companies and their partners will receive awards at the JEC Composites Show (March 29 2011). The programme was created in 1998 with the goal of promoting innovation. Each year, a jury of renowned international experts chooses the best composite innovations, based on their technical interest, market potential, partnership, financial impact and originality. Read through the trade description to discover the fourteen winners. The 2011 JEC Awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday March 2929th at 5:00 pm on the JEC Show and will be open to all visitors.


The 2011 Innovation Awards competition is supported actively by UMECO Composites (Official Partner) and Huntsman Advanced Materials (Platinum sponsor). This year stands out for the increase in the number of applications (63 applications and 45 finalists) and the worlwide participation (20 different countries in Europe, North and South America, and the Asia-Pacific region). Trends and observations worth taking note of in the 2011 Innovation program are the  following:

MAIN 2011 TRENDS FOR JEC PARIS INNOVATION AWARDS

Lighter, cheaper, safer and environment-friendly

On the materials side, we see more and more Eco-solutions due to their environmental benefits such as safe and eco-friendly intumescent resin and gelcoat meeting the highest fire rating standard, corrosion-resistant vinylester resin with European approvals suitable for food contact and drinking water treatment
applications.
Complex and 100% recyclable thermoplastic structures are gaining ground in the composite market while the bio-based materials keep on penetrating the automotive, construction, sports and leisure industries combining excellent thermal and mechanical properties.

Integrated composites structures, designed and manufactured in a shot process

In aerospace, you will discover the next generation of integrated composites aero-structures: doors with advanced stitched performs, one-shot fuselage/airframe barrels for helicopters, and main landing gear fittings with ultra thick laminates. In Construction, the manufacture of sheeting lengths up to 22 meters with almost invisible joints coupled with the inherent qualities and finish of the composite materials significantly helped reducing costs and construction times.

Fast production, fast installation, automation and mass production...

Increased production rates, for Aerospace, Automotive and Wind Energy is pressuring manufacturers to automate 100% of their processes: you will read about a revolutionary and 100 % fully-automated solution for blades production, a fully-automatic continuous process to produce stable curved preforms,a new direct compounding technology for producing semi-finished SMC parts, cost-effective means for processing lightweight thermoplastic advanced composite components and also a fully automated braiding-based RTM process and new fibre-patch performing. Combining multiple processes in a single step to produce continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites is also an energy-efficient, highly automated manufacturing process that provides real economic advantages to manufacturers.

Finally, the potential of composites materials for tooling is enormous.The global market is £1,238 million, of which 10 to 30% maximum is carbon or glass.
Taking the 787 Dreamliner aircraft as an example, 1,000 very large tools (over 7 m²) are required. A new innovation combines a hard, durable metallic coating with a lightweight composite mould tool to deliver a durable and cost effective solution.

Download CP JEC Awards Paris 2011 GB