JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #51 - September 2009 - 44

USERS’ PLATFORM Successful partners g…/… Major advancements in long fibre injection JEC Magazine interview questions for Camoplast, Bayer MaterialScience and KraussMaffei regarding the development of the Camoplast Long Fiber (CLF) process and the hull for the personal watercraft. typically flat panels having 1.0 to 1.5 m2. If we could succeed in making large parts with the LFI process and polyurethane material, we at Camoplast would maintain our leadership in composite PWC hulls and decks. JCM: In what way did Bayer participate throughout the project? Y. C.: When you need help to realize a huge crazy dream, you have to convince others to join the club. When we first told our partners the project objectives, we heard from them that it was impossible to make such large parts. But, as our partners found out during the 7-year project, one strength of Camoplast’s culture is: “Make it happen”. We kept the team focused and we gained their respect by walking the talk. Slowly but surely, we learned from each other. We also found that our organizations were complimentary and shared the same business values (entrepreneurialship, integrity, discipline and team work). Bayer dedicated a small but excellent team headed by Dr Usama E. Younes to this project, Dr Younes and his team didn’t say that Camoplast’s out-of-the-box idea couldn’t be made; they just said, to my great surprise: “Ok … let’s do it”. His team successfully took a 10-second PU working time and brought it up to 60 seconds without sacrificing the short cure time. JCM: Did any problems arise out of the difference in size of your companies and the relative importance of the project for each one? Y. C.: One challenge that we foresaw was the difference in company size. Bayer and Krauss-Maffei are two very large companies compared to ours. This didn’t stop us. Camoplast has a philosophy of applying the best practices to its manufacturing and management operations through benchmark activities. We compare our way of doing something to the best companies out there. This benchmarking activity is only a part of our overall continuous improvement ACE program, in which all Camoplast employees participate. By always applying the best industry practices, Camoplast can easily manage projects with larger companies. One key success through out the early stages (2002-2004) was to manage the team through monthly meetings in which Camoplast floated “what if” scenarios – every catastrophic scenario that could kill the project. These scenarios where then analyzed and addressed by DOE experiments as necessary prior to making the first prototype in Germany in 2004 on a Krauss-Maffei lab press. The smallest deck we had at that time was used for that trial and it was longer than the press bed. JCM: How do you guarantee the confidentiality of your projects? Y. C.: In order to guarantee the confidentiality of this project, we signed mutual non-disclosure agreements and involved only a few R&D people in the early stages. We did most of the testing at the Camoplast R&D Center, in Bayer’s lab in Pittsburgh and the Krauss-Maffei lab center in Munich. We value the verbal commitment of Bayer and K.M of working together while keeping confidentiality information within the groups. JCM: Are you considering any other joint projects? Y. C.: Yes, we are still working to further refine the CLF technology since we are only in the early stages of its life. There so much we can do - we envision so many possibilities - we have to choose those that bring value to our customers. JCM: What advantages do you expect to gain from this innovation? AN INTERVIEW WITH YVES CARBONNEAU, ENGINEERING DIRECTOR, POLYMER SOLUTIONS, CAMOPLAST JEC Composites Magazine: What made you choose Bayer Material Science as a partner for the Camoplast Long Fibre project? YVES CARBONNEAU: Dr Slim Frikha (Camoplast Technology Director) attended the JEC show in Paris in 2001 and saw at Bayer booth the LFI technology of Krauss-Maffei and found the process intriguing. The month after, Dr Frikha & M. Luc Janelle (Camoplast VP,GM) met with Harry George and Craig Snyder of Bayer MaterialScience who were looking for opportunities to introduce the use of polyurethane composite materials into applications outside traditional markets such as construction. Many meetings were held with Krauss Maffei and Bayer personnel in both the United States and Germany during 2001 and 2002 to better understand the technology’s potential. We wanted to understand if the LFI process could help us meet specific goals of our 5Y strategic planning - reductions in cost and weight, better environmental compliance (lower VOCs), and improved part dimensional tolerances and process repeatability - compared to the benefits of the RSM process we utilized. The RSM process employs a robot to apply polyester resin with chopped glass fiber to an open mould. Our investigation of the LFI process led to the startup of a new project: adapting the potential of the LFI technology to efficiently manufacture large structural parts such as personal watercraft (PWC) hulls and decks having a surface area of 6 m2 by 0.5 m deep. Previously, parts made from the LFI process were smaller - 44 jec composites magazine / No51 September 2009

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #51 - September 2009

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