CONTENTS NEWS WORLDWIDE Companies Marcopolo sells MVC to Artecola . . 8 GKN Aerospace acquires Airbus Filton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 First Airbus final assembly line outside Europe inaugurated in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Bombardier to handle Learjet 85 structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 BUSINESS Market survey The world’s automotive industry made over 73 million vehicles . . 22 FEATURE AUTOMOTIVE Design Non-linear simulation of a lightweight composite rim . . . . . 26 Trends: Productivity Machining of composite panels . . 23 Innovations 2008 JEC Asia Innovation Awards: and the winners are . . . . . . . . . . 10 Raw material Innovative “green plastic” nanotechnologies . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Human Capital: Designer Thermoplastics New porous thermoplastic composite technologies: for automotive applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 smart fortwo tailgate: the first high-volume application of E-LFT technology . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 POL DUBUIS, DESIGNER Function and beauty . . . . . . . . . . 24 Agenda of events . . . . . . 16-17 Innovations 2008 CCE-JEC Innovation Awards Programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Prepreg Cost-effective high-performance solutions for automotive body panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 jec composites magazine / No45 November-December 2008