JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #75 - August/September 2012 - 4

point of view: prepregs

Century Design Inc. :
providing ready-to-use prepreg equipment
While a growing number of companies are vertically integrating prepregging into their value chain in order to catch more added value, historical prepreggers are installing new machines to meet the demand: two reasons for prepregging machine manufacturers to be optimistic. Here is the point of view of Mr. Keith McConnell, president of Century Design, one of these manufacturers.

interview
Keith Mcconnell, President of Century Design, San Diego, USA

JEC Composites Magazine: You bought CDI (Century Design Inc.) in 2011. Why and with which vision for its future?

background, passion and best of all it didn’t need fixing. CDI’s machines are proven, reliable and easy to operate with a lifetime performance record unrivaled in the industry.

K . McC.: Our efforts are

focused in 3 main areas. CDI provides solutions for our customers by: (1) Establishing a complete infrastructure to allow new composite customers to produce prepreg through to completed parts (2) Designing new and enhanced processing equipment to complete the CDI machine line; including upgrading existing machines to full automation to provide better fit solutions for all customers (3) Providing new prepreg

My background is 27 years in aerospace design and manufacturing with a predominately composite focus. W hen I was looking for a manufacturing business to purchase I discovered a large number of organizations that had good products but they needed to be ‘fixed’. W hen I found CDI it was a perfect match for my

JCM: What are your main areas of business focus?

Vertical integration in the prepreg market is definitely growing in interest as companies are looking to gain both cost and schedule control across their supply line whilst increasing sales

About Century Design Inc.

such as aerospace, windpower, automotive, sporting goods, marine, military, medical and industry, just to name Based in San Diego, USA, CDI designs and fabricates a few. Its product families include prepreg machines, resin composite machinery and has delivered products globally filmers, rewinders, slitters, fibre placement systems, for 50 years. The equipment developed by the company is sheeters & shears, fibre creels, composite manufacturing, used worldwide, which has resulted in over 350 machine testing & analysis systems and full turnkey solutions. CDI designs for composites. CDI offers a full range of equipworks for renowned customers such as Boeing, Northrop ment for the production of materials, fabrication, and Grumman, NASA, Gurit, SGL Carbon, Aldila, Dupont, processing of composite products in a multitude of sectors Renegade Materials, Taylor Made, Sage, and Trek Bikes.

4 jec composites magazine / No75 August - September 2012

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Keith McConnell:

My background in fabrication of composite parts integrates perfectly with my vision for CDI and its future. To be the best value supplier of composite material and part manufacturing machinery by offering complete packages for equipment and processing expertise.

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #75 - August/September 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #75 - August/September 2012