JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #145 - April/May 2022 - 14

"
NEWS networking
national conferences and
have meetings in the virtual
world. But it is so important
to be together, to meet not
only at exhibitions but also
downtown. Let's keep our
fingers crossed that in May
we will have a much better
situation to really meet
our composite friends from
all over the world in order
to exchange ideas and start
cooper-ating again, especially
to start new things. JEC is
the perfect place for this.
Tubes made by a combination of 3D printing and insitu consolidated thermoplastic placement
of this board. In the weeks
to come, we will add another
eight members to have a really
good representation of
the composite world, covering
all application fields:
aerospace as well as energy
and automotive, but also the
link from basic research to
applications.
What is your vision for
Composites United e.V.?
In what direction do you
want to push it?
K. D.: We have several
groups working on, for example,
dig-italization and international-isation.
We
want to support our
members in these fields, to
guide the composite world
and to be part of the future
of composites through
networking and education.
And, of course, we cover important
topics such as sustainability,
performance and
functionalization. So, I think
my history helps. I am always
very happy to work in these
various application fields. In
the world of composites, it
is fascinating for me that we
14
have to cover material science
as well as produc-tion
technologies and structural
mechanics and engineering.
We are working and network-ing
with our members
in all these areas and now we
want to go in new directions,
for example to support sustainability.
So, I think there
are two big topics for us regarding
applications: wind
energy, because it will play
a major role in the energy of
the future, and also en-ergy
storage, especially hydrogen
storage tanks. These are two
examples where composites
will play a very, very important
role because these two
application fields cannot exist
without composite materi-als.
And we want to be
part of this with our members
starting from material
science, for example working
on green carbon fibres.
Sustainability, with green
and bio-based matrix systems,
is also an important
area. Another topic is artificial
intelligence in production
technologies to help
speed up the process but aljec
composites magazine / N°
145 April - May 2022
so to have more robust processes
to reduce waste.
There are so many topics.
And we will cover all of
them together with our partners
internally: our members
but also other companies,
and also together with
JEC, for example.
Sustainability is the main
theme of the next JEC World
in Paris in May. Will you
show-case all the examples
you just mentioned there?
And what do you expect from
the trade show?
K. D.: Composites United
will have a huge booth at
JEC together with our members
or based on their contributions.
We will cover all
of these topics and we are
very happy to invite every
one to visit our booth and
discuss all these important
issues for the future. I expect
to meet people, to meet
the composite world. It will
be very, very important to
meet each other again.
I think we are very well accustomed
now to using
digital tools to hold interWhat
is your view on
the future of composites?
K.D.: I am very sure that
we have a big future because
we can really contribute to
sustainability through the
applications I already mentioned
- wind energy and
hydrogen storage - that can
only happen with composite
materials. We have so many
new technologies that we
developed and we are close
to bringing them into applications,
such as green carbon
fibres, bio-based matrix
systems and artificial
in-telligence in high-volume
pro-duction technologies
with low waste. So many
things were developed during
the past years and now
it is time to bring them into
applications, espe-cially in
the two areas I mentioned,
but also in aerospace.
I think flying taxis and air
mobility will be a huge topic
for us and composite materials
will contribute to these
new application fields, for
sure.
More information:
https://composites-united.com

https://www.composites-united.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #145 - April/May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #145 - April/May 2022