Gearing up for Carbon Fiber 2017

The agenda for CompositesWorld’s 2017 Carbon Fiber conference, Nov. 28-30 in Charleston, SC, US, at the Belmond Charleston Place, is nearing completion. Registration is now open and attendees are encouraged to secure lodging as soon as possible. 

The Carbon Fiber conference, the pre-eminent source of information about carbon fiber supply chain trends, technologies and applications, this year features a tour of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner final assembly line in North Charleston, followed by a half-day pre-conference tutorial by Chris Red, principle of Composites Forecasts and Consulting LLC, titled, “2017 Carbon Fibers Global Outlook: Growth through Transportation and Energy Applications.”

The aerospace keynote speaker at Carbon Fiber will be Daniel P. Mooney, vice president of Engineering Design Center — South Carolina, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. His presentation, “Wheels Up: The Dreamliner Journey in SC,” will review The Boeing Co.’s long history using composite materials, from the B&W seaplanes through Boeing’s latest addition, the 787 Dreamliner. Mooney will present some of the unique characteristics of the 787, its global supply chain and the Boeing South Carolina site evolution.

Also featured this year will be a panel on carbon fiber recycling, which will discuss recycling technologies and the development of applications for recycled carbon fiber reinforcements. Panelists include:

• Geoffrey M. Wood, Composite Recycling Technology Center
• Tia Benson Tolle, The Boeing Co.
• Akihiko Kitano, Toray Industries
• Frazer Barnes, ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd.
• Mark Janney, Carbon Conversions Inc.
• Anthony Vicari, Lux Research

Other speakers/topics at the Carbon Fiber conference include:

• Christian Weimer, Airbus Group Innovations: Digital tools for CFRP processing
• Marc Thimon, Composite Alliance Corp.: Automated verification of ply placement
• Sam Hill, Solvay Composite Materials: Resin infusion for integrated structures
• James Throckmorton, Harris Corp.: Design for electro-optical imaging systems
• Charlie Anderton, CGTech: Automated composites manufacturing
• Bertrand Laine, RT2iT: Carbon composites in 3D printing
• Timothy Schniepp, Stratasys: Additive manufacturing for composites fabrication
• Samoil Samak, MIKROSAM: Automation technologies for composites manufacturing
• Brandon Ennis, Sandia National Laboratories: Carbon fiber in wind energy
• Lewis Williams, Solvay Composite Materials: Rapid-cure prepreg for high volumes
• Christian Raun, ADAPA: Adaptive molds technology
• Michael Rainaldi, Mitsubishi Chemical Carbon Fiber and Composites; Masanobu Koshihata, Mitsubishi Chemical: Pitch-based carbon fiber for automotive
• Adam Harms, CIKONI: Automotive manufacturing and structural optimization
• Amit Goyal, Southern Research: Renewable acrylonitrile for carbon fiber production
• Luke Vardy, Cygnet Texkimp: Applied research in converting, coating, prepregging
• Michael Kronberger, Lux Research: Challenges to wider CFRP adoption
• Tim Greene, Greene, Tweed: Metal replacement with long fiber thermoplastics

The 2017 Carbon Fiber conference co-chairs are: Karin Anderston, structural analyst, The Boeing Co.; Arnt Offringa, director R&D, Fokker/GKN; Eric Haiss, executive vice president, Continental Structural Plastics.

The Carbon Fiber conference is sponsored by The Boeing Co., Harper International, Toho Tenax America Inc., Izumi International/Kamitsu, Cygnet Texkimp, A&P Technology and Abaris Training.