The organizing committee for the Society of Plastics Engineers' (SPE) Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition (ACCE) announced this week the event's dates, theme and new location for 2013 and issued its annual Call for Papers.
Now in its 13th year, the SPE ACCE is the world’s leading forum for automotive composites and draws exhibitors, speakers, and attendees from 15 countries on five continents. This year’s theme is "Composites: Lightweighting the Cars of Tomorrow." The ACCE returns Sept. 11-13, 2013, but to a new venue. Creig Bowland, senior research associate at PPG Industries (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and 2013 SPE ACCE conference cochair explains, “Our conference has been fortunate enough to enjoy excellent growth the past few years — so much so that we have literally outgrown our home of 12 years. We and the management at our previous venue tried everything we could to make the most of the space we had, but it became clear during last year's ACCE that we needed to make a change. We've moved our 2013 conference to The Diamond Center, which is part of the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Mich. We believe it will give us the best of both worlds — the friendly, intimate feel of our old facility and the flexibility to grow and spread out that we so badly needed."
Adds conference cochair, Antony Dodworth, the managing director of Dodworth Design (Buckingham, U.K.), "It'll be great to have all our exhibitors together in a single room for the first time since 2007, and this facility is still convenient to major highways in the Detroit area. In fact, a brand-new hotel is being built adjacent to the Diamond Center and that will make the show even more convenient for out-of-town guests."
Those interested in speaking at this year’s event should submit abstracts by March 29, 2013, and full papers or presentations are due May 31, 2013, to the review committee via ACCEpapers@speautomotive.com. Authors who submit papers (not presentations) in the proper format will be considered for the conference’s Best Paper Awards, which will be presented during the event’s opening ceremony.
Held annually in suburban Detroit, the ACCE draws more 650 speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, and attendees and provides an environment dedicated solely to discussion and networking about advances in the transportation composites. Its global appeal is evident in the diversity of exhibitors, speakers and attendees who come to the conference from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia/Pacific region as well as North America. Fully one-third of attendees indicate they work for automotive and light truck, agriculture, truck, bus, heavy truck, or aviation OEMs, and another 25 percent representing tier suppliers. Attendees also represent composite materials, processing equipment, additives, or reinforcement suppliers, trade associations, consultants, university and government labs media and investment banks. The show has been jointly sponsored by the SPE Automotive and Composites Divisions since 2001.
The mission of SPE is to promote scientific and engineering knowledge relating to plastics. SPE’s Automotive and Composites Divisions work to advance plastics and plastic-based composites technologies worldwide and to educate industry, academia, and the public about these advances. Both divisions are dedicated to educating, promoting, recognizing, and communicating technical accomplishments for all phases of plastics and plastic-based composite developments, including materials, processing, equipment, tooling, design and testing, and application development.
For more information about the SPE Automotive Composites Conference, visit the Automotive Division’s Web site at http://speautomotive.com/comp.htm, or the Composites’ Division website at http://compositeshelp.com, or contact the group at (248) 244-8993, or write SPE Automotive Division, 1800 Crooks Rd., Ste. A, Troy, MI 48084.
For more information about the Society of Plastics Engineers or other SPE events, visit the SPE Web site at www.4spe.org, or call (203) 775-0471.
