Carbon Fiber 2016 agenda firms up

CompositesWorld's annual Carbon Fiber conference features presentations designed to highlight where, how and why carbon fiber composites are being applied throughout the global manufacturing world. The agenda for Carbon Fiber 2016 is nearly complete and registration is open.

CompositesWorld's Carbon Fiber 2016 will be held at Nov. 9-11 at the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. The conference agenda is nearly complete and attendees may now register for the event.

As it has in the past, Carbon Fiber features a half-day pre-conference seminar on Nov. 9, followed by the conference itself Nov. 10-11. The pre-conference seminar includes Carbon Fiber's popular and authoritative annual global outlook for carbon fiber supply and demand, presented by Chris Red, principal of Composites Forecasts and Consulting LLC (Mesa, Arizona). 

The conference agenda is available here and includes presentations from:

• A. Schulman Inc.
• Abaris Training Resources
• Advanced Carbon Products
• Aerolytics LLC
• Bell Helicopters
• Carbures
• Core Composites
• Dow Automotive Systems
• FIDAMC - Airbus Group Innovations
• FILL Gesellschaft
• Future Materials Group​
• Harper International
• HITCO Carbon Composites
• Impossible Objects LLC
• Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI)
• ITKE - Institute of Building Structures & Structural Design - Univ. of Stuttgart
• Izumi International Inc.
• Magna International Inc.
• Mitsubishi Rayon Co. Ltd.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Plataine
• Southern Research
• U.S. Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center

Also included this year are two panels. One, on carbon fiber recycling technologies and market development, features Carbon Conversions, Composite Recycling Technology Center, ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd. and Vartega Carbon Fiber Recyclers LLC. The second panel, on the application of new tools and technologies in carbon fiber composites manufacturing, features Assembly Guidance, DARPA, HITCO Carbon Composites, Plataine and Bell-Boeing.

The keynote presentation, to be given by Dale Brosius, chief commercialization officer at IACMI, is titled, "An integrated Approach to Achieving Widespread Adoption of CFRP in Automotive." Brosius notes that the “holy grail” of the carbon fiber industry has long been achieving significant penetration of the automotive industry. The impediments of fiber cost and the need for more confidence in predicting structural and crash behavior are well known. Even as these are being addressed by IACMI, it is improved manufacturing technology – reduced cycle times, reduced waste and scrap, improved reliability, increased automation and scalability to large parts and high-rate production – that will finally enable automakers to embrace CFRP as a mainstream option for lowering vehicle weight. Developing processes to achieve production rates in excess of 100,000 parts per year, and more, demonstrating these at the scope and scale that OEMs and the Tier 1 community require, demand significant investment in machinery and tooling, preferably in an “open access” facility. IACMI is investing in large-scale manufacturing equipment, able to demonstrate prepreg stamping, high-pressure RTM and wet pressing of parts as large as a full-sized van roof and floor panels, as well as structural injection overmolding of integrated composite tailgates for SUVs. The molding equipment will be supported by various technologies to enable rapid, low-waste fiber orientation, loading and unloading automation, in-line NDE and multi-material joining for the vehicles of the future. 

Carbon Fiber 2016 co-chairs are Andreas Wüllner, chairman of business unit, Composites – Fibers and Materials (CFM) at SGL Group & managing director of SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers; and Arnt Offringa, director R&D, Fokker Technologies. 

Carbon Fiber 2016 sponsors are Harper International, Toho Tenax America Inc., Izumi International, Kamitsu and A&P Technology.