JEC 2017 – Aiming for Industrialization
The exhibit floor in Paris reflected composites’ move toward high-rate and high-volume production.
#hprtm #boeing #layup
For me, the major themes at JEC were industrialization, thermoplastics and a dramatic increase in technologies and touted capability for Industry 4.0 production. Though I expect to blog more fully and/or publish print articles about the following companies in the near future, here is my tour of highlights from the 2017 JEC World exhibit floor:
Automated Preforming at 10-15 seconds per layer
I first encountered FILL Machine Engineering (Gurten, Austria) when touring nearby FACC (Ried im Innkreis, see my 2014 article). When I asked who supplied all of the automated NDT systems for composites, my tour guide answered, “You don’t know FILL?” I do now. FILL is a family-owned company with 715 employees, a turnover of app. 145 million € and additional facilities in Shanghai, China and Puebla, Mexico. It designs and supplies automated systems for production in metals, wood and plastics, the latter including industrial-scale production lines for composites, polyurethane and particle foam. In composites, FILL has produced units for handling of reinforcements and preforming, molding, machining and testing including NDT.