Aug 1 2012
Composites are the trend in lightweight construction and well on their way to go into mass production, as will be demonstrated at COMPOSITES EUROPE 2012 in Düsseldorf from 9 to 11 October.
Together with the ALUMINIUM trade fair held in parallel, it constitutes the most important summit meeting of the year for the international lightweight construction sector: 1,300 exhibitors from more than 50 countries will present materials, key technologies and applications for the major lightweight construction markets at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre.
At COMPOSITES EUROPE, about 400 exhibitors - from raw materials producers to suppliers, processors and technology providers through to service providers - display the complete range of composites. The optimism reigning in the composites industry is obvious from one look into the trade fair halls: COMPOSITES EUROPE 2012 starts out with new records in exhibitor numbers (+10%) and exhibition area (+20%).
The leading manufacturers and technology specialists such as Huntsman, Johns Manville, KrausMaffei, Lange+Ritter, Dieffenbacher, Weiss Chemie or Cam Elyaf will again take part. For the first time BASF, Polytec EMC or Mikado Smart Engineering will present themselves at COMPOSITES EUROPE. They display the complete composites process chain - from raw materials to semi-finished products and processing through to the latest technologies, machinery and services.
Spotlight on automation and mass production
Central topics at this year's fair are automation and mass production of composites. Especially the subject of CRP will be covered almost completely by COMPOSITES EUROPE. In SGL Carbon, Toho Tenax, Mitsubishi Rayon, Toray and Zoltek, the five largest CRP producers will present themselves in Düsseldorf. With the competence networks CFK Valley Stade - taking part with its own joint stand at the fair for the first time this year - and Carbon Composites e.V. (CCeV), the trade fair also brings together the leading clusters in the field of CRP technology.
Supporting programme: Materials trends and process innovations
The COMPOSITES supporting programme ranges from the International AVK Conference to the Composites Forum right through the Product Demonstration Area. Here specialists from the practical field and from science give an overview of the trends in the market for composites. Manufacturing processes and automation solutions are topical questions.
International AVK Conference as prelude
With more than 350 expected participants, the International Conference of the AVK - Industrievereinigung faserverstärkte Kunststoffe e.V. (industrial association for fibre-reinforced plastics) will again be the prelude of the trade fair in 2012. From 8 to 9 October, top specialists will speak at the CCD Congress Center Düsseldorf on areas of application of fibre-reinforced plastics. Conference topics will be the GRP and CFP market and its environment, as well as recent developments in mass production or solutions for joining and bonding, repairs and simulations.
VDMA Forum Composite Technology is the new partner of the fair
Since the beginning of the trade fair, the European industry association EuCIA has been the partner of COMPOSITES EUROPE. In 2011 the trade fair succeeded in winning the world's largest industry association, the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA), as a second partner. Starting in 2012, the VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V.) with its Forum Composite Technology will also support the event. The VDMA will contribute its own lectures to the programme of the Composites Forum which accompanies the fair.
The highlight for visitors: the Product Demonstration Area
From cutting and bonding technology to RTM live demonstrations - every year, the Product Demonstration Area is one of the crowd pullers at the fair. The special display organised in cooperation with the Institute of Plastics Processing (Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung - IKV) at RWTH Aachen university and the AVK offers visitors a close-up on high-tech products, demonstrations of production processes, raw materials as well as a variety of testing procedures for composites products.
Recruiting Area
Demand for specialised personnel is very high also in the composites industry. In the Recruiting Area, international companies meet students, graduates and young professionals. The special area offers job seekers the opportunity to have their application dossiers reviewed and get useful information for planning their careers. At the same time, companies get the chance to present themselves as an attractive employer and to recruit specialised staff. The Recruiting Area is organised in cooperation with Kaiser Stähler Rekrutierungsberatung GmbH.