The power of partnership was undeniable during the second day at CAMX. IACMI and the Closed Mold Alliance, including Magnum Venus Products and Composites One, stole the show during a live press collaboration announcement. The partnership will initiate four schools in 2016 focused on advanced processing and closed mold materials. The training sessions will cover topics relating to advanced materials, wind energy, and automotive market advances in composites, and are being led by Oak Ridge National Lab, The National Renewable Energy Lab, Purdue University, and Michigan State University.
As industry experts combine their recourses, everyone is looking to the future. During IACMI’s morning session, CEO Craig Blue laid out three clear goals: to significantly lower carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) cost by 25-50%; reduce CFRP embodied energy by 50-75%, and reach 80-95% composite recyclability in useful products. All of these goals require one thing, cost effective carbon fiber. The key according to Lonnie Love, Corporate Fellow at Oak Ridge National Lab, lies in finding fundamental improvement in processing costs.
The process improvement, partnership and workforce development conversations continued during an afternoon session on Manufacturing Institutes. Institute leaders explained the current manufacturing impact of material joining, cross cut technologies and accelerating technologies and why it matters in the industry today. Larry Brown, LIFT Executive Director, described material use as a parallel between the metal and composite industries. “While metals have been around since the stone-age, what’s new is the material use and how we’re innovating manufacturing,” said Brown. He added perspective on workforce development innovation tools such as LIFT’s “K to Gray curriculum” that are creatively and effectively changing the manufacturing workforce. All institute leaders reinforced the value of collaborating with industry partners to create a rich manufacturing base of cross-pollination learnings.
The IACMI team will see you at #CAMX15 on Thursday. Come say hello to the IACMI- The Composites Institute team in booth E-119. Keep in touch. Click here to sign up for the IACMI newsletter.