August 23, 2019
IACMI – The Composites Institute in partnership with Composites One and the Closed Mold Alliance welcomed nearly 100 attendees to the composites training workshop, Road to Innovation, at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) in Greenville, South Carolina.
Steve Potts, CEO of Scout Boats Inc. shared the experiences of Scout’s road to innovation – starting from persevering through two natural disasters in 1989 to now having 335,000-sqft facilities and 500 employees.
Road to Innovation centered on composites materials and processes used in automotive manufacturing complementing the world-class automotive capabilities of CU-ICAR. Demonstrations included those by Bossard on bonded and crimped insert technology, and presentations on reducing noise vibration in composite structures by Countervail Products, LLC. The keynote speaker was Steve Potts, CEO of Scout Boats, who spoke about the company’s expansion since beginning in 1989 and adopting best-in-class composites processes. Attendees from the workshop were from companies spanning from Amazon, Collins Aerospace, GE, Lockheed Martin, and Proterra.
Through the Road to Innovation, IACMI joins the growing composites industry in South Carolina. “I am delighted to see the growth in composites in the region, and to continue to witness the expansion of manufacturing in South Carolina,” said Prof. Mark Johnson, Director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at Clemson University. “Clemson continues to drive innovation in partnership with manufacturers across SC, and through institutes like IACMI across the nation. I am delighted to have been a part of IACMI’s founding and continue to see how the institute – and the Clemson’s Composites Center at CU-ICAR – drives the industry’s adoption of the most modern composites processes.”
Chris Duer (Axiom Materials) and Ian Noble (McClarin Plastics) participated in the workshop.
IACMI continues to support its workforce development mission by co-hosting the 15th workshop in the series, since Composites One and IACMI partnered in 2016. Through these workshops, the institutes have helped train than 2,000 industry professionals at various stages in adoption of composite materials.
To learn more about the next composite training workshop at Davis Technical College in Kaysville, Utah November 6 – 8, visit iacmi.org/closed-mold-alliance.