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July 26, 2019
Thank you to all of the IACMI members who attended the Summer 2019 Members Meeting in Denver, Colorado this week. There were more than 270 attendees to 
the conference, and we were honored to kick off the conference with welcome remarks by Colorado Governor Jared Polis and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Associate Laboratory Director for Mechanical and Thermal Engineering Sciences, Dr. Johney Green. Thank you to NREL and OEDIT for supporting IACMI and welcoming our community to Denver for the Members Meeting.
On Tuesday, we celebrated Vartega with the open house and ribbon cutting of its 10,000 sqft world headquarters and production facility. During the open house, attendees were able to tour Vartega’s new extrusion line for carbon fiber filled thermoplastics compounding, granulating equipment for thermoplastics recycling, and additive manufacturing materials development projects for the AMIDE Alliance. Vartega’s accomplishments since its founding in 2015 are astounding, and we are glad to be a part of their journey.
Also on Tuesday, we toured the NREL Flatirons Campus, which is home to the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) and IACMI’s wind technology area. IACMI’s Wind Technology Area Director, Derek Berry, his team, and Daniel Laird, Director of the Flatirons Campus, led tours throughout the facilities. Attendees were able to learn about the innovations in wind blade materials processes as well as validation measurements by watching fatigue testing of the 13-meter wind blade prototype.
Wednesday began with welcome remarks from Governor Polis, who discussed Colorado’s plan to be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2040. Polis spoke to the need to support advanced manufacturing careers, and how organizations – such as OEDIT – and companies – such as the IACMI industry members – create an environment that celebrates innovation and builds the necessary workforce.
In a continued effort to build the workforce necessary to meet the growing composite industry needs, we hosted the 42 IACMI interns this summer at the Members Meeting. The interns participated in professional development workshops, gave presentations on their research, and networked with attendees, building their professional connections. Thank you to the many mentors and hosts who have made the internship experiences valuable for these students.
Finally, we had technical presentations throughout the conference on topics including the compression molded liftgate prototype from Volkswagen, the vertical axis wind turbine blade prototype from Steelhead, and a panel on thermoplastic composites for wind turbine blades with TPI Composites, Arkema, Johns Manville, and NREL. Thank you to our many speakers who made this conference a success.
As we wrap up Members Meeting, please take a few moments to complete the post-event survey by visiting this link, and to submit your cost-share forms. Please check back to our website in the next couple of weeks for the publicly available presentation slides, and visit our Facebook page to view photos from the event.
We look forward to the next six months at IACMI until our next meeting in Dayton, Ohio in early 2020. Thank you all for your continued participation in IACMI and continued collaboration within our community. Through your innovations and workforce training, we are creating a strong leadership in the composites industry.
Sincerely,
The IACMI team
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Liftgate Compression Molding at IACMI SURF
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