Goodbye CT, hello CW

You are reading the very last editorial I will ever write for Composites Technology magazine that will ever be published. But that is not bad news. It’s good news. Let me explain.

CT, as you may know, is one of two magazines we have published over the past two decades for designers, fabricators and other professionals in the composites industry. CT has focused on the use of polymers reinforced primarily with glass and plant-derived fibers in continuous and discontinuous forms in automotive, marine, industrial, consumer and similar applications. CT’s sister publication, High-Performance Composites (HPC), has focused primarily on the use of continuous carbon fiber and other advanced fiber-reinforced polymers in the aerospace industry and other high-performance applications. Each magazine has been published bi-monthly in alternating months.

I noted here a few months ago that for most of their history, publishing two magazines, one for “advanced” composites professionals and the other for those involved in “industrial” composites, made sense and was very manageable. Over the past few years, however, as the composites industry has evolved to expand fiber and resin integration across multiple and diverse end-markets and applications, the line that separated HPC and CT has gotten increasingly fuzzy. Finally, that fuzziness has forced us into a new business and editorial paradigm. 

And that’s the good news: Starting in January 2015, CT and HPC will be consolidated to create one new monthly publication, called CompositesWorld (CW). As this consolidation implies, CW’s editorial content will focus on use of all fibers and resins in all end-markets and applications throughout the world. In short, we are growing and changing with the industry we serve.

What does this mean to you, the reader? On that subject, the news is even better. The same great content you’ve come to know and trust remains, but now it will come to you every month. In addition, familiar features — Inside Manufacturing, Focus on Design, Work in Progress, Plant Tours and more — remain as well. And CW will continue to focus on the automotive, marine, wind, industrial and related applications that have always been the hallmark of CT. But in addition, you will now enjoy our coverage of composite materials and processes employed in end-markets for which there seldom was room in CT, including aerospace and high-performance automotive.

The new magazine has acquired a new name because we want to emphasize its role as your window into the whole world of composites innovation. And that gave us just the excuse we needed to design a new logo (above) and a new look — for that, you will have to wait until the inaugural issue of CW arrives in your mailbox in January 2015. 

It is not without a tinge of regret that we say goodbye to a longtime friend with the discontinuation of CT, but we are excited about the launch of CompositesWorld, and we’re confident that you will find its expanded focus and global perspective a key component of your continuing education program in the ever-expanding, ever-evolving composites industry.

Thanks for loyally reading CT, enjoy reading CW and, as always, let me know how we can serve your composites information needs most effectively.