JEC/SAMPE Europe 2004 mirrors the composites community&'s global expansion

Planet Innovation. That's the theme of the 39th JEC Composites Show (March 30-April 1), colocated with the 25th SAMPE Europe International Conference at the Paris Expo, in Porte de Versailles, Paris, France. JEC hopes to attract crowds as large as those attending last year's record-setting event. More than 20,900 people walked the 30,000m²/323,000 ft² exhibition floor in 2003, with 57 percent coming from outside France. This year, the JEC reports that visitors will meet more than 800 exhibiting companies, at least 60 of which are new to the show.

Of special interest to CT readers, JEC's Automotive Forum (Tuesday, March 30) will feature a key presentation by DaimlerChrysler on its vision for composites use in future models, plus composites case studies presented by a number of automakers, including Aston Martin, Ford, Rover MG and Renault. On Thursday, April 1, the Marine Forum will focus, in part, on technology transfers from military and competitive arenas to wider commercial applications. Boatbuilders and shipwrights Trimaran Groupama, Onuk, Numarine, Kockums and Seaway will present lectures about recent cutting-edge composite applications.

The 7th Annual JEC Awards program will recognize successful development of innovative composites applications and the materials supplier/molder/customer partnerships behind them in the following five categories: Air Transport, Construction, Land Transport, Energy & Industry, and Design. Nominees include an assortment of international development groups, whose participants range from small companies to multinational corporations. The most remarkable example is a Land Transport entry, the Hycoprod Project, coordinated by the U.K.'s Advanced Railway Research Centre and involving 19 partners from 11 countries. Nominees also include companies from India, Latvia, Slovenia, and an entrant from "down under" in Australia.

SAMPE Sets Sights on Automotive/Infrastructure/Marine

Traditionally focused on advanced composites and aerospace applications, SAMPE Europe's 2004 Conference nevertheless has plenty to offer CT readers under this year's banner, "Material & Process Technology, the Driver for Tomorrow's Improved Performance." Tuesday's Marine/Infrastructure Session, for instance, will feature a case study on the design and fabrication of the superstructure for a composite hovercraft, plus a discussion of the use of "smart" sensors used to monitor, in real-time, the integrity of composite boat structures. A second Infrastructure session, the following day, will explore the use of fiber-reinforced plastics in bridge projects in the state of Kentucky (U.S.A.), provide an overview of non-pultruded bridge structures, and consider composite reinforcement of concrete structures. For the latest advances in "Technologies for Carbon Fibre Reinforced Modular Automotive Body Structures (TECABS)," there's the Wednesday Automotive Session, which also will include case studies on bladder molding for structural auto parts and a manufacturing cost comparison of thermoplastic and thermoset resin transfer molding processes for a floor pan application.

Information and registration: For the SAMPE Europe Conference, visit the SAMPE Web site: www.SAMPE-Europe.org. For the JEC Composites Show, or to register, call JEC at: +33 158 3615 03, or fax: +33 158 3615 13; visitors@jeccomposites.com; Web site: www.jeccomposites.com

List of exhibitors and booth locations