Composites industry leaders recognized at SME's AeroDef 2019

SME (Dearborn, Mich.,  U.S.), an association supporting the manufacturing industry, along with its Composites Manufacturing Tech Group, recently recognized an industry leader and two prominent composites manufacturing companies with the 2019 Composites Manufacturing Awards during the AeroDef 2019 conference in Long Beach, Calif., U.S.

2019 J.H. “Jud” Hall Composites Manufacturing Award

First awarded in 1986, the J.H. “Jud” Hall Composites Manufacturing Award celebrates individuals for innovation and achievement.

Douglas D. Decker, technical fellow, Northrop Grumman Corp. (Falls Church, Va., U.S.), is the recipient of the 2019 J.H. “Jud” Hall Award. He was recognized for his distinguished career in aerospace spanning over 35 years. Decker currently leads the Northrop Grumman Enterprise composites team, which is charged with developing and demonstrating a new approach to the design, fabrication and assembly of composite aircraft structures that the company claims could potentially reduce nonrecurring tooling costs by up to 80%.

“Collaboration between our government, industry and research institutions will increase our global manufacturing competitiveness in the rapidly growing use of advanced composites,” says Decker. “We must remain committed to strengthening industry integration, while focusing on developing lower-cost, higher-speed and more-efficient manufacturing processes for advanced composite materials.”

Decker works closely with the academic community in advanced composite materials and process improvements and is currently serving as an industry intermediary between the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.), California State University Long Beach (Long Beach, Calif., U.S.) and Cerritos Community College (Norwalk, Calif., U.S.) in obtaining training resources and support from composite material suppliers.

2019 Excellence in Composites Manufacturing Award (Small and Large Company)

MTorres (Navarra, Spain) was recognized with the 2019 Excellence in Composites Manufacturing Award (Small Company) for its distinction in the field of advanced composites manufacturing. For over two decades, the company has been a preferred supplier of composite manufacturing tooling, automation and equipment to the world’s leading commercial and military aircraft and wind-turbine-blade manufacturers. MTorres’ composites manufacturing and assembly technologies are used globally to produce over 20 commercial aircrafts, eight military aircrafts and seven helicopters, including a system used in the production of the composites-horizontal-stabilizer components for the 787-9 Dreamliner.

Northrop Grumman was recognized with the 2019 Excellence in Composites Manufacturing Award (Large Company) for its distinction in the field of advanced composites manufacturing. Northrop’s advanced manufacturing composites aerospace and space composites portfolio has been expanded to include the latest breakout technologies that are changing the very basis of composites manufacturing to include large- structure, adhesive-bonded, out-of-autoclave aerostructures.