JEC Innovation Awards: A look at this year's winners

JEC World 2018 (Paris, France), the reference trade show organized by JEC Group, is in full swing and the focus is on innovation.

The JEC Innovation Awards ceremony, which took place on the Agora stage on March 7, opened with a presentation by Yves Rossy, aircraft pilot and inventor of the first jet-powered wingpack. Then the jury revealed the names of the composite champions up for a JEC Innovation Award. Eleven winning innovations were chosen, out of the thirty finalists that had been previously selected from more than 100 applications from all over the world.

The winners

Aerospace Application: AeroComposit, JSC (Russia) and its partner Solvay (United Kingdom) won for infusion technology for an aircraft wing. 

Aerospace Process: This category had two tied winners. Airbus (Germany) and its partners, BMW Group (Germany), Technical University of Munich (TUM) (Germany), Neue Materialien Bayreuth GmbH (Germany), Werkzeugbau Siegfried Hofmann GmbH (Germany), BASF SE (Germany), Foldcore GmbH (Germany), Neenah Filtration (Germany) and SGL Carbon GmbH (Germany) won for complex structural applications for MAI sandwich technology. M. Torres Diseños Industriales SAU (Spain) also won in this category for a moldless process to manufacture one-piece parts.

Automotive Application: Ford Werke GmbH (Germany) and its partners, Gestamp (United Kingdom), GRM Consulting (United Kingdom) and University of Warwick (United Kingdom) for lightweight composite automotive suspension part.

Automotive Process: Audi AG (Germany) and its partners, Voith Composites GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), Dow Automotive (Switzerland), and Zoltek Corp. (United States) for series production of a rear panel module made of carbon composite.

Construction & Infrastructure: Komatsu Seiren Co., Ltd. (Japan) and its partners, Kanazawa Institute of Technology (Japan) and Nagase ChemteX Corporation (Japan) for cabkoma cable made of CFRTP.

Marine: Uljanik JSC (Croatia) for composite cargo decks for a vehicle carrier. Core materials for this project were supplied by Diab (Sweden).

Railway: ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd. (United Kingdom) and its partners, Alstom Transport (United Kingdom), Magma Structures (United Kingdom), the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom), and the University of Huddersfield (United Kingdom) for a bogie frame made of optimized lightweight carbon fiber

Sports & Leisure: BMW Group (Germany) and its partners EDAG Engineering GmbH (Germany), KraussMaffei Technologies GmbH (Germany), Chr. Karl Siebenwurst GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), TUM-LCC (Germany), Automation W + R GmbH (Germany), and FHG-IGCV (Germany) for modular construction system for the rear swing arm suspension of a motorcycle.

Smart Cities: MC Materiales Compuestos (Argentina) and its partners, Plaquimet (Argentina), Purcom (Brazil), IS Groupe - Composite Integrity (France), and G12 Innovation (Brazil) for The Wet Core Pod composite housing module

Sustainable Development: Cetim-Cermat (France) and its partner, CETIM (France) for “3-in-1” line for producing recycled composites.

“JEC Group supports innovation. In 1998, it created the first award dedicated to composites, as a way to promote and reward the sector’s champions. Thanks to the work of JEC Group’s teams, the program has become an international benchmark,” says JEC group president & CEO Frédérique Mutel, “Each year, we receive more than a hundred applications from all over the world. Selection is now based on criteria like the level of involvement of the innovation’s partners in the value chain, the technical nature of the innovation, or its commercial applications.”