SPE ACCE 2024 highlights innovation across industry, academia

The SPE Automotive Composites Conference & Expo (ACCE) event was held Sept. 4-6, 2024, at the Suburban Collection Showplace Diamond Banquet and Conference Center in Novi, Michigan. It was the 24^th annual SPE ACCE produced by the SPE Automotive and Composites Divisions, attended by exhibitors/sponsors and visitors representing OEMs, Tier suppliers, academia and other composites industry professionals.  

“Globally, the SPE ACCE event always brings together the ‘best of the best’ from academia and industry,” says Peter McCormack, North American sales manager, Dieffenbacher. “For a few short days, this exchange is an invaluable arena for the composites sector.”

ACCE leadership and summary 

“The 2024 ACCE attracted many long-time attendees and newcomers excited to drive innovation in composites for the future of transportation,” says Dr. David Jack, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Baylor University and ACCE 2024 co-chair. “This year, because composites are the key to numerous mobility applications (beyond the road and moving into the air), our theme expanded to reflect composites as essential to ‘The Future of Transportation - Mobility and Beyond.’”

“Composites are the most versatile, lightweight and strongest materials for design freedom and multifunctionality, and due to recent advances in processing and manufacturing, their use has extended to numerous innovative applications,” notes Dr. Mike Siwajek, VP of R&D at Teijin Automotive Technologies. 

A number of composite leaders from industry and academia provided additional direction and support for the event. The technical program included 72 presentations and was led by Dr. Mehdi Tajvidi, professor of renewable nanomaterials, School of Forest Resources, Advanced Structures and Composites Center and Forest Bioproducts Institute at University of Maine, and Dr. Dominik Dörr, co-founder and managing director of Simutence. Additional support was provided from Jitesh Desai, program treasurer, SPE Automotive Division.

Dr. Leonardo Simon, professor at the University of Waterloo, led the ACCE Parts Competition that included four nominations. Dr. Douglas Smith, professor at Baylor University, chair of student engagement, led the Student Poster Competition, including 28 presentations with sponsorship support provided by Dassault Systèmes. This year’s event also incorporated 5-minute presentations with all student posters. Teri Chouinard, president of Intuit Group, provided leadership as ACCE sponsorship chair with 43 sponsorships and 29 exhibits and provided admin support for the technical program and event management overall. 

Keynotes presented at the ACCE 2024 event included:

• “Beyond Carbon-Neutral Mobility-Sustainability in the Volkswagen Group Innovation,” by Dr. Hendrik Mainka, principal program lead Innovation Hub Knoxville, Volkswagen Group of America Inc.
• “High Performance Composites: Trends and Impact on Automotive Lightweighting,” by Andrew N. Hrymak, co-director of the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Composites Research at Western University and professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
• “Innovation to Impact: Advancing Transportation Through The Intersection of Sustainability and Polymer Composite Technology,” by Amanda Nummy, senior materials engineer, sustainable materials at Hyundai America Technical Center
• “50 Years of Innovation at the University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials,” by Dr. Srikanth Pilla, professor and director of the University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials (UD-CCM). 

A panel discussion on sustainability and end of vehicle life, “Breaking Down the Barriers to a Circular Automotive Economy,” was moderated by Adam Halsband, managing director at Forward Engineering North America. Panelists included Dr. Hendrik Mainka, senior project lead and head of Innovation Hub Knoxville at Volkswagen of America; Dr. David L. Wagger, chief scientist/director of environmental management at Recycled Materials Association (ReMA); Brad Allen, OEM automotive account manager at Rebuilders Automotive Supply (RAS); and Marco Meloni, COO at Plastics Recycling Inc. (PRI). Each panelist provided valuable insights and solutions for composites compatibility in a circular and sustainable system.    

Best Paper Awards 

Excellence in technical writing is recognized annually at ACCE by honoring those who have presented exceptional papers at the conference. The 2024 Best Paper Award winners received the highest average ratings by conference peer reviewers, including members of the ACCE planning committee and other industry experts. First, second and third place winners were recognized and honored at the event in the “Best Paper Award” competition. 

Tanzila Minhaj, North Carolina A&T State University, won the Best Paper Award for her paper, “Assessment of Damage Evolution in Thermoplastic Composite Using Acoustic Emission and CNN-LSTM Mode.” Second place recognition was awarded to Rachel Van Lear, PhD student at Baylor University, for her paper, “Sound Predictions: Correlating Impact Damage to Laminate Compressive Strength With Phased Array UT.” Third place recognition was awarded to Dr. Martin Hohberg, Simutence GmbH, for his paper on “Using Thermokinetic Analyses for the Efficient and Accurate Optimization of Composites Molding.” 

At the conference, the authors received certificates, and their papers were highlighted in the ACCE program schedule. Their papers are also being published in the SPE Automotive and Composites Division newsletters and other industry publications. 

Student Poster Competition: 

Students from the U.S. and Canada featured innovative research related to polymer composite materials and manufacturing technologies for automotive applications via the annual ACCE Poster Competition. This yearly event enables students to meet with industry professionals and learn about career opportunities as a scientist, engineer, researcher and other professions in the field. The 2024 ACCE Student Poster Competition, sponsored by Dassault Systèmes, included 28 posters from six different universities. This year’s winners are:  

Graduate Category: 

First place: “Hybrid Carbon/Metal Composites for Lightning Strike Protection in Advanced Air Mobility Vehicles,” by Hridyesh Tewani, University of Wisconsin – Madison.  

Second place: “Sound Predictions: Correlating Impact Damage to Laminate Compressive Strength with PAUT,” by Rachel Van Lear, Baylor University.

Third place: “Simulating the Effect of Bead Microstructure on Thermal-Mechanical Response in Multi-Bead Structures for Large Area Additive Manufacturing of Short Carbon Fiber/ABS,” by Neshat Sayah, Baylor University.

Undergraduate Category: 

First place: “AI-Driven Sustainable Fused Deposition Modeling of Sustainable Composite For Automotive Applications: A Bayesian Optimization Approach,” by Philip McMorran, University of Guelph. 

Second place: “Effects of Repetitive Recycling on the Performance of Sustainable Biocarbon Polypropylene Composites,” by Sarah Simoes, University of Guelph. 

Third place: “Effect of Blend Ratio and Compatibilizer on rPP/rLLDPE Sustainable Miscanthus Biocarbon Reinforced Composite,” by Cameron Marquez, University of Guelph. 

Scholarship Awards: 

The organizing committee for the SPE ACCE honored the winners of the group’s annual scholarships and the Dr. Jackie Rehkopf scholarships, which stem from a fund that has been set up to honor the long-time SPE ACCE committee member, SPE Automotive Division board member and automotive composites researcher. ACCE scholarship winners plan to present the results of their research at next year’s SPE ACCE event, Sept. 3-5, 2025. Rehkopf scholarship winners will present the results of their research at next year’s SPE ACCE or publish them in an SPE journal. Both scholarships are administered as part of the SPE Foundation. 

The ACCE Scholarships are sponsored by the SPE Automotive and SPE Composites Divisions. Five ACCE Scholarships are awarded to students pursuing advanced studies in a composites-related field. The Dr. Jackie Rehkopf scholarships are sponsored by the SPE Automotive Division, the SPE Composites Division and the donations of friends and family. Award winners are announced here.

Part Competition 

The ACCE Part Competition was led by Dr. Leonardo Simon from the University of Waterloo, who previously served as the 2021, 2022 and 2023 ACCE co-chair. A panel of automotive composites industry experts, spanning industry and academia, studied the four nominations that were submitted in advance of the event and reviewed the parts on-site.

Nominations were judged on the impact and trendsetting nature of the application, including materials of construction, processing methods, assembly methods and other enabling technologies that made the application possible. Nominations emphasized the benefits of design, weight and cost reduction, functional integration and improved performance. A separate prize, the People’s Choice award, was selected by vote of conference attendees. 

The announced winners are as follows: 

• “Most Innovative Part in the Process Innovation - Prototype Part Category”: Cost-effective lightweight vehicle body structures nominated by Weav3D with support from Braskem.
• “Most Innovative Part in the Process Innovation – Production Part Category”: Largest known injection molded polyamide hydraulic tank, an alternative technique to rotomolding for a 2024MY Compact Excavator (utility/construction vehicle), nominated by BASF Corp. with support from Bemis.
• People’s Choice Award: Continuous fiber thermoplastic sandwich structure for next-generation Toyota Tacoma service hole cover. This was a “Process Innovation – Prototype Part Category” nominated by Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Composites Research at Western University with support from Simutence and Aerlyte. 
• Honorable Mention for the “Process Innovation – Production Part Category”: Toyota Tacoma second-row optimized seat structure, nominated by BASF Corp. with support from USF US Farathane. 

 “All of the plastic and composite parts showcased at 2024 ACCE demonstrated innovation in numerous ways, reflecting the growth we strive for in our industry,” says Ankur Bhosale, senior principal engineer of engineering plastics at BASF Corp. “The 2024 ACCE offered invaluable insights and remains the premier event where we all can learn from each other and elevate our plastics industry to new heights.”