CAMX, North America’s largest event dedicated to composites and advanced materials, celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year. Brought to you by the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA, Arlington, Va., U.S.) and The Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE, Diamond Bar, Calif., U.S.), CAMX 2024 takes place Sept. 9-12 in San Diego, California.

In this episode, CW Talks caught up with Cindy Squires, the president and CEO of ACMA, and Rebekah Stacha, the CEO of SAMPE, to talk about how CAMX has evolved over the past decade, the important trends in the industry and what’s in store for this year’s attendees.

Read an excerpt from CW Talks Episode 46 below:

CW: So this is the 10^th anniversary of CAMX. Can you talk about what this milestone means and so um both for the show as well as the industry that it serves?

Rebekah Stacha (RS): It’s really incredible that it has already been 10 years. I think that was really kind of surprising and in a pleasing way to learn. It’s amazing how CAMX has grown since 2014, and it’s really become a key part of the composites and advanced materials industry for us in the U.S. The tenure is a real milestone, and I think it’s important that we show how CAMX is bringing everyone together to share those ideas, build those partnerships, make those connections that further not only the business, but the industry itself.

Cindy Squires (CS): Absolutely, and you know, I think that CAMX has become the go-to place for composites in North America. This is where companies are showcasing their innovations. I think it helps not just the engineering staff [of a company], but also that of the floor manager of that manufacturing process. We’re providing content that's really for both sides of that, as well as for those OEMs who are trying to figure out how to integrate composites into their products. We’re very excited about it. I think we’re seeing more products being launched, and we’re seeing more innovation in technology, and I think it reflects how composites are becoming more and more important to a host of industries.

CW: You mention this being a milestone — 10 years. When we look at back at where we were 10 years ago, and the way the industry has evolved, I’m wondering if you could offer some insights into what you’ve seen as CAMX has been out there [in the industry] and what may have been on the minds of some of the attendees back in 2014, versus what they’re looking at now. What really stands out to you?

CS: I think the big difference that we’re seeing is the focus on sustainability. And it comes not only from the sustainability of the composites themselves, but really the role that composites play in ensuring that other products and other processes can be sustainable. It’s quite interesting how that’s played out. Ten years ago, 14 years ago even, is when we had our first life cycle inventory done, and now those are being updated. We now have quite a lot of work being done to help the manufacturers develop environmental product declarations, life cycle inventories and developing new recycling technologies.

And we’ve got new resin systems that are coming out, natural fibers, biocomposites. All of those things are really to feed some of the industries that are looking for it. We’ve definitely, I think, penetrated much more in aerospace. And now we’re seeing construction and infrastructure become a new industry that’s taken off. So, lots of new possibilities that I don’t think we could have imagined to be as open as they are now, but we’re also really leading the charge and being able to prove the point that composites really are the sustainable material preference.

For us, some of the work that we’ve been trying to do and trying to showcase as part of CAMX is telling the story about composites and really developing those datasets. You [CW] talked about lightweighting and I think Rebecca can speak more about some of the innovations that have happened in the aerospace industry and just the manufacturing process and all the hard work that goes into certifying the resin systems for that that space, and that’s much more an area where SAMPE excels. But looking at it from the perspective of just telling the story and making sure we’ve got that data set. We recently worked with West Virginia University to figure out how you could actually compare a traditional material with a composite and do a life cycle and look at that comparison difference. And we’re doing that hard work now and the data is looking great.