JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #42 - July/August 2008 - 9

in partnership with JEC Composites E-letter Gurit signs 4-year supply agreement with EADS As announced on June 6, 2008, EADS and Airbus have signed a new 4-year cooperation agreement with Gurit covering the calendar years © EADS 2008 to 2011. Based on this contract, Gurit will supply a variety of materials for the complete range of Airbus aircraft models worth approximately CHF 200 million (€123 million). The shipments include growing volumes of materials for the Airbus A380 plane, for which a number of new Gurit materials were specifically qualified. The products will be manufactured by Gurit (Zullwil) AG in Switzerland, and Gurit (Kassel) GmbH in Germany. Together EADS and Airbus rank among the top three customers in the client portfolio of Gurit, a leading material supplier specializing in lightweight materials for aircraft interiors. www.gurit.com B787. Boeing Commercial Airplanes contracted Alenia as a Tier I supplier to build the aft fuselage and other sections of the B787 Dreamliner aircraft. www.sglcarbon.de SGL Group opens central technology and innovation centre SGL Group inaugurated its new Technology & Innovation Centre (T&I Centre) on May 28, 2008 in Meitingen, Germany. With this new opening, the company’s dispersive global research and development activities are combined under one roof in the Group’s largest site worldwide. The new central R&D centre offers space for up to 150 scientific jobs, out of which 15 new jobs are to be created for experts from external research institutes within joint projects. The total investment cost amounts to over €10 million. One of the main goals of these activities is to further enhance the carbon fibre technology and related applications. www.sglcarbon.de polymers in the course of the next few years. Following the installation of two new compounding lines towards the end of 2007, the company now has an annual production capacity of 50,000 metric tons (MT), of which 15,000 MT are reserved for special-purpose LFTs. Thus TechnoCompound has more than doubled its compounding capacity since splitting from PolymerChemie at the end of 2005. According to a current survey carried out by Townsend Polymer Services and Information, the market demand for rod-shaped LFT pellets totalled 60,000 MT in Europe in 2007 and is expected to grow to 100,000 MT by 2011. TechnoCompound’s share of the market in the region was of 6% last year and is set to increase to over 20% by 2011 – which corresponds to an annual growth rate of approximately 50%. www.technocompound.com The world’s largest offshore wind farm project Fluor Corporation has signed a contract with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) to design and construct the 500 MW Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm, as announced on May 14, 2008. The venture is the world's largest offshore wind farm project to move into the construction phase and will be built approximately 25 kilometres off the Suffolk coast in the United Kingdom (UK). The new award will be booked in the company’s second quarter of 2008 and is worth approximately $1.8 billion (£900 million). It will be the first UK offshore wind farm to be built outside territorial waters and will provide carbon-neutral, renewable electricity for more than 415,000 homes, equivalent to the approximate domestic demand of Suffolk. The project will feature 140 wind turbines each having a rated capacity of 3.6 MW. The turbines will be supplied by Siemens Wind Power A/S. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in 2011. www.fluor.com Citadel Plastics acquires BMC Inc. Bulk Molding Compounds, Incorporated (BMCI) has been acquired by Citadel Plastics Holdings, Incorporated (Citadel), as announced on June 5, 2008. Citadel is pursuing a strategy to build a global plastics compounding company with broad product and technology capabilities by acquiring strong companies with proven records of success in the moulded material markets. Citadel has now distinguished itself as the only firm in the world to deliver both thermoplastic and polyester thermoset (BMC) composites. www.bulkmolding.com Hitco to supply components for the B787 Hitco Carbon Composites recently signed a long-term agreement with Alenia Aeronautica to supply the trailing edge components for the Boeing 787 horizontal stabilizer. © BOEING TechnoCompound expands its production Compounding specialist TechnoCompound, Bad Sobernheim/ Germany, plans to further expand its production of long fibre reinforced thermoplastics (LFTs) and engineering The company will begin delivering flight hardware in the second quarter of 2008. In addition, Alenia has selected Hitco to supply a range of other composite components for the No42 July-August 2008 / JEC Composites Magazine

http://www.sglcarbon.de http://www.technocompound.com http://www.sglcarbon.de http://www.gurit.com http://www.bulkmolding.com http://www.fluor.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #42 - July/August 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #42 - July/August 2008