JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #110 - January/February 2017 - 12

NEWS startup competition
(p10/...) users and are leveraged through their partners
(Patagonia, Surfstitch, Surfrider
Foundation, and 1% for the
Planet) and the growing wholesale client base. This way, they
can additionally access an estimated consumer base of 15M.
Ocean-recycled lifestyle prod-

ucts (e.g. frisbees) open up
much broader markets globally. Their co-branding business
builds upon a $75.6 Bn industry
(US only) for promotional products on the B2B and B2C levels.
In most countries, for instance
in Europe, governments actively subsidise sustainable initia-

tives, mainly via high tax deductions. This makes the company's
service to provide substitute recycled materials a perfect opportunity for established OEMs to
cut their costs and improve their
public image. In terms of competition, Parley is currently the
most prominent organisation to

facilitate collaborations regarding ocean waste, however they
do not offer any technical solutions or actual products. Bureo
produces skateboards from recycled ocean waste, but is only acting on a small industrial scale.

AirGo Design

Potential market: Economy-class
passengers account for 94% of all
airline traffic and seat discomfort
is the number one complaint passengers have globally. Research
shows that travellers are willing
to pay considerably more for their
travel comfort (as much as 150200 USD for long-haul flights).
Today's load factors have increased to over 80%. At the same
time, economy seat comfort has
increasingly suffered. Airline profitability has been low over the
years, which encourages airlines
to offer only services that maximize their short-term profitability.
AirGo Design's three main competitors - Recaro, Zodiac and
B/E Aerospace - are established
operations with long-term legacy
commitments and small appetite
for risk. AirGo's competitive advantage is what redefines passenger experience in economy class
by introducing high-tech materials and a ground-breaking design that enable a whole new level of comfort thanks to enhanced
ergonomics, while improving airline profitability through weight
reduction.

Tnk Co.

sons, it has very good geometric
flexibility and can be adapted to
many applications.
Tnk already registered a domestic patent and PCT for business
protection.

The product: AirGo seats benefit
from state-of-the-art composite
materials to save airlines worldwide billions of dollars in fuel annually. Lighter seats also offer a
significant reduction in carbon
emissions and potentially larger profits from cargo transportation. The company's award-winning design uses 3D scanning
technologies to offer unparalleled
living space and comfort for the
same area, up to 10 cm more legroom and 4 cm wider backrests.
This approach is a paradigm shift
in an industry that has largely remained unchanged for the past
60 years or so.
AirGo's extensive IP portfolio includes two clusters of pending
patents (already passed PCT)
along with another eight upcoming US patents in 2017.
Beside patents, developing the
world's first fully composite seat
has made the company work
closely with regulatory bodies
to develop proprietary protocols with approved testing facilities that would take competitors
years to achieve.

Conventional heating mats are
usually made of copper wire,
and the heating element and
cover fabrics are separate. They
need some cushioning to prevent the inconvenience due to
the wire shape. Moreover, they
are not flexible, they require a lot
of space for storage, and they are
not easy to wash.
Tnk Co.'s fabric is a plane-shape,
very flexible heater that retains its heating function when
wrinkled, folded, etc. and does
not need any cushioning. This
makes the product very thin and
light, and thus very easy to move
and store. Furthermore, it is waterproof and very easy to wash.
This heating fabric can also be
knitted and sewn. For these rea-

More information:
www.airgodesign.com

New ecological
seat construction with little
maintenance

The product: The product is a
flexible heating fabric where the
heating element is bonded on
the cover fabrics instead of being
separated.

This system can be
applied for
glove, shoes,
cloths and
seat fabric

jec composites magazine / No110 January - February 2017

More information:
www.five-oceans.com

Potential market: The global market for heating elements
is huge. The Korean market for
heating products is over 440 million dollars. Globally, the market
will be over 10 times the Korean
market.
Tnk Co.'s product will be especially convenient in cold locations and in winter, instead of
conventional heating systems.
This product is a huge innovation in this market, and it will
change heating cultures. It is a
world first, with no competitors
yet. So, if the company gets established on the heating market,
it can grow to over 500 million
dollar in sales.
More information:
www.tnkcarbon.com

http://www.five-oceans.com http://www.tnkcarbon.com http://www.airgodesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #110 - January/February 2017