JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report - 17

Paris, France
March 6-7-8, 2018

Competition

JEC World Innovation Awards Finalists
JEC Group is glad to present the new format of its prestigious JEC Innovation
Awards competition. The name of the 30 finalists, divided into ten categories, was announced on 31 January. A jury of renowned experts will then
select one winner per category and the ten winners will be unveiled in a
ceremony that will take place on 7 March 2018 at JEC World 2018.

A

s is the case every year, we received hundreds of applications. This success truly
shows that this programme is a recognized tool for spotting and promoting innovation in the composites industry.
This year, we introduced another brand new
feature into this programme: the Public Vote.
The jury will choose the winners according to
specific criteria but the general public will also
be able to vote for their favorite innovation,
either online or via the JEC World Mobile
Application. The winner of the public vote will
be announced at the end of JEC World and
people will be able to vote both before and after the ceremony.

A jury of experts
Ten experts from around the world will reward
ten Composite Champions who presented their
innovations for the composite end-user markets. The panel of judges is composed of:
- Anurag Bansal, Manager Global Business
Development, Acciona Infraestructuras
(Spain)
- Christophe Binetruy, Professor, Ecole
Centrale de Nantes (France)
- Robert Buchinger, Chief Technology
Officer, DAS Energy (Austria)
- Grahame Burrow, Global President, Magna
(USA)
- Ali Caliskan, CEO, Kordsa (Turkey)

- Dominique Dubois, CEO, Carboman
Group (France)
- Chantal Fualdes, Airbus Composite
Airframe Executive Expert, Airbus
(France)
- Karl-Heinz Fuller, Manager Hybrid
Materials, Concepts and AMG, Daimler
(Germany)
- Sung Ha, Professor, Hanyang University
(South Korea)
- Kiyoshi Uzawa, Professor/Director,
Innovative Composite Center (Japan)
This programme will also be open to participants in the show.

Sustainability

Innovative thermoplastic matrix wind turbine blade
A novel demonstration blade, 9 meters in
length, features design elements of multi-megawatt scale blades exceeding 50 meters, including a large root diameter, inboard
flatback airfoils, outboard high performance
airfoils and carbon fiber spar caps. The use
of this design allows for validation of manufacturing concepts and increases confidence
the technology can be scalable as it matures.
The wind energy market competes with other forms of electricity generation, including
coal, natural gas, solar and hydropower. The
Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) has steadily declined as blade lengths have increased.
Further breakthroughs are needed to shorten manufacturing times and bring lower
cost carbon fiber into blade manufacture to
reduce weight and increase lengths further.
The incorporation of textile PAN-based car-

bon fiber developed by Oak Ridge National
Laboratories, pultruded into a tough polyurethane matrix, will enable a significant reduction in carbon fiber costs for wind blades.
The use of a room-temperature infused reactive thermoplastic improves impact strength
of the shells and eliminates the need for postcure during manufacture compared to epoxy.
The materials used in the blade enhance
sustainability - the textile PAN carbon fiber requires 60% less energy to manufacture,
the reactive thermoplastic can be infused at
room temperature (versus heated tools for
epoxy) and does not require post cure, and
the thermoplastic shells can be recycled
at end of life. The foam core is made from
post-consumer PET plastic, and has 33% less
embodied energy. Many of the above materials are recent to the marketplace, so IACMI

Finalist: Arkema Inc (USA)
Partners: IACMI - The Composites
Institute (USA), Johns Manville
(USA), Huntsman Polyurethanes
(USA), Sika Axson (USA), TPI
Composites (USA)

and industrial partners elected to raise their
visibility and promise to address key needs of
the wind turbine marketplace.

N° 119 supplement - Innovation Report

/ jec composites magazine

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #119 - Supplement lnnovation report
