JEC 2012, Paris: photo report

Tomorrow I will be posting a photo report of JEC 2012, as a couple of members asked for it.

JEC is the largest composites related show in Europe.

Just do not know yet how to do it, but I will figure something out. I have 82 pictures (I was very selective, as I had only 90 shots on my camera left). I guess 60 shots or so are presentable.

I hope after my report someone on your side of the pond will do the same with shows like Sampe or Ibex.

Here is a link to the complete album: http://www.compositescentral.com/album.php?albumid=10


Farecla range for composites. One of the best polishing compounds I used.


Flax fibers. Sustainability is “hot”. Biobased composites had their own corner on JEC


PU discardable infusion cones. There are several suppliers for these.


Hybrid core of foam, wrapped in glass. When infused it should be quite sturdy.


This company had lots of fastening solutions. The studs are standard Bigheads, by the way.


Recycling to the max. Brought to JEC by a joint venture company of Airex.


Mould heating fabrics.


Infusion resin for windmill spars. The piece shown is some 50mm / 2" thick.


Curved pultrusion profiles.


Panel made with fire retardant resin. Complies to M1 standard. Brands (see logo) is the company I work for.


Forged composites bucket seats. I believe this is BMW M5

Thanks Herman! Interesting things, I like the recycled foam!
Do you know Lineo? They have some sort coating on their flax fibre. Seems interesting to use in sporting goods due to their vibration absorbing properties.

more things to come… Had an event with my son this morning. (dancing/gymnastics for toddlers)

Lineo was there as well. JEC Publications has a nice booklet about the properties of natural fibers.


More infusion gadgetry


Composite car wheel, very nicely made. There were more of them.


Aramide veils, good for abrasion resistance.


Lightweight carbon veils (up to 200 gr/m2 actually).


There are usually several Chinese suppliers of a larger package of materials. This is one of them.


Nice carbon bike. Check the rear fork.


Sicomin introduced a new PU in mould coating, with enough flexibility to cope with vibrations, bending laminates (the laminate shown is normally straight). Available in transparent, and most RAL colours.


Fancy Lotus. Visual carbon roof. There were more cars on show, although less than otherwise. It now focusses more on car parts.


Plenty of suppliers of carbide and diamond tools around. This is just one example. There are tools for every job you can imagine.


Anyone needs coloured fabrics?


no comment


Carbon Phone covers. A lot of exhibitors are producers of end products, showing their stuff. I wonder what happens to the signal.
Owens Corning even advertised with a carbon phone cover.


Demo piece of Airtech, showing various products and techniques, including this hollow stiffener infusion, using a prefabricated shape. Insert a tube film, tape under and over, and infuse all around. Easy peasy.
Thank you Chad, Kevin, Vincent and Wolfgang for the kind reception.


The Airtech equivalent of MTI hose. Flat, so does not leave an imprint on the part. Aerovac has a similar product, but the topside of that product is vacuum film. The Airtech one can be overlapped without problem.


Forged carbon roof tile, with integrated solar panel. With the recent drops in price of solar panels, and planned further reductions, the price per kW is getting similar to that of windmills. It is expected that the windmill sector is about to suffer heavily from this development.


Another forged carbon part. This development brings composites to the mass industry.


Natural fibers were awarded their own pavillion on JEC. Sustainability is something to look for in the future.


Carbon tubes. These ones made on a mandrel, and finished with shrink tape. On the same booth a filament winding robot.


This F1 monocoque had a sign “do not photograph”. I just had to take a picture.


R-Glass and Basalt pellets, for manufacturing of fibers. On JEC you find companies from beginning to end of the manufacturing process. The exhibitor showed me the process of making basalt fiber, which is quite complicated. Melting point is about 1600 degrees C, and the basalt is quite variable in quality, even within one batch. They use differeny heating zones in the melting pit to mix the stuff, then create pellets. The pellets are mixed with other qualities of pellets, with additives, then remelted into a fiber.


Vertical windmill, tooling nightmare.


Braids by A&P


I thought this was a very interesting product. A building profile for machine construction, from carbon. Ultra stiff and vibration dampening.


Smart people, smart solutions. Seen on the Airex booth. Biaxial balsa core.


Philippe Angst from Airex held a presentation about their new core treatment, which reduces resin uptake a very considerable amount. Very good for lightweight / thin cored structures. They also developed the same for balsa. Weight saving can be dramatic.
Several exhibitors held conferences on their booth, or in one of the forums. I did not attend them, except for this one.


Slide of the presentation. I asked for the complete presentation. It was interesting.


12500 euro brings you this 3D printer from HP. Totally unrelated to composites, but still nice.


Oxeon showed some new lightweight Textreme fabrics, both in carbon and as hybrids.


Carbon finding its way into daily products. Although I hope I never need this object…


One of the things that can be called “improvement of the year”. What if you create carbon UD braids, with rubber band in the 90 direction? Conformable braids!

Eurocarbon was so smart, and showed us. Their booth was extremely busy.


Same product, shown on a shop window mannequin. She also wore a triaxial braided skirt.


Printed veils. Actually look quite OK. I have wood ones in stock.


Autoclave, anyone? There were several autoclave suppliers, but only one brought the real thing.


A product you are going to like: BLACK Soric!


Waterjet company, actually showing the process. They made bottle openers from carbon.


Infusion goodies from Lintex


and the rest of the Lintex display.


And another 3D printer, also using the hot wire process. This one was nice and small.


Pretty well engineered carbon car


The occasional “go fast” car…


If these guys were aiming for bent tube, they did a good job. If it was straight tube they were after…


Another checkerboard manufacturer


Tube Snake Boogie…


Holding composite parts can easily be done with suction cups and vacuum. Up to a large scale. For normal size I believe veneersupplies.com has some nice sets.


3D-Core brought a boat (aramide skins, glass/carbon frames.


Detail of the boat. What happened here? I could not get close enough to take a look.


Some companies even bring helicopters… (there were also several other aircraft parts)


another big thing in composites is carbon/ceramic parts. Mainly for brakes and calipers.

This was the end of the show. Hope you liked it. If you have any questions, please ask. I have leaflets of several suppliers, might you need it.

Great pictures and thanks for taking the time to share Herman.

What is the equivalent, largest, composites show in the US?

I guess Sampe, which is held in Octobre. (www.sampe.org)

Thanks I enjoyed looking at your pics from the show, lots of interesting goodies on show.

Thanks for the posts. I just recently attended Composites 2012 in Las Vegas and have video and images to share if interested.

Yes, definitely.

Of course! Do as I do, make a thread. Dump the video on Youtube, post a link, and upload the pictures in the photo album provided on this site. (click “community” in the menu bar, create an album, the rest is simple. max 60 pictures per album)

The brake disc is a carbon reinforced carbon brake disc :wink:
Thank you for the pictures and it was nice to meet you there.

Amazing stuff. Thanks for posting.

Do you have any contact information on some of the carbide tooling manufacturers? I could really used a custom profile something like what you have in the picture.