Many contend there’s never been a better time to be involved in automotive composites, between pending legislation in many parts of the world requiring automakers to achieve tough new fuel-economy and/or tailpipe-emissions mandates—both of which drive vehicle lightweighting efforts—and OEMs’ needs to reduce costs and warranty claims without sacrificing safety, aesthetics, and customer comfort and convenience items. Under such conditions, the benefits of polymer composites―lower mass, cost reduction, design freedom, parts-consolidation, improved aesthetics, elimination of secondary finishing, greater impact tolerance, and more―become highly desirable. If the attendance at September’s 2014 Automotive Composites Conference & Exhibition (ACCE) was any indication, interest in composites remains high not only in the Motor City but around the world, given the show’s continuing ability to draw international crowds.

This year, 725 attended the annual conference in the Detroit suburbs, co-organized by SPE’s Automotive and Composites Divisions, while a record number of sponsors and exhibitors supported the event. Despite twice expanding the exhibit area, there still was a need to place several sponsors who signed up late into an overflow area where lunch was served and the show’s student poster and parts competitions were held. 

Packed Program

The conference featured its perennially strong technical program covering a wide variety of composites materials, additives and reinforcements, and process technologies. This year 73 presentations were given in nine sessions: 

• Advances in Reinforcement Technologies, 
• Advances in Thermoplastic Composites, 
• Advances in Thermoset Composites, 
• Bio- and Natural-Fiber Composites, 
• Business Trends and Technology Solutions, 
• Enabling Technologies, 
• Nanocomposites,
• Opportunities and Challenges with Carbon Composites, and 
• Virtual Prototyping & Testing of Composites. 

For the third time show organizers included a tutorials track, with this year’s four-hour offering focusing on long-fiber thermoplastics and nanocomposites. (The tutorials were video recorded and eventually will be available for members at SPE’s website.)

The ACCE is also known for the diversity of its keynote speakers, which often are drawn from non-transportation industries to showcase how composite materials are used in other markets and geographies. This year’s offerings did not disappoint. Jan-Anders Månson, professor and director of the Laboratory of Polymer and Composite Materials, Institute of Materials, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), presented “Why Sport is Important for Automotive Composites.” Prof. Habib J. Dagher, director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, University of Maine–Orono (Maine, USA), discussed “Polymer Composite Materials in Infrastructure Applications.” Kestutis (Stu) Sonta, a senior materials engineer from General Motors Corp. (Michigan, USA), spoke about “Novel Composite Developments on the Chevrolet Spark Battery Enclosure” (the vehicle was on display in the conference’s lobby throughout the event). Daniel Ageda, secretary general and chief operating officer, JEC Composites Group (France), described the “Overview & Dynamism of the Worldwide Composites Market.”And Matthew Marks, chair of the American Chemistry Council–Plastics Division’s Automotive Team (D.C., USA) explored results of the group’s latest Plastics and Polymer Composites Technology Roadmap for Automotive Markets.

Another normal feature of the ACCE is its rousing panel discussions, which tackle challenging industry issues and allow audience members to ask questions. This year’s topic was “Lightweighting and the Multi-Material Car.” The panel was moderated by Jay Baron, president and CEO, Center for Automotive Research (Michigan, USA); panelists included Paul Krajewski, global manager and technical fellow, Vehicle Mass Integration and Strategy, General Motors; Tom Pilette, vice president, Product & Process Development, Magna Exteriors (Ontario, Canada); Peter Friedman, manager, Manufacturing Research, Ford Motor Co. (Michigan); Harry Singh, executive program manager, EDAG Engineering AG (Germany); and Martin Starkey, director, Gurit Automotive Ltd. (UK).

Crowd-Pleasing Papers & Participants

Just before the conference, organizers announced winners of the show’s annual Dr. Jackie Rehkopf Best Paper Awards, which were given to first-place finisher, Maxime Melchior, software development engineer at e-Xstream engineering, an MSC Company (Luxembourg and California, USA). Two authors tied for second place: Sylvain Calmels, automotive business development manager at e-Xstream, and Keith Honaker, a graduate student at Michigan State University and a 2013-2014 SPE ACCE graduate scholarship award winner.

During the conference, four students won the show’s annual student poster competition sponsored by Invista Engineering Polymer Solutions: Sarah Stair of Baylor University (a 2013 SPE ACCE scholarship winner) took first place in the graduate category, and Siddhartha Brahma, University of Alabama–Birmingham, was the second-place graduate winner. Anup Shastry, Clemson University, and Avinash Akepati, University of Alabama–Tuskaloosa, tied for the third-place graduate poster award, while Kelly Krumm of Clemson was the event’s undergraduate winner.

Announced before the show were winners of three graduate scholarships sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Winning students whose composites-intensive projects were judged to have the greatest potential impact on ground transportation were Markus Downey of Michigan State University, Fatimat Oluwatoyin Bakare of University of Borås (Sweden), and Sebastian Goris of University of Wisconsin–Madison. Each student received a scholarship check and will return to present results of his or her research at next year’s ACCE.

Also announced at the event were two winners of the show’s annual parts competition. The Body Exteriors award went to Mitsubishi Rayon Carbon Fiber & Composites for a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic deck lid made by a prepreg compression molding process for the Nissan GT-R sports car. And the event’s People’s Choice award (chosen by conference attendees) went to Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc. for the lightweight carbon-fiber door structure with a Class A appearance for the Porsche 911 GT Cup.

All papers and presentations from 14 years of the conference are available free of charge in the event’s ACCE archives ( speautomotive.com/aca.htm). Learn more about the 2015 conference (scheduled for September 9-11) at speautomotive.com/comp.htm.