It was all about composites and wind during a two-day work session in Boulder, Colo. Presented by Composites One, Arlington Heights, Ill., the Closed Mold Alliance, and Magnum Venus Products (MVP, Kent, Wash.) in partnership with the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI, Knoxville, Tenn.). Also participating in producing the workshop was the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Held June 14-15 at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center in Boulder, the Composites in Wind Workshop featured over a dozen sessions led by subject matter experts. More than 150 students, academics, technicians and business owners from 27 states attended the workshop.
“The Composites One – IACMI partnership continues to grow, and the goal of educating the next generation of composites professionals, along with today’s workforce is coming to fruition,” said Composites One Director of Marketing Communications Marcy Offner. “Comments from attendees were all positive, and companies like Siemens, GE and Vestas were all impressed by the content of the workshop.”
The workshop included live demonstrations of vacuum infusion, light resin transfer molding and repair methods. Ed Pilpel, president of Polystrand, presented a keynote address discussing advances in thermoplastics.
Following this event will be two more workshops this year, (check compositesone.com for dates and registration details):
Process & Advanced Materials Workshop – West Lafayette, Ind.
Process & Automotive Market Advances in Composites – Detroit, Mich.
All are designed to help participants become more adept in advanced and closed mold processing, out-of-autoclave production, additive manufacturing (3D printing) lightweighting of products, prototyping, selecting systems and equipment, advancements in composites and high performance materials, data acquisition, modeling and simulation. Experienced process experts will lead sessions from Composites One and the Closed Mold Alliance, a resource dedicated to helping manufacturers make a successful conversion to closed mold and other advanced processes, and IACMI. Along with Composites One, the Closed Mold Alliance founding members include Magnum Venus Products and RTM North Ltd.
Plastics /FRP Physical Test