JEC Group Announces 2020 Innovation Award Winners in Composites

JEC Group (Paris France) revealed the winners of the JEC Composites Innovation Awards 2020 during a virtual ceremony on Wednesday, May 13. Thirteen winners were designated in 11 categories.

“Beyond being a simple award ceremony, the JEC Composites Innovation Awards are intended to be a source of inspiration for the industry and a vector of excellence for all the winners. This is an unavoidable and long-awaited moment in the year for the composites industry that we could not miss,” says Franck Glowacz, innovation content leader at JEC Group.

The winners for each category are listed below:

Additive Manufacturing : Eurecat (Spain)

Eurecat won for its CFIP technology, a new post-processing technology that uses continuous fibers to reinforce a parts of various materials and manufacturing technologies. 

Aeronautics: Institut de Soudure Groupe & Arkema (France)

They won for their “Innovation solutions for welding of TP composites,” a new developed and patented solution allowing very high performance welding for thermoplastic composites.

Automotive: Volkswagen (Germany)

German manufacturer Volkswagen was rewarded for its Lightweight FRP center tunnel (LehoMit-Hybrid): an innovative and profitable thermoplastic structural hybrid car body component, suitable for production in large quantities, which can be introduced before cathodic immersion treatment with the corresponding assembly technology.

Construction, Infrastructures & Civil Engineering: Carbo-Link (Sweden)

Carbo-Link won for its CL RESTRAP, thin strips of pre-impregnated and hardened carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP), wound continuously in a loop to form a carbon strip flexible. This process reinforces concrete beams of any size in any infrastructure, for a reportedly unlimited lifespan.

Design & Furniture: Mecelec Composites (Finland)

The company won for its mass-produced flax fiber roofs, the first application of bulk molding compound (BMC) flax fiber for mass production. 

Maritime Transportation & Shipbuilding: Norsepower Oy Ltd. (Finland)

The company won for its Norsepower Rotor Sail Lightweight Solution, an aid for freight and passenger ships to reduce fuel costs by 5-30%, by improving the propulsion system of a ship through the use of wind as auxiliary propulsion measurement.

Process: Engel Austria (Austria)

The company won for its line for tailored thermoplastic composite blanks, an innovative element composed of a pick and place stacking cell, a consolidation unit, and heating and cooling, reportedly capable of producing a custom thermoplastic blank in a cycle of one to three minutes.

Railway Vehicles & Infrastructures: Far-UK Ltd. (U.K.)

The company won for “Project BRAINSTORM,” a lightweight tram frame composed of very light composite tubes. The frame is said to reduce investment and manufacturing costs as well as carbon emissions.

Recycling: Cobra International (Thailand)

The company won for its closed-loop recycling process for epoxy-infused RTM molding tools and watersport fins for Starboard and MFC.

Sports & Healthcare: Asics Corp. (Japan)

The company won for its “Future of Springs: Spike-Less CFRTP Sprinting Shoe,” a new shaping methodology using preformed and randomly oriented ultra-thin carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polymer (CFRTP) tapes.

JEC Composites Magazine Special Prize: Cookson Precious Metals

The company received the award for its 3D-printed bushings for glass fiber production, which are reported to ease manufacture of glass fibers with innovative geometries.

Public Vote Award: Stratiforme Industries (France)

The company won the public vote award for its project “DESTINY Thermoplastic resin Train Front end,” which had the objective of launching a new range of components for the interior layout of commercial aircraft and rail applications based on thermoplastic composites.

JEC Group announced the full list of 2020 Innovation Awards finalists in January.