JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #73 - June 2012 - 28

awards

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JEC Innovation Awards Program 2012:
lnnovation awards winners
Official media supports JEC Composites is announcing the winners of the JEC Asia Innovation Awards programme 2012. For this fifth edition, 11 companies and their partners will receive awards at the JEC Asia Composites Show and Conferences (June 26-27-28, 2012 Singapore).

Particleboard or wood composite made of vetiver grass-reinforced epoxy resin
Vetiver grass, a tropical plant grown in Thailand and the surrounding regions, is used as a reinforcement instead of natural wood-based materials in combination with epoxy resin as the binder. The use of epoxy resin as a binder addresses the key issues associated to formaldehyde and isocyanate binders in terms of handling safety, emissions and human exposure. The epoxy binder was developed as a non-hazardous, nontoxic formulation (Ld50 (oral) > 5000 mg/kg, no prohibited risk phrase) and does not contain or liberate any volatile compounds or substances classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMr). The performance properties of the particleboards produced with the new materials were tested according to the specifications of the Thailand Industrial Standards Institute (TISI), showing higher mechanical stiffness and relatively lower thickness swelling than the particleboards prepared from existing materials. The new particleboards are manufactured

Materials
Winner: Aditya birla Chemicals (Thailand) Partnership Network: Kasetsart University, Faculty of Forestry (department of Forest products) (Thailand)

The Quickstep Resin Spray Transfer programme, designed to enable fully-automated serial production of advanced composite components
resin Spray Transfer (rST) technology is a fully-automated composite layup process for advanced composite components which uses the patented Quickstep process to rapidly cure the composite component. The patented technology is designed to dramatically reduce manufacturing time and costs while increasing manufacturing rates and providing the all-important «Class A» automotive finish. This technology focus through significant weight reduction is made possible by increased use of carbon fibre composites, which offer similar stiffness to steel at 60-75% lower weight. The Quickstep process uses a patented low-pressure heated fluid curing technology to cure composite materials rapidly (less than 10 minutes), efficiently and with a high quality output. Its enclosed clamshell-like tools surround the part with a heat transfer fluid separated by a bladder. The energy is transferred rapidly from the fluid to the part enabling rapid liquefaction of the resin, which leads to effective «resin through fibre» penetration compared to «resin along fibre» as seen with resin transfer moulding.

Process
Winner: Quickstep Technologies (Australia) Partnership Network: Quickstep gmbH (germany)

28 jec composites magazine / No73 June 2012
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #73 - June 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #73 - June 2012
