JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #87 - March 2014 Special JEC Europe - 44

The Netherlands: country guest of honor

tners available for selected innovations, from raw materials through
to tier 1 supplier Fokker. Together,
we launched a second innovation
programme on thermoplastics with
Airbus (TAPAS2). To support this, we
need the top notch of technology, this
is where our knowledge partners NLR
and technical universities come into
the game. Together, we define our
long-term innovation roadmaps. The
government supports us by enabling
the research financially and through
its policy, but also provides local support and access to networks in other
countries. For example, the Dutch
Embassy in Paris hosted a high-tech
materials seminar.
All three companies believe that the
search for collaboration with French
partners is a great opportunity. They
believe an efficient approach would
be to create a consortium of institutes,
large companies and small companies.
Working as a consortium, the whole
spectrum of aerospace skills in the
Netherlands will be exploited and
greater interest will be generated in
France.

Intense cooperation
All qualified applications of com-

posites at Airbus, Boeing, Embraer,
Bombardier, Agusta-Westland,
Gulfstream, Dassault and many
products of tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers
are a result of intense cooperation.
Recently, the aerospace industry in
the Netherlands, together with their
industry association NAG, defined a
strategic plan to develop cooperation
with partners in France. Through a
joint programme between the government, research institutes and industry
called "Partners for International
Business", we have already met a lot of
new potential partners to work with.
France is investing significantly in
high-tech materials, as we do. We find
many similar ideas and approaches
to innovation in our area. Our recent
participation in the Composite
Meetings in Nantes generated a lot of
potential collaborations. More activities are planned for 2014, including a
one-week trade mission.

The upcoming JEC Europe
Of course, we expect to strengthen
our relationships with existing partners and customers at JEC Europe.
But we have great expectations about
expanding our network to aerospace
and non-aerospace participants and

Signing of the TAPAS-agreement

44 jec composites magazine / No87 March 2014

visitors. For the long term, we expect
more exchanges between companies
and institutes in order to form a great
network for the future. The JEC Europe show and conferences is the main
yearly marketplace for composites.
Many new ideas and projects have
started as a result of meetings and
discussions there. We hope to show
our passion for composites and our
long-term commitment to continuing
our development with these challenging materials for aerospace and other
highly demanding applications, keeping in mind the societal needs. We
invite the composite community to
think with us and start new initiatives
on the basis of equal partnership.

The future of composites
All three companies agree that the
composite market is growing continuously. Not only in aerospace, but
also in the oil and gas, marine and
automotive markets. Airborne has
been active in these fields for almost
20 years and still sees great potential
for further growth, especially through
the use of innovation, e.g. smarter
production methods and materials.
TenCate, through its New Business Development team, focuses on
breakthroughs in the automotive and
oil & gas extraction markets. TenCate
Cetex® thermoplastic composites will
contribute to meeting the requirements of lighter, stronger and more
sustainable components. Final customers are interested in the total cost of
the end product. Therefore, TenCate
recommends looking for the optimum
performance/integral cost balance
before selecting a composite material.
Fokker has high expectations for
the TAPAS2 national development
programme and foresees several
breakthroughs in the next couple of
years. They also expect renewed interest for metal-based hybrid materials
(like Glare) due to their competitiveness and technical benefits. n
More information:
www.nag.aero
http://www.nag.aero
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #87 - March 2014 Special JEC Europe

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