SAMPE Journal - May/June 2016 - 2

Global President's Message

Takashi Ishikawa, PhD

Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
ishikawa@nuae.nagoya-u.ac.jp

One year of my term as the SAMPE Global president has passed very quickly. I am reminded of a very
fruitful SAMPE Global meeting in Amiens, France last September 2015. As I wrote in my previous
column, one of the high-lighted events there was the tour to the plant of STELIA AEROSPACE where
a nose section of the Airbus A350 aircraft was being produced. This section is a hybrid structure of
carbon fiber composites and an Aluminum alloy. One point that I was deeply impressed with was the
highly automated fiber placement process to fabricate a very complicated shell structure around a
cockpit. Several robots were moving in very complicated paths to produce non-spherical 3-D curvature
shell surfaces. I believe it is a kind of beautiful art performed only by very sophisticated robotics.
Also I felt that the combination of enormous efforts of many engineers who understand processing
of composites, the reason for defects created and the importance of raw material properties, etc. , as
well as expertise in robotics can solely realize this kind of a precise masterpiece of composites.

In the beginning of this March, I had a chance to visit BMW Landshut plant near Munich where
the sensational, full composite automotive components, carbon/epoxy body members of BMW i8,
are being produced. The process name is "high pressure RTM" (HP-RTM), so called. The key issue
there is a high rate production of components which is really critical in automotive composite parts
fabrication. Some workers handled huge press machines and some others prepared carbon fabric
preforms to prevent defects from occurring. Of course, the details of two processes are quite different
from each other in STELIA and BMW. However, I felt that there is one common key philosophy aligned
underneath two products: enthusiasm for composites. This kind of enthusiasm might be the primary
source of strengths and motivation within the European SAMPE Region.
In Japan, a small tide for a future new wave for carbon composites may arise: a press release about a
success in Innovative Carbon Fiber developments in this January was presented by NEDO, the Japanese
governmental organization for R & D. Although the details are still unknown, the key point in this
new fiber is a possibility of revolutionary lower cost whereas it maintains comparable mechanical
performances to traditional carbon fibers like Toray's T-300. If these fibers are commercially available
and their low cost is truly realized, we will be able to see a different world where carbon composites
are applied everywhere. If this dream comes true, importance of SAMPE's function will be increased
very much.
Around the composites communities, strong enthusiasm will grow continuously and active challenges
for innovative technology will be increased steadily. Some other processing technology like additive
manufacturing, innovations and challenges are also quite active. In these composites and other
communities, the numerous advantages of SAMPE, volunteerism, mentoring attitude toward young
engineers and the creation of effective networking must become more and more important.
At the closing time of my series of columns for the past year, I would like to borrow the closing phrase
by Tony Vizzini, my predecessor, "SAMPE Good!"

SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 3, May/June 2016

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