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Insight from Customer

Was CFRP your research theme? If not, please let us know What do you think you need to realize your future vision?
why you changed your direction from your original
research theme to CFRP. I think we are on the way to our future vision, and to realize it, we
need more resources and the right partners. CFK Valley e. V. looks for
I was originally working as a chemist at Dow Chemical which is one of
national and international suitable companies, institutions and
the CFK Valley member companies. I was involved as the representative networks, which, complementary to the experience and knowledge,
of Dow Chemical, and had been conducting my projects at CFK Valley infrastructure, technologies and trained specialists of the members of
since 2008, and in 2014 I accepted the full-time CEO position at CFK the CFK Valley network, bring in their know-how, in order to develop
Valley. innovations for market-oriented customer solutions. We’ve already
established our sites in Japan, Korea, China, and planning to open in
India in the near future.

Finally, could you tell us what you expect us to do as a
vendor of analytical and measuring instruments? How
can we help you?
When we proceed with the automation of mass production process,
we need more scientific analysis and measurement to improve the
process. Industry 4.0 is changing the manufacturing process
dramatically, and everything is controlled by data. When I visited ICC,
Innovative Composite Center, in Japan, I saw many Shimadzu
analytical instruments and measuring equipment working in the lab.
Currently they are mainly used for research and development area,
but I expect those instruments to play the important role in the future
process automation as well.

It was significant to know what you think of us and our
collaboration. We will strive to meet your request.
What achievements have you made so far? What are you going Thank you very much.
to do next? Would you share your future vision with us?
Here are some examples of the successful projects. The first one is in the
airplane industry. Following applies to airplanes: the lighter, the better.
The largest aircraft part made from CFRP by Airbus is an upper wing
shell with a length of 32 m and is installed in Airbus A350. Naturally,
this was manufactured in Stade.

We also made achievements in construction area. When Dr. Amer Affan
purchased a sailing ship with a CFRP mast, he was absolutely fascinated
by the material and its possibilities for the construction sector. In 2010,
Dr. Affan visited the CFK Valley booth at the JEC Paris and became a
member of the association. Today, he is one of the international experts
for innovative design solutions with CFRP.
Recycling and waste prevention are our challenges and achievements as
well. For instance, the company Strehl produces new, high-quality
orthoses from the carbon-fiber production wastes of Airbus. This
example of a cross-sector cooperation shows how synergies provide for
more sustainability.

To develop these cross-sector cooperations, we are proceeding with our
open innovation more aggressively. Together with its national and
international partners, CFK Valley e. V. will become the world’s leading
and most innovative composites-meta-cluster.

One major challenge for CFRP is automation of the production process.
When we establish automated mass production platform, the cost of
the CFRP will decrease and more applications can be available. We
believe open innovation and global networking can accelerate the
research for those technical solutions.

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