Why Thermoplastic Composites Are Hot in Automotive

Lightweighting, cost reduction, and new approaches to automotive manufacturing—those attractions add up to growing excitement over the emerging technology of thermoplastic composites in the European and American auto industry. Get the inside story on this fast-changing field from leaders in developing the technology at the first-ever “Thermoplastic Composites for Automotive” conference, organized jointly by the editors of Plastics Technology magazine, CompositesWorld, and Automotive Design and Production. This event will take place June 10-11 in Novi, Mich., concurrently with the amerimold trade show and conference.

Over a day and a half, we’ll present at least 16 speakers from companies such as KraussMaffei, Engel, Arburg, BASF, Lanxess, TenCate, Solvay, Celanese, RTP, Aeonix, RocTool, Autodesk Moldflow, and Fibertec—and the list is growing. They will discuss continuous-fiber tapes and organosheets, chopped long-fiber compounds, and processes such as injection overmolding, direct long-fiber thermoplastic (DLFT) molding, in-situ reactive molding, foam-core sandwich molding, and induction mold heating, and computer simulation. A lunchtime speaker from the auto industry will preview the directions in which car companies hope to take these technologies.

And while you’re there, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to look over the amerimold show, with close to 100 exhibits by moldmakers and suppliers of mold components, hot runners, tooling materials, and rapid-prototyping (additive manufacturing) systems.

Learn more about “Thermoplastic Composites for Automotive” here and about amerimold here. And stay tuned for more news about this first-of-its-kind event.