High-Performance Composites is read by qualified composites industry professionals in the fields of continuous carbon fiber and other high-performance composites as well as the associated end-markets of aerospace, military, and automotive.
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EDITOR FROM THE EDITOR J U L Y 2 0 1 4 | 5 f you're reading this editorial, it's very likely that you are a subscriber to HPC . And if you are a subscriber to HPC , it's very likely that you are involved in some way in the de- sign and manufacture of composite structures for aerospace, high-perfor- mance automotive and other applications that consume continuous carbon fber. And I know this is so because that's the business principle under which HPC operates: We editors cater to the in- formation needs of high-performance composites manufacturers, and suppliers that want to sell to high-performance composites manufacturers pay us for the opportunity to advertise in support of our editorial mission. What you may not know is that we also have a sister publication, Composites Technology ( CT ) maga- zine, which targets composites professionals who serve the automotive, wind, marine, construction and infrastructure markets with the manufacture of primarily glass fber-reinforced composite parts and structures. I've heard some people refer to I pose world and its developing resin infusion, resin transfer molding (RTM), compression molding processes — and even to reinforced thermoplastics. Meanwhile, the general-pur- pose side, seeking to reduce weight even further in wind blades, marine components and automotive structures, started using continuous car- bon fber. Now, it's much more diffcult — and in many ways unfair — to defne sides anymore. Take, for instance, the BMW i3 , the new, all- electric vehicle that features continuous carbon fber composites in the passenger cell (also known as body-in-white). This is not a high-performance sports car or a Formula 1 racecar. It's a vehicle de- signed for everyday urban transportation. We re- cently toured the BMW plant that assembles the i3 and wrote an article about it. If you were me, would you place this story in HPC or CT ? It's automotive, but a con- tinuous carbon fber application using RTM. We chose to publish the article in CT (and then summarize it in this is- sue's "News" section), but not without some serious contemplation. None of this should be surprising. You may not always sense it, but the composites industry is un- usually and demonstrably dynamic, creative and fast-changing, so it seems inevitable to me that as it evolves, we would see people like you seek- ing out best practices wherever they exist. A sign of this evolution — not to mention a good place to fnd those best practices — is the launch, this October in Orlando, Fla., of the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo (CAMX) trade show and conference, co-hosted by SAMPE and the American Composites Manufacturers Assn. (ACMA) — previ- ously bastions in North America of the two "sides" if you're looking for context. It is shaping up to de- liver on its promise of presenting the industry as a whole. We'll be at CAMX, keeping tabs on the evo- lution, and hope to see you there. jeff@compositesworld.com Jeff Sloan such applications as "general-purpose." Or, less charitably, "industrial." Or, even less charitably, "tubs and countertops." For many years these two "sides" of the industry seemed like the Odd Couple — two people living under one roof, each with markedly different habits, yet oddly joined by a common interest. And despite the common interest — manufacture of fber-rein- forced polymers — there seemed to exist little that could bring these two sides closer together. And then, a few years ago, funny things started to happen. First, the aerospace composites side, which had for so long relied on the autoclave to cure composite structures, started looking for auto- clave-free options, which led it to the general-pur- ItÕs more difficult Ñ and in many ways unfair Ñ to define the composites industry as high-performance vs. general-purpose. 0714HPC EditorLetter-OK.indd 5 6/17/2014 10:07:51 AM