Around 250 delegates from over 20 countries attended the second International Composites Congress, which was held November 28 and 29 in Düsseldorf on the theme of ‘How Can Composites Become a Key Industry?’. Topics of discussions included process technology; material developments; and new composite applications like in architecture, etc.

Japan was the partner country for the event in which, Prof. Takashi Ishikawa from the National Composites Centre, Japan, who gave the keynote address. He gave a comprehensive overview of developments in Japan’s composites technology and its market prospects.

As in the earlier editions, the Innovation Award of the German Federation of Reinforced Plastics (AVK) was presented, which was followed by the Composites Night with Composites Europe exhibitors, which provided an opportunity for networking.

The convention ended with a panel discussion on ‘Lightweight Construction Strategy Day’. Iris Gleicke, parliamentary state secretary at the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Michael Effing, chairman of Composites Germany and Hinrich Mählmann, president of the Association of the German Aluminium Industry (GDA) were among the panellists. (AR)