#Composites

2020-06-18

Hans-Christian Früh appointed new Project Manager of Composites for Europe

New name, new concept and a new face: Composites for Europe, previously COMPOSITES EUROPE, is now also re-pitching itself in personnel terms. Dr. Ing. Hans-Christian Früh will become the new Project Manager of Composites for Europe, to be held as a business summit for composites in Stuttgart from 10 to 12 November. The 35-year old succeeds Daniel Schäfer who will rise to another professional challenge.

“Hans-Christian is a composites man through and through. His CV reads like he is “re-engineering personified” at Composites for Europe,” says Goetz-Ulf Jungmichel, the Event Director in charge of materials trade fairs organised by Reed Exhibitions Deutschland. This, he adds, is specifically due to his broad-based thematic background in diverse composite applications and to his feel for challenges in this industry.

Hans-Christian Früh, who studied mechanical engineering and aviation and aerospace technology at RWTH Aachen, comes with expertise that predestines him for this new task. Born in Mülheim Früh received his doctorate for a thesis on automated handling in composites production. In parallel, Früh headed the research department “Automated Composites Production”.

Here research focused on the automation and digitization of composites. His research activities were accompanied by international industry projects in the fields of automotive and aerospace. At the same time, Früh with a passion for aviation and music, worked on projects for electrically propelled aviation devices and carbon-based musical instrument making.

Hans-Christian Früh (c) 2020 Composites Europe

JEC Forum Southeast Asia 2026 highlights Taiwan as a strategic hub for the global composites industry

The third edition of JEC Forum organized in Southeast Asia brought together 350+ participants from 22 countries for three active days of high-level Business Meetings, conferences, and networking, emphasizing Southeast Asia’s growing role in the global composites market. Held for the first time in Taipei from 23 to 24 June 2026, following the successful first editions in Bangkok, JEC Forum Southeast Asia 2026 confirmed its position as the region’s leading business platform dedicated to the composites industry.

MEL Composites supports ELA Aviation with advanced composite materials

MEL Composites is supplying advanced composite materials and process consumables to ELA Aviation for the production of its next-generation gyroplanes. The collaboration underlines MEL Composites’ growing role in advanced aerospace mobility, providing lightweight materials designed to improve aircraft performance, manufacturing efficiency and structural reliability.

DYNEEMA® and NP Aerospace advance personal protection for military servicewomen

Dyneema®, owned by Avient Corporation, an innovator of materials solutions, is supplying its high-performance unidirectional (UD) materials to world-leading armor manufacturer NP Aerospace, enabling the production of armor systems designed specifically to fit the female body. With 2,000 new armor systems, including 4,000 plates, made in the United Kingdom (UK) and delivered in June 2026, this collaboration addresses a long-standing lack of high-quality personal protection specially built for female defense and security personnel.

JEC World 2026 confirms its standing as the unmissable event for composites and their applications

JEC World 2026 confirms its position as the leading global event for the composite materials industry and its applications across multiple sectors, bringing together the entire composites ecosystem in Paris for three days of business, innovation, and collaboration. True to its Pushing the Limits motto, the 2026 edition delivered outstanding results despite travel disruptions worldwide. The numbers speak for themselves: more than 1,400 exhibitors from over 50 countries, including over 150 first-timers, presented a global panorama of products, equipment, and services across the entire composites value chain.

Ence and ShareTex begin initial testing of the ATENEA innovation project to promote textile recycling in Spain

Ence and ShareTex are making progress on the Atenea R&D project, which aims to develop a complete value chain for textile recycling in Spain. Specifically, the goal of the ATENEA project—which is funded by the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI)—is to connect all the necessary stages for the recovery of textile waste, from collection and management, through recycling and transformation into new raw materials, to their incorporation into new textile products.

DePoly Inaugurates its Showcase Plant in Monthey Switzerland

What if used plastic bottles, PET packaging material and polyester textiles could become raw materials just as high performing as virgin resources? That is the ambition of DePoly, a circular materials company based in Sion, Switzerland which inaugurated its Showcase Plant in Monthey on July 6th & 7th. The first depolymerization facility of its kind and scale in Switzerland, this industrial Showcase Plant represents a major milestone in the company's growth and its journey toward commercialization.

Commission clarifies rules on plastic bottles recycling

The European Commission today adopted new rules on recycling of single-use plastic beverage bottles made primarily of polyethylene terephthalate (PET bottles). These rules establish, for the first time, a methodology to calculate, verify and report chemically recycled content. This is part of the Commission’s December 2025 plastics package.