LIST hosts inaugural Sustainable Composite Materials and Manufacturing (SCMM) Industry Day

The event marked a significant milestone in composite materials innovation.
 
The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) successfully hosted its first-ever Sustainable Composite Materials and Manufacturing (SCMM) Industry Day on 30 November at its Hautcharage site. The event, attended by industry leaders and experts, marked a significant milestone in composite materials innovation and also for the SCMM Innovation Centre, which opened its doors just one year ago.

The SCMM Industry Day aimed to showcase recent advancements in composite materials and their applications across various industries. The event brought together an international group of participants, including representatives from the SCMM Observing Committee such as Airbus, Thales Alenia, and Toyota.

Key takeaways

-    The success of hosting the first SCMM Industry Day within only one year of the centre’s establishment is a testament to its rapid progress and impact. The event was attended by more than 160 international participants, including prominent global industry leaders who shared their insights through keynote speeches. Speakers included Gunnar Merz, CEO of Composites United, emphasizing the significance of European collaboration for the composites industry, David Hatrick, VP of Strategic Marketing and Innovation at Huntsman Advanced Materials, who explored the shift to net-zero transportation and Armand Ajdari, CTO of ARKEMA, showcasing sustainable composite materials solutions for structural applications.

-    Attendees were also treated to firsthand experiences through four live demonstrations, highlighting the latest breakthroughs in natural fibre reinforced polymers, the new generation of composite materials for structural applications, the production of ultra-light composite parts using 3-D filament winding, and welding composite parts. One of the live demos was organized in collaboration with Gradel, manufacturer of innovative lightweight structures for the space, aeronautics and mobility markets and one of the earliest members of the SCMM Innovation Centre.

-    The event also provided an ideal platform for LIST’s Materials department, which hosts the SCMM Innovation Centre, to showcase 19 demonstrators, that spanned from synthesizing materials to system integration and testing. This emphasized the department’s and the Centre’s competence across the materials value chain and a comprehensive approach from material creation to integrated market-ready demonstrators.

-    One of the highlights of the event was the signing of a SCMM membership contract with ARKEMA, a global leader in specialty material manufacturing. This collaboration signifies an important step forward in advancing sustainable composite materials and manufacturing technologies, and adds ARKEMA to the esteemed list of SCMM members, alongside Gradel and Euro-Composites.

Damien Lenoble, director of the Materials department at LIST summed: “The success of LIST's inaugural SCMM Industry Day owes much to the dedicated engagement of our staff. I wish to thank them first and foremost. Today was a concrete demonstration that a small country can drive a large initiative with strategic benefits for Europe in its endeavour to reach a net zero carbon society by 2050. Accelerating the transition of relevant research outcomes towards the market applications is the cornerstone of such a global ambition.”

Dirk Fransaer, CEO of LIST said: “I’m proud to have been part of this inaugural SCMM Industry Day which not only demonstrated the rapid progress and impact of the SCMM Innovation Centre but also highlighted LIST’s commitment to fostering industry-wide innovation and collaboration in Luxembourg and beyond.”