In a Q&A session, Adeline Larroque, JEC Composites’ show director JEC World and EMEA Events, reveals what visitors can expect to see at JEC World, held from 12-14 March 2019 at the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre.

Q) How do you expect the show to grow this year and what are your targets for 2019?

Over the years the show has certainly gone from strength to strength, growing in both size and scope to reflect the full value chain of the industry and extent of the end-user markets for composites. The show innovates each year, introducing new features and services to meet the industry’s needs and provide the best experience for our exhibitors, visitors and partners. In 2019, JEC World is set to be the biggest and best to date exceeding our initial targets.

Q) In terms of visitor and exhibitor targets, what are you hoping to achieve at this year’s show?

We will welcome more than 1,300 exhibitors and 43,000 professional visits expected from 115 countries. There will also be 26 regional pavilions, which will showcase the best technologies of their countries. The full value chain is represented: from raw materials through to composites parts, including intermediate products, equipment and machine producers, auxiliary products, distributors, agents and services, and more. This year, we are also welcoming new exhibitors representing the downstream supply chain, including Valeo, Faurecia and Meggitt. We see more and more tier one and tier two suppliers exhibiting at JEC World as an increasing number of end-users are now visiting the show to source the best products, parts and composites expertise.

Q) How successful has moving to the new venue been, how is it enabling you to develop the show into a more global event, and are there any plans to move again in the future?

In terms of increasing number of exhibitors and sectors, moving to the Paris Nord Villepinte venue is a success because it allows us to grow in the coming years. It is also an opportunity to offer our participants easy access to Paris international airport, CDG, keeping in mind that 75% of our customers are international.

Q) What are you anticipating from UK-based companies attending and can they still build strong partnerships with international companies after Brexit?

The question of Brexit is too complex to answer right now as nothing has been agreed yet. UK companies definitely have a role to play within the composite industry on a worldwide basis, as they proved already when attending JEC Asia last November for instance.

Q) Industry 4.0 is increasingly being talked up. What is your take on this philosophy and will there be much evidence of it at the show?

Industry 4.0 is growing and some of our technical conferences and programmes will go deep into this topic. On Thursday, March 14^th, the country stage will be France and it will organise a roundtable about ‘The growing demand or advanced composites - a unique opportunity for French companies to demonstrate its excellence in the domain of high-tech composites and Industry 4.0’.

Q) How will the aerospace sector be represented at the event and conference programme?

The aerospace sector - still very dynamic in our industry - will be present in various programmes: The Technical Aeronautics Conference session about technologies for future legacy programmes, with speakers from Chomarat, Coriolis, CTC/Airbus, Siemens; The Innovation Planets, where parts, solutions for aerospace are presented; The Innovation Awards, the yearly worldwide competition in the industry with Bertrand Piccard, initiator and chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation, as the keynote speaker this year; Composite aerospace industry circles, include conferences, business meetings and a guided show tour.

Q) What have been the most recent developments in the worldwide composites market?

The major trends within the global composite industry are the following: The important increase of thermoplastics uses; Growing interest in carbon fibre mostly in Europe and North America; Process automation improvements; Priority for closed moulding and continuous production. And also, mostly in Europe, a significant increase in natural fibres and bio-based resins.

In terms of application sectors, the growth potential in the next ten years is mostly linked to aerospace, transport and the building industries. For more details, JEC Group will present the results of the first global composite market observation on Tuesday, March, 12th.

Q) What can visitors to the event expect to see in terms demonstrating automated and robotic production solutions?

Visitors will be able to see automated solutions in our three ‘Composites in action’ features – one of them being dedicated to 3D printing as this rapidly developing technology offers immense potential for tooling, prototyping and production.

Q) Who is the country of honour this year?

JEC World does not have a yearly country of honour, but in 2019 the show is launching a new programme called Countries on stage, highlighting three regions with strong composites ecosystem, the Netherlands (Tuesday), Turkey (Wednesday) and France (Thursday).

Q) What can people expect from the forum and conference programmes?

JEC Technical Conferences are a unique occasion for speakers to highlight their know-how and for the attendees to learn about state-of-the-art composite technologies. This year, we will have six sessions covering six sectors. Each session consists of six presentations of 20 minutes.

This year, JEC has chosen to focus on the following topics: Technologies for the Future Legacy Programmes in Aeronautics; Solutions for Hybrid, Fuel Cell and Electric Vehicles in Automotive; Fast, Economic and Lasting Solutions in Building, Construction & Infrastructure; The End of ‘Black Metal’ in Simulation; Really Reinforced Parts in Additive Manufacturing; How to be Above Average in Sports & Leisure. We already have prominent speakers, with Airbus, JSC AeroComposit, Toyota Motor and Voith Composites confirmed.

Elsewhere, the Agora stage will welcome a prestigious line up of speakers, including: Bertrand Piccard, initiator and chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation; Enrico Palermo, president of The Spaceship Company; Luciano De Oto, head of the Advanced Composites Research Centre & Body Structures Engineering, Lamborghini; Carlo Ratti, Architect and Professor at MIT.

Q) Finally, what is the importance of JEC World for the sector and what are its main aims?

JEC World focuses on creating business, sourcing innovation and sharing knowledge through different actions and programs such as pre-arranged Business Meetings, Technical Conferences, JEC Innovation Awards, Composites Exchange, Startup Booster competitions, Innovation planets, Composites in Action and the Composite Challenge.

JEC World 2019 invites you to come and take a deep breath of inspiration and try out some new experiences! This year, more than ever, the show is the place to be for the composites industry.

www.jeccomposites.com