SPE Committee announces winners of graduate scholarship awards.
Press Release Summary:
Organizing committee for SPE Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition announced winners of group's annual SPE ACCE Graduate Scholarship Award for 2012-2013 academic year. Winning students whose composites-intensive projects were judged to have greatest potential impact on ground transportation were John Hofmann, who is working on a doctorate in Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Virginia Tech and Alper Kiziltas who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Forest Resources at University of Maine.
Original Press Release:
Winners of 2012-2013 SPE® ACCE Graduate Scholarship Awards Announced
TROY (DETROIT), MICH. - The organizing committee for the SPE Automotive Composites Conference & Exhibition (ACCE) today announced winners of the group's annual SPE ACCE Graduate Scholarship Award for the 2012-2013 academic year. Winning students whose composites-intensive projects were judged to have the greatest potential impact on ground transportation were John Hofmann, who is working on a doctorate in Macromolecular Science & Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and Alper Kiziltas who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Forest Resources at the University of Maine. Each student will receive a total scholarship of $2,000 USD and will return to present the results of his research at next year's SPE ACCE show, September 10-12, 2013.
John Hofmann's research will focus on extension of the Method of Ellipses (MOE) for measuring the orientation of long, semi-flexible glass fibers to aid in predicting final fiber orientation in injection-molded parts. He notes that glass-reinforced polymer composites provide many commercial benefits and are widely used in numerous industries, including automotive. However, the magnitude of the benefits are highly dependent not only on polymer matrix and length, type, fiber-volume fraction, and form factor of reinforcement used, but also on processing conditions and final fiber orientation in the part.
Hofmann adds, "The primary thrust of my research is to evaluate the feasibility of
extending the Method of Ellipses from short, rigid-fiber composites to long, semi-flexible fiber systems. In the coming year, I'll evaluate a number of research objectives, including looking at both short- and long-fiber orientations in complex geometries, possibly making modifications to the traditional method's image analysis width, doing a comprehensive study on experimental fiber orientation behavior in areas like the sprue and immediate entry region of the tool, and looking at long-fiber flexibility to develop a method to experimentally quantify the extent of
fiber curvature."
Alper Kiziltas plans to explore the use of engineering thermoplastics reinforced with natural fillers for automotive underhood applications where conditions are too severe for commodity plastics. Using a combination of microcrystalline cellulose, wood flour, and hemp, flax, and kenaf fibers to replace conventional reinforcing fillers such as glass fiber, carbon fiber, nanoclay, and minerals, he hopes to formulate high specific-strength and modulus materials that are low-cost, low-density, easy-to-process, offer thermal and acoustic insulation, easy surface modification, low abrasion to molds, biodegradability, renewability, and global availability. He will concentrate on polyamide (PA, also called nylon) 6 and 6/6 as well as a blend of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT).
Kiziltas adds, "The common belief is that natural-filler reinforcements for thermoplastics are limited to low-melting commodity thermoplastics with melting points below 180C rather than higher temperature, higher performance engineering thermoplastics with higher melting points of 220oC and above. My research and patent applications have previously demonstrated that these beliefs are untrue. I have already succeeded in making thermoplastic composites combining microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) with nylons and thermoplastic polyesters and achieved melting points above 220oC and 260oC respectively. In the next phase of my research, I'll produce engineering thermoplastic composites with various natural fiber reinforcements
and MCC and then evaluate their resulting thermal and mechanical properties."
Held annually in suburban Detroit, the SPE ACCE draws over 500 speakers, exhibitors,
sponsors, and attendees and provides an environment dedicated solely to discussion and
networking about advances in the transportation composites. Its global appeal is evident in the diversity of exhibitors, speakers, and attendees who come to the conference from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia / Pacific as well as North America. Fully one-third of attendees indicate they work for automotive and light truck, agriculture, truck & bus, heavy truck, or aviation OEMs, and another 25% represent tier suppliers. Attendees also represent composite materials, processing equipment, additives, and reinforcement suppliers; trade associations, consultants, university and government labs; media; and investment bankers. The show has been jointly sponsored by the SPE Automotive and Composites Divisions since 2001.
Current supporters of the show include: PREMIER SPONSORS: Ticona Engineering Polymers, BASF Corp., Bayer MaterialScience, Dieffenbacher GmbH, Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc., Schuler Group, Continental Structural Plastics, PPG Industries; ASSOCIATE SPONSORS: Acrolab, Ltd., Addcomp North America, Inc., American Chemistry Council - Plastics Div., AOC Resins, Asahi Kasei Plastics North America, Inc., Ashland Inc., Bulk Molding Compounds Inc., e-Xstream engineering, LayStitch Technologies, Mitsubishi Rayon Co. Ltd., Newport Adhesives & Composites Inc., National Research Council Canada (NRC-CNRC), Plasan Carbon Composites, Plasticomp, LLC, Polystrand, Quantum Composites, RTP Co., The Composites Group, Toho Tenax America, Inc., Williams, White & Co., Zoltek, OCV Reinforcements, Core Molding Technologies, Inc., Fraunhofer Project Centre @ Western University, Trexel, Inc., ESI Group, Henkel Corp., Otsuka Chemical Co. Ltd., Engel North America, Saertex Group, A&P Technology, CoreTech System Co., Ltd. (Moldex3D), TenCate Advanced Composites USA, Inc., Albis Plastic Corp., ATF, Inc., Zotefoams, Plc; EXHIBITORS: XG Sciences, NETZSCH Instruments North America, LLC, Polyscope Polymers, WesTool Corp., Lawton Machinery Group; COFFEE BREAK SPONSORS: Magna Exteriors and Interiors, Multimatic Engineering, and DowAksa Advanced Composites Holdings BV; MEDIA/ASSOCIATION: Modern Plastics India Magazine, Reinforced Plastics magazine, Polymotive magazine, Automotive NewsWire magazine, Composites Technology magazine, High-Performance Composites magazine, CompositesWorld Weekly magazine, Plastics Technology magazine, Plaspec Global Plastics Selector, Plastech magazine, TheMoldingBlog.com, PrototypeToday.com, SAE International, Automotive Engineering International magazine, WardsAuto.com, China Plastics & Rubber Journal, China Plastics & Rubber Journal International, Global Automotive Lightweight Materials Conference, Plastics Engineering magazine, Automotive Design & Production magazine, AutoField Blog, JEC Group, and Lightweighting AutoPlastics 2012 Conference.
The mission of SPE is to promote scientific and engineering knowledge relating to plastics. SPE's Automotive and Composites Divisions work to advance plastics and plastic-based composites technologies worldwide and to educate industry, academia, and the public about these advances. Both divisions are dedicated to educating, promoting, recognizing, and communicating technical accomplishments for all phases of plastics and plastic-based composite developments, including materials, processing, equipment, tooling, design and testing, and application development.
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