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News & Events<br />
Thirteen composite champions win<br />
JEC Innovation Awards<br />
JEC Group celebrates composite innovation at JEC World <strong>2017</strong>.<br />
WHILE THIS year’s show will take place<br />
from Tuesday March 14 to Thursday<br />
March 16, <strong>2017</strong> at the Paris Nord Villepinte<br />
Exhibition Centre, France, JEC Group<br />
is proud to unveil the names of the 13<br />
winners of the JEC Innovation Awards.<br />
The JEC Innovation Awards reward the<br />
best composite breakthroughs based on<br />
their technical interest, market potential,<br />
partnerships, financial & environmental<br />
impact and originality.<br />
Composite innovations in the spotlight<br />
at JEC World<br />
This year, the submissions for the<br />
Innovation Awards programme were<br />
impressive, both in quantity and diversity,<br />
and more importantly in quality.<br />
“Manufacturing processes for large series<br />
are growing in importance this year. This<br />
movement is expected to trigger a more<br />
massive use of composites. Therefore, we<br />
could see a change of scale in our industry,<br />
particularly in certain mass production<br />
sectors such as the automotive sector,<br />
for example, where the supply chain<br />
is reconfiguring through mergers and<br />
acquisitions, the upstream integration of<br />
automotive suppliers and the downstream<br />
integration of raw materials producers.”<br />
says Mrs Frédérique Mutel, JEC Group<br />
President & CEO.<br />
Just as last year, a high number of<br />
submissions came from the automotive<br />
industry, thus perfectly illustrating<br />
the current market trends. Process<br />
improvement was also one of the most<br />
represented themes, highlighting the<br />
importance of cycle time reduction.<br />
With 13 categories ranging from<br />
raw materials to process, to applications<br />
in various fields such as Aeronautics,<br />
Automotive, Construction, Marine and<br />
Better Living, the winning projects offer a<br />
complete overview of the composite value<br />
chain, and the many future opportunities<br />
that are still to be taken in the field of<br />
composites.<br />
The JEC Innovation Awards ceremony<br />
will highlight 13 innovators on stage and<br />
will take place on Wednesday March 15 at<br />
5 pm at JEC World (Paris Nord Villepinte -<br />
France). Of relevance is the category under<br />
Construction.<br />
Winner: ACCIONA Construcción SA<br />
(Spain)<br />
When the two 24km-long Pajares highspeed<br />
railway tunnels met the problem of<br />
continuous water infiltration on around<br />
Innovative composite panels, an<br />
alternative to steel and concrete<br />
for high-speed railway tunnel<br />
construction.<br />
30% of the total tunnel length, few of the<br />
available solutions in the market were able<br />
to solve the issue.<br />
The innovative composite panels<br />
developed by Acciona proved to be the best<br />
solution in this demanding construction<br />
work because they managed to meet all<br />
the technical challenges while complying<br />
with the flame-retardant requirements<br />
associated with this type of application.<br />
The challenges of this innovation<br />
were diverse because of the many criteria<br />
that had to be met. From a mechanical<br />
point of view, the use of composites<br />
made it possible to meet the structural<br />
requirements while being thin enough not<br />
to change the tunnel’s diameter and being<br />
compatible with catenary systems. The<br />
design flexibility offered by composites<br />
also enabled Acciona to develop a system<br />
with leak-proof joints and an anchorage<br />
system. The 9.2-metre-long panels were<br />
also flexible enough to adapt to the shape<br />
of the tunnel and its irregularities.<br />
Another concern in this project was the<br />
need to produce as many as 15,000 panels<br />
within the delivery schedule and to keep<br />
the cost of the composite panels as low as<br />
possible. To achieve this, Acciona opted<br />
for a pultrusion process and developed a<br />
low-cost resin injection system and fibre<br />
impregnation chamber that were adapted<br />
to the viscosity of the flame-retardant resin<br />
formulated for the project. This new system<br />
made it possible to produce one composite<br />
panel in 34 minutes on a continuous basis.<br />
The other advantages of composites in<br />
this application were their low maintenance<br />
and high corrosion resistance compared to<br />
traditional construction materials. Finally,<br />
the handling and installation of the panels<br />
in the tunnel were easy and fast thanks to<br />
the lightweight nature of the composite<br />
panels.<br />
To sum up and illustrate the size of<br />
the project: more than 15,000 panels were<br />
produced, covering about 200,000 square<br />
metres of tunnel for a total of 1,700 tonnes<br />
of composites. <br />
36 <strong>Building</strong> & <strong>Investment</strong> | www.b-i.biz
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