The cluster in the city triangle Munich, Augsburg and Ingolstadt pursues to lead carbon fiber reinforced plastics technology to series capacity in 2020. 35 major projects are included in the cluster research portfolio. The ambitious goal is to reduce the production costs by 90 per cent between 2010 and 2020.
Founding partners include German giants like Audi, BMW, Premium Aerotec, Airbus Helicopters, Voith and SGL Carbon. Today the cluster is comprised of approximately 100 participants and has an annual cluster budget of 80 million Euros.
“We spent two very interesting days in Augsburg and Munich. We were inspired by the work MAI Carbon Cluster does and will look for opportunities for joint research projects with the cluster”, says Marit Dolmen, Head of RD&I at GCE NODE.
The ambition from NODE’s perspective is to explore how composites could be more used offshore.
“Composites are initially more expensive than steel, but have advantages like light weight, high strength, excellent corrosion resistance and fatigue resistance. Together with embedded or on-line sensors that enable real-time structural health monitoring, the result is often a lower maintenance cost. Companies need to look at the total lifecycle cost of the materials they use. This makes composites an interesting alternative”, says Dolmen.
NODE has already scheduled a new composites workshop for December 10. The workshop will be held at Elkem in Kristiansand.
GCE NODE project Composites and New Materials are supported by RFF Agder and Sørlandets kompetansefond.
