#Composites

2023-11-16

The curtain lifts on JEC World 2024, the unmissable event for composites professionals

Less than 4 months to go before JEC World opens the doors to the 2024 edition. Well known globally as the main composites festival, a place where business meets inspiration and innovation, the show expects to gather the whole composites community and more. Appointment is settled from March 5th to 7th, 2024 in Paris Nord Villepinte.

The conferences program unveils

Historically, composite parts have already shown their value in making many end sectors more sustainable thanks to their intrinsic properties. But the challenges that the composites industry needs to tackle to reach its sustainability goals are still high and will be at the centre of the conferences and panels this year. They will explore material solutions, such as natural fibres or recycled products, as well as processes, among which the use of automation and digitalization.

At JEC World 2023, end-users’ applications focuses attracted hundreds of participants looking to learn about the lastest trends of their industry sector of interest. Gathering research reports, real industry case studies and forecasts, these JEC conferences will star Wind, Aerospace and Transportation as main topics.

Also in 2024, three Country on Stage are confirmed to take place on the Agora stage giving attendees the opportunity to get to know characteristics, trends and strategies in Italy, Michigan and in France.

Celebrating breakthrough projects

The JEC Composites Innovation Awards

For more than 25 years, these Awards have celebrated cutting-edge collaborative projects of the composites industry. All year long, they aim to identify, promote, and reward the most innovative solutions worldwide and enhance their public exposure while contributing, as one, to the evolution of the composite industry.

All companies, R&D centres and their partners can apply before November 26th. For the third year, the winners will be revealed during a ceremony a month prior to JEC World, on February 8th in Paris.

The jury of this year Innovation Awards:

• Hüseyin ATES, CTO & Compounding BU Leader, Kordsa

• Pr. Alan BANKS, Innovation & Industrial Engagement Supervisor, Ford Motor Company

• Pr. Christophe BINETRUY, Professor, Centrale Nantes / Nantes Université

• Tamara BLANCO, Composite Materials & Processes Engineer & Expert, Airbus

• Dale BROSIUS, Executive VP/Chief Commercialization Officer, IACMI – The Composite Institute

• Michel COGNET, Chairman of the Board, JEC

• Dr. Karl-Heinz FÜLLER, Manager Future Exterior and Materials, Mercedes-Benz

• Dr. Sung HA, Professor, Hanyang University

• Guy LARNAC, Technical Domain Coordinator for Materials, Structures and Industrialization JTFR, Ariane Group

• Pr. Véronique MICHAUD, Head of Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites (LPAC), EPFL

• Pr. Kiyoshi UZAWA, Professor/Director, Innovative Composite Center, Kanazawa Institute of Technology

The JEC Composites Startup Booster

The leading startup competition in the world of composites and advanced materials gathers each year the boldest entrepreneurs, SMEs, startups and academic spinoffs working on avant-garde projects. At stake: international visibility and a chance to bring their business to the next level.

The call for entries is open until December 3rd. Following this, 20 startups will be selected by JEC and its partners Airbus, Owens Corning and Mercedes-Benz. Out of the 20 finalists, 3 winners will be selected during the pitching sessions of the show: one in a “Materials & Products” category, one in a “Process, Manufacturing & Equipment” category and a special “Sustainability” award.

The jury of this year Startup Booster contest:

• Jelle Bloemhof, Head of Composites Manufacturing Technologies, Airbus

• Dr. Karl-Heinz FÜLLER, Manager Future Exterior and Materials, Mercedes-Benz

• Raphaele LEYENDECKER, Managing Director, Techstars

• Chris Skinner, VP Strategic Marketing, Composite, Owens Corning

Industry focuses on the floorplan

With 8 out of 10 participants visiting these highly inspiring areas in 2023, participants are now well aware of the JEC Innovation Planets where the most innovative applications are displayed “in the flesh”. In 2024, the Mobility planet will be back featuring ground transportation, aerospace or railway solutions, while the Building & Infrastructure Planet will make its debut, bringing insight into a growing composites market.?Other dedicated areas will be shedding a light on particular aspect of our industry with the Natural Fibres Village, the Campus Village , the Startup Booster Village, the SME Village and, as a novelty, the Live Demonstration Area. The Discover Composites area, will cover the history of composites in the sports industry. A nod at this year main event in Paris …

JEC WORLD 2023 KEY FIGURES

• 1,200+ exhibitors • 26 Pavilions • 40,200 professional visits • 7,100 business meetings

• 99% visitors’ satisfaction • 11 Innovation Awards winners • 3 Startup Booster winners

JEC World 2024

March 5-7 – Paris Nord Villepinte

JEC Forum Southeast Asia 2026 highlights Taiwan as a strategic hub for the global composites industry

The third edition of JEC Forum organized in Southeast Asia brought together 350+ participants from 22 countries for three active days of high-level Business Meetings, conferences, and networking, emphasizing Southeast Asia’s growing role in the global composites market. Held for the first time in Taipei from 23 to 24 June 2026, following the successful first editions in Bangkok, JEC Forum Southeast Asia 2026 confirmed its position as the region’s leading business platform dedicated to the composites industry.

JEC World 2026 confirms its standing as the unmissable event for composites and their applications

JEC World 2026 confirms its position as the leading global event for the composite materials industry and its applications across multiple sectors, bringing together the entire composites ecosystem in Paris for three days of business, innovation, and collaboration. True to its Pushing the Limits motto, the 2026 edition delivered outstanding results despite travel disruptions worldwide. The numbers speak for themselves: more than 1,400 exhibitors from over 50 countries, including over 150 first-timers, presented a global panorama of products, equipment, and services across the entire composites value chain.

JEC Composites Startup Booster: 2026 winners announced

The leading global startup competition for composites and advanced materials has crowned its 2026 champions, ahead of a landmark 10th anniversary edition next year. The winners of the JEC Composites Startup Booster 2026 were announced on Wednesday, 11 March, at JEC World, recognizing the most promising emerging companies reshaping the future of composites and advanced materials.

JEC WORLD 2026 opens: Paris becomes the World Capital of composites

JEC World 2026 opens tomorrow, March 10, at Paris Nord Villepinte, bringing together the entire composites ecosystem for three days of exhibitions, conferences, technical sessions, strategic industry gatherings, and business meetings. As the “festival of composites”, JEC World is also a destination for a broad spectrum of other professional visitors, eager to discover how these advanced materials can offer sustainable solutions to their industries.

Fewer pores, greater impact tolerance: Peter Dornier Foundation Prize 2026 honours material research on fibre-reinforced composite components for aerospace industry

Microscopically small pores that form during manufacture, or barely visible impact damage, can severely impair the load-bearing capacity and service life of fibre-reinforced composite components. Two young researchers have presented groundbreaking work in this field and will both be awarded the 2026 Peter Dornier Foundation Prize: Dr.-Ing. Benedikt Neitzel from the Technical University of Ilmenau for his doctoral thesis on pore minimisation in the RTM process, and Johanna Buschmann, M.Sc., for her master’s thesis, completed at the German Aerospace Centre, on the improved impact tolerance of 3D fabrics compared to 2D laminates.

MEL Composites supports ELA Aviation with advanced composite materials

MEL Composites is supplying advanced composite materials and process consumables to ELA Aviation for the production of its next-generation gyroplanes. The collaboration underlines MEL Composites’ growing role in advanced aerospace mobility, providing lightweight materials designed to improve aircraft performance, manufacturing efficiency and structural reliability.

DYNEEMA® and NP Aerospace advance personal protection for military servicewomen

Dyneema®, owned by Avient Corporation, an innovator of materials solutions, is supplying its high-performance unidirectional (UD) materials to world-leading armor manufacturer NP Aerospace, enabling the production of armor systems designed specifically to fit the female body. With 2,000 new armor systems, including 4,000 plates, made in the United Kingdom (UK) and delivered in June 2026, this collaboration addresses a long-standing lack of high-quality personal protection specially built for female defense and security personnel.

EU ban on destroying unsold clothing and footwear now in force

The European Union's ban on the destruction of unsold clothing, clothing accessories and footwear has entered into force. Since July 19, 2026, large companies across the EU have been prohibited from destroying unsold textile products, while medium-sized companies will be required to comply with the same rules from 2030.

Eastman Naia™ brings its inside-out denim vision to Kingpins New York

Following its debut at Kingpins Amsterdam, Eastman Naia™ brings the next chapter of its denim story to Kingpins New York, taking place July 22–23. At Booth Green 7, Naia™ presents its denim proposition built around three complementary design directions: Performance Denim, Fashion Denim and Authentic Denim.