The American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) is proud to announce the finalists for the Awards for Composites Excellence (ACE), sponsored by Composites One. ACE is a prestigious composites industry competition that recognizes outstanding achievement and innovation in technology, manufacturing and product development.

On Tuesday, September 12 at 2 p.m., during the fourth annual CAMX – The Composites and Advanced Materials Expo, in the ACE Pavilion (located in the upper left-hand corner of the Exhibit Hall), ACMA and Composites One will announce the winning entries.  All of the finalists will have their product entries on display in the ACE Pavilion at CAMX.

"ACE is an incredible opportunity to see some of the best innovation our industry has to offer," said Tom Dobbins, ACMA President.  "Every year we look forward to seeing how businesses envision new uses of composites and advanced materials to make better more innovative products."

In the design category, the Most Creative Application Award is given to the composites product that showcases composites use in a unique, new application. This year, the finalists are:

  • Rapid Manufacture of Ultra-High Quality Composite Mirrors: The Aerospace Corporation
  • Composites Lift the World's First Electric Flying Surfboard: Strongwell
  • One-Piece Molded High Performance Carbon Fiber Triathlon Bicycle Frame: Cervelo Cycles/Vroomen White Design
  • Golf Swing Training (LAG) Device: Tsunami Bar, LLC
  • Composite Self-Driving Shuttle by Additive Manufacturing: Local Motors

The design category also features the Innovation in Green Composites Design Award, which recognizes a composites product that best exemplifies innovation that lowers/minimizes the environmental footprint or offers an attractive life cycle assessment (LCA) of the product. This will be the first time this has been awarded since CAMX's debut in 2014. This year's finalists are:

  • Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel made with Recycled Continuous Carbon Fiber: Vartega Inc.
  • Biodegradable 3-D Printed Molds for FRP Tank Part Manufacturing: Design Tanks LLC
  • Large Scale 3D Printing Using 100% Bio-Composite Materials: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

In the manufacturing category, the Equipment and Tooling Innovation Award is given to the equipment, tooling, production aid, or software that is designed to improve manufacturing production, environmental sustainability or product quality and performance in composites manufacturing. This year, the finalists are:

  • Composite Material Roll and Kit Life Tracking Software: JETCAM International s.a.r.l
  • Comprehensive Composite Manufacturing Platform: Autodesk
  • Reusable Shipping and Storage Containers for High Value Assets: PRC Composites

The manufacturing category also features the Materials and Process Innovation Award, which recognizes a material or process that best contributes to efficient manufacturing and product sustainability. This year, the finalists are:

  • Out-of-Autoclave Process: Low Cost, Low Cycle Time Motorcycle Helmets: Vistex Composites LLC
  • CFRTP Processing Technology Using Commingling, Fiber Laying, and Light Molding: Gifu University (Gifu, Japan)
  • Significant Weight Reduction of Aircraft Seat: Oxeon AB
  • 3D Foam Printing Technology: University of Central Florida

In the market growth category, the Infinite Possibility Award is given to the composites product that demonstrates the potential to significantly increase the use of composites in existing markets or generate the greatest impact to open new and emerging markets for composites. This year's finalists are:

  • Low Cost Carbon Fiber (LCCF): Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Curved Pultrusion Process Applied to Highly Engineered Hollow Profiles: Shape Corp
  • Ford/Magna Carbon Fiber Subframe: Ashland LLC

For more information, visit http://www.thecamx.org/awards-competitions/.