CompositesWorld

MAR 2018

CompositesWorld

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MARCH 2018 26 CompositesWorld ยป To help its audience better understand how the composites industry is evolving, and how manufacturing technologies are currently evaluated and deployed, CompositesWorld recently conducted its first Operations Survey. e results are in, and the data are presented here. Conducted in late 2017, the Operations Survey was sent to a variety of CompositesWorld readers in a host of manufacturing environments, ranging from aerospace to automotive to marine. e goal was to learn as much as possible about the markets served, the materials and processes used, the emerging technol- ogies and the outlook for growth. Respondents were based mostly in the United States and work primarily in management, manufacturing, factory automa- tion, engineering and product design and R&D.; Survey ques- tions asked for information based on the respondent's primary facility/location only. Responses were, not surprisingly, dominated by people who fabricate composite parts for the aerospace end-market (Fig. 2, at right), followed by defense, industrial, automotive and marine. Further, a little more than 50% of respondents work in facilities that generate US$10 million or less in annual revenue (Fig. 3, bottom right). Of all composites fabrication processes, the most common in the survey were prepreg layup, compres- sion molding, infusion, resin transfer molding (RTM) and 3D printing. And, in addition to composites fabrication, more than 60% of survey respondents work in facilities that provide design engineering, assembly, machining/finishing, prototyping and research and development services (Fig. 4, p. 27, top left). e good news is that respondents were, on the whole, highly optimistic about composites use at their facility and by their customers. Over the coming 12 months, 50% of respondents expect their facility's volume of composites manufacturing, and revenue from composites, to increase. Another 49% expect those two values to remain unchanged. Similarly, 46% expect the volume of composites used by customers to increase, while 53% expect it will stay unchanged. And 52% expect to spend more money on composites manu- facturing equipment in the next 12 months, while another 44% CW's inaugural Operations Report aims to shed some light on the state of composites manufacturing today, and how it might evolve. CompositesWorld 2018 Operations Report By Jeff Sloan / Editor-in-Chief 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% US$11 million - US$100 million US$51 million - US$100 million More than US$100 million US$10 million or under 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 - 19 33.33% 20 - 49 (16.05%) 50 - 99 (9.8%) 100 - 249 (6.17%) 250+ 34.57% FIG. 1 Number of people employed at facility 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Aerospace 50.00% Defense 39.02% Industrial 30.49% Automotive 29.27% Marine 28.05% Sports and recreation 28.05% Construction/infrastructure 24.39% Consumer 18.29% Oil and gas 13.41% Wind energy 13.41% Other 10.98% Agriculture 4.88% Mass transit 4.88% FIG. 2 End markets served by facility FIG. 3 Facility revenue

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