Dirk Plas – President, BYK, USA

BYK makes additives for composite applications in the construction, transportation, automotive, recreation, and wind energy markets. Applications include wind blades, fiberglass tubs, boat hulls, automotive body panels, and duroskins for fiberglass doors. The additives are designed to improve the processing or air release in spray-up and lay-up manufacturing as well as the casting process (marble, solid surface). Dirk Plas, BYK-USA president, discusses his view of the composites industry.

What markets are you more focused on?

The area we’re most focused on is anything to do with energy savings, which includes “green” and wind energy. Many customers are working actively to replace existing raw materials with more sustainable materials. There’s a lot of money being invested there. There’s a very significant focus right now on developing alternative energy technologies. There’s a high demand for green products and more money going into that area. A lot of our customers need help in making these new materials work.

What challenges do your customers have?

When formulating with green products, there are challenges with regard to compatibility. Customers are always looking for ways to reduce scrap. Anytime you make a composite, you have an air release problem. Filler materials help make composites more cost competitive, and so do the wetting and dispersing additives. These additives reduce rollout time and filler increase.

Is the “green” movement here to stay?

I think so. Green doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. Some industries will be slow to adopt, but ultimately it’s not a fad, and it’s not going away.

What is the state of the additives industry?

Like everyone else, we suffered a decline at the end of 2008 that continued through 2009. Things have started to improve; however, the market was already competitive but has become even more so. Everyone’s looking for new business, scrambling after stimulus dollars and looking for new areas. As a result, competitors are also moving into new areas. But we’re also doing the same thing. We’re not seeing a lot of consolidation, but rather more people coming into the market.

How has the market changed in the past decade?

The market for additives in composites isn’t an old market, so we’ve seen a lot of growth. New technologies are being developed and it’s still a growing market. Our company in particular started focusing on the composites industry about 20 years ago, and we began seeing strong market pickup.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that now, we get more demands or requests for composites that are highly flame-retardant because reduced emissions of the actual composite are a more important factor. In any industry, everything focuses on low VOCs. Personal safety for the workers, the people who work in manufacturing, is always important. Nanoadditives have also come on strongly in the last three to four years in the composites market. There have been a lot of government regulations, particularly in regard to styrene. ACMA has been an active voice in regard to styrene regulation.

How do you see the styrene issue playing out?

I speculate we have reached the minimum amount of styrene that we can work with. I don’t think those can go much lower. There are trends in development that are styrene-free, but I don’t think the government will push much for us to reduce styrene content. Styrene is an integral part of the polyester, which is responsible for cross-linking in chemical processes. It has over 50 years of historical use in these types of composites. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to take them out in the next few years. Alternatives to styrene do not offer same type of historical use or consistency in use. Partial replacements could occur in the near future, but we’re talking about a very long time to make a total replacement.

How will the composites industry change in the next five years?

I think lower densities and lighter weight composites will be a trend for all applications. Everyone’s always looking for stronger composites, so that will be a trend. Renewable resources will continue to grow. You’ll also see an increase in coupling agents that will increase the physical properties of composites. Nanoadditives will emerge more and more for certain applications such as antimicrobial tendencies.

In aviation, there’s a big push for carbon fiber. It’s a little bit of a fragmented, niche application market, so it’s hard for us to focus on that market. We want to though, because we believe it’s an area where composites is going to grow. Technology in aviation sometimes transfers to automotive, so we’ll see a trend in that direction.

From your viewpoint, how can composites grow?

There needs to be more applications away from steel, aluminum, and wood. The standard approach composites has had for years is converting applications, but there needs to be more of a focus on day-to-day growth. That approach has picked up in the construction market and has helped reinvigorate the infrastructure market. Those two areas have strong immediate and long-term growth opportunities.

What segments have been hit hardest?

The recreation market was down almost 80 percent in 2009. It has recouped a little bit since then, but it’ll be a long-term process to get back to where it used to be. A lot of baby boomers are coming onto the market, and they may be interested in RVs, so that might drive growth a bit. Concerning boats, manufacturers have had success with making boat hulls from composites. You can see a conversion to infusion-molding and vacuum bag from spray-up and lay-up. I think companies that make RV parts can diversify by integrating their parts into construction or fire-retardant panels.

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The top story in July, Composites Bend the Bar, is about consulting and marketing company Flexi-StiX, LLC process in creating and secured a patent for its process of incorporating pultrusion into a thermoplastic tube. President Gordon Brown took his knowledge of bombproof wallpaper and made a niche for himself in the sport and recreation market.

Two other popular stories are Supercar Made by Composite Hand Lay-up and Cultured Marble’s Eco Trends.

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Cultured Marble manufacturer Quality Marble shares their experience on Capitol Hill as part of ACMA's annual Lobby Day.

Last April, the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) organized a Lobby Day and Composites Caucus events in Washington D.C. Industry members from all around the country met with and educated Senators and Representatives on issues important to them. One of those companies, and the only representative for the cultured marble industry, was manufacturer Quality Marble, Inc.

The family owned company went to Capitol Hill from Summerville, S.C. with passion and purpose…and kept detailed notes of their experience. They note that their main focus was on acquiring support in preventing the National Toxicology Program (NTP) from listing styrene as a reasonably anticipated carcinogen. “I think a large group speaks volumes and we believed our Representatives would at least consider our request,” writes Vice President Jacqueline Webb. “I was so nervous, but I kept telling myself ‘they work for us, we got them their jobs’. That helped a little with the nerves.”

For this year’s event, ACMA joined forces with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which Webb felt was a good fit. “We are a manufacturing company ourselves and have the same issues and concerns as the NAM group,” she notes.

The morning began with a speech from Arizona Senator John Kyl, which the family thought was very motivating. Then, they met with other ACMA members for about an hour. “This is when we actually realized there were only about 20 members here for our specific cause and I didn’t know how so few of us were going to be able to meet with so many congressmen and women,” writes Webb.

However, to tackle the problem, members were put in groups by state, and the Webbs’ group met first with Senator Lindsey Graham’s Director of Legislative Correspondence, Courtney Flezzani. In her journal, Webb paints a vivid picture of Monty Felix, president of ACMA, conducting most of the meeting but notes that as the day went on, her group became more comfortable and (with Monty’s encouragement) each of them spoke on behalf of the cause.

Later, the group also met with correspondents from Senator Jim DeMint, Representative Albio Sires and Representative David Price, and had a face-to-face meeting with North Carolina Representative Virginia Foxx.

In each of our meetings, the group discussed their concerns and the impact the mislabeling of styrene would have on the future of the composite industry. “We felt everyone we spoke with today showed interest in what we were saying,” she writes. And overall, the group considered the trip a success. “We know as owners of a business that relies on the composite industries and suppliers, this is a very important issue and our organization needs to participate anywhere we can possibly make our voices heard and make a difference,” says Webb.

You can read more about ACMA’s Lobby Day2010 and participants experiences in Composites Manufacturing’s summer issue.

Composites Manufacturing talked to three manufacturers who have experienced modest growth in their business. Southern Cultured Marble, Custom Marble Products and Formatop have seen increases ranging from 10 to 25 percent over the past two months.

So what’s accounting for this growth? According to Mark Buehner, president of South Dakota-based Formatop, part of it may be psychology. “For too long, the news was too negative, and the way people feel has a strong influence on their purchasing habits,” he says. Buehner hopes the positive news galvanizes spending.

However, these companies still can’t fully shake the reality of their situation. “I tend to disregard percentages and focus on real numbers,” says Scott Bishop, vice president of South Carolina-based Southern Cultured Marble, Inc. “I think in this case, the percentage aspect is slightly misleading. It’s a percentage of a much smaller number, so the real growth isn’t as large as it would have been a few years ago.”

Todd Loebel, owner of Wisconsin-based Custom Marble Products, agrees, saying local homebuilders in the area who were once building 70 to 80 homes per year now struggle to build about 15. “I view percentages with a grain of salt. Ten percent growth sounds good, until you realize that because it comes from the lower number, you’re looking at essentially one extra home per year. That’s good, but not anywhere close to what the typical levels would be,” he says.

Even with the modest increase in new housing over the previous year, Bishop says the cost factor will continue to inhibit cultured marble. “The houses themselves are worth less, and feature less-expensive materials to match,” he says. “Unfortunately for us, the price of the raw materials hasn’t dropped. In fact, they’ve only increased, so we’re still at their mercy.”

Though the housing levels continue to be a fraction of what they were even a few years ago, these men say the industry will continue to focus on innovations and developments to make the recent growth even larger. “The industry has to look at the aesthetics of the product. For example, color trends change much faster than what they used to, so companies must always be thinking about what they can do to make things newer,” says Buehner.

Composites have a unique ability to customize content to meet varying needs said Bonnie Webster, vice president of Monroe Industries.  Her company makes and sells custom showers, counter tops and other products for consumer use.  She said the mistake most manufacturers and distributors make is not advertising the green components of their products to consumers and designers.

“It’s how you tell your story that makes a difference,” said Jack Simmons, vice president of sales for ACS International.  He emphasized that when it comes to customers, saving the environment is an emotional issue.  “People buy on emotion and justify with facts,” he said.    The recycled content of a product might not outweigh cost and color in the consumer’s mind but it can make customers feel good about their decisions.

Angela Kliever, director of marketing for ACS International explained the difference between recycled content and renewable content.  Recycled content is made from material that was destined for the landfill such as glass, plastic or metal scrap.  Renewables are produced by nature such as cork, sea shells or corn cobs. These are ideal for use as fill material that is covered by gel coat or might be used to create unusual surfaces with great customer appeal.

However, the environmentally friendly aspects of a product will not be obvious to the consumer. Marketing campaigns must include that information and right now standards have not been set on how much recycled or renewable material is required to call a product “green” said Webster.

When working with architects who are seeking LEED Certification, it’s a different story.   In designing a LEED certified building, designers are trying to reach a certain percentage of recycled or renewable material to achieve certification points.  The higher a product’s  green content, the more attractive that product will be, Simmons said.  This is one area where composites have an advantage.  Manufacturers can customize the content of a part or structure to meet the needs of the architect.

Manufacturers and distributors of composite materials need to be more creative in how they incorporate green materials in their products and how they promote products to consumers.  Webster suggested instituting energy and waste reduction programs in the plant and offices as a way to show a commitment to environmentalism.  “If the lights go on when a customer walks into your showroom, it says something about your company,” she said.

Marble Industries new Robal Glass

Monroe Industries thinks it’s time for the cultured marble industry to embrace the green trend. To spearhead this journey, they developed Robal Glass, an environmentally-friendlier solution for such applications as vanity tops, shower bases, and wall surfaces.

Robal Glass is made with two types of recycled glass, some used in construction projects, whereas others are post-industrial glass that never made it to store shelves. The recycled glass is then cast in a soy-based resin.

Despite using the same tools and molds, Vice President Bonnie Webster says the difference in manufacturing this product comes down to the casting process. “It doesn’t cast like calcium carbonate or aluminum trihydrate based products. We needed to develop the technology in developing the right particle packing to have a true solid material,” she says.

The company is currently working on showcasing the technology to the architectural market right now, says Webster. At some shows the company has gone to there is a lot of interest in the product, “A lot of them crowd around our booth because they simply wanted to know what it was. They had never seen it before,” Webster says. Among the most common questions she got concerned price comparisons to solid surface (it’s less) and whether or not the material is customizable (it is).

In an effort to spread the green trend, Monroe is taking a unique step and licensing the technology to other companies. Luciana Industries and Syn-Mar Products are the first to take advantage of the situation. “This is a product that can set our industry apart from other industries,” she says. “Cultured marble has always had a stigma that everyone does the same thing differently. We have a new product made the same way whether you buy it here or elsewhere,” she says.

Participants were asked to submit their guesses as to the identity of the ten items below via email or online by Dec. 18. Those who answered correctly were entered into a drawing for a chance to win a free registration to COMPOSITES 2010, the American Composites Manufacturers Association’s annual conference, to be held February 9-11, 2010 in Las Vegas.

So, without further ado, CM magazine would like to congratulate Mark Deadrick of 3dyn and Keith Steurer of Shive-Hatter as the two winners of the contest. And for those who couldn’t quite figure it out, the answers are listed below:

1. Pedestrian footbridge
2. Terracotta Warrior horse statue at P.F. Chang’s restaurant
3. Firefighter protective helmet
4. Surfboard
5. Light fixture
6. Cast polymer counter top
7. Tennis racket
8. Wind turbine blades
9. Mountain bike frame
10. Car wing

Photos courtesy of Aztec Marble, Tulsa, Okla.; Carbon Composites, Bennington, Vt.; Kreysler & Associates, American Canyon, Calif.; Molded Fiberglass, Ashtabula, Ohio;  Santa Cruz Bicycles, Santa Cruz, Calif., and Strongwell, Bristol, Va.

Below are close-up photos of 10 objects made of composites that can be found in the auto, sports and recreation, construction, renewable energy and other market segments.

If you’re as good as you think you are (or just better than your coworkers), post your guesses of the identity of these objects, numbered 1-10, in the comments section below. Everyone who posts the correct answers by Dec. 18 will be entered in a drawing to win a free registration to COMPOSITES 2010 in Las Vegas, Feb. 9-11. Winners will be announced on the our blog December 21st.

Need some help? Visit CM Twitter for clues.

*you may also submit answers to Melinda Skea, CM’s Managing Editor.

Marbleon and Gruber teamed to create the MasterCast ADA Bowl.

A new bowl by Gruber and Marbleon, in collaboration with architect firm Reese, Lower, Patrick and Scott (RLPS), is designed for the niche market of ADA accessibility. The MasterCast ADA Bowl is the first item branded with the marketing group’s MasterCast name.

Chris Hurdleston, president of Leola,Pa.-based Marbleon, says the product addresses concerns the architect had about the height issue. “For someone in a wheelchair, normal vanity tops are too high, so they wanted them lowered,” he says. “With existing bowls that we use, the top of the surface to the bottom is seven inches, so they can’t lower it because the bowl is too deep. Someone can’t roll in using a wheelchair. Instead, they’d have to take the vanity and put it so high in order to roll under it, but it almost maxes out on the maximum height for an ADA vanity.”

It’s at this juncture where Gruber enters the picture. The Valencia, Calif.-based manufacturer recently unveiled a flat oval bowl measuring an inch and a half deep on the inside and three inches deep top to bottom. Gruber and Marbleon presented the new Oval to RLPS and they said, “It’s too contemporary and not deep enough for a retirement community environment,” said Hurdleston. “So we asked them what they were looking for, and they gave us a very detailed drawing. The two companies began conversing and came up with the concept of creating a bowl that was shallow with integral overflow.

The development process took approximately six months and was full of back-and-forth developments between RLPS doing preliminary sketches and Gruber’s CAD drawings. Between the three organizations, the drawings were constantly circulated with new improvements.

Coming up with a final design for this element proved to be one of the biggest obstacles. “The more the architect found we were willing to go outside the box on this, the more they pushed us to come up with unique aspects of design,” said Hurdleston. In addition to the height improvement, the bowl also features hand grabs on the sides for patrons needing to pull themselves to the vanity.

A critical factor was positioning the overflow. Typically, the part is manufactured underneath the sink; however, this would conflict with the need to get a wheelchair rolled underneath. “The firm preferred that it be in the back or the side, and we couldn’t do that and still meet the requirements. So we created an internal overflow which doesn’t interfere with the depth of the vanity top,” said Hurdleston.

During the process, Hurdleston says the architects were surprised at the industry’s capabilities. When presented with a prototype out of ACS granite filler with a two-tone bowl, the architects thought it was a solid surface top. “It was a great education process because they think they know what cultured marble is, but there’s a lack of education, and we blew them away with these new implementations,” he says.

Hurdleston says the perception of cast polymer’s viability dogged them from the beginning of the process. “The architect often did custom Corian pieces which were brutally expensive, but they fit the design,” he says. “The Corian fabricators told them it had to be done out of solid surface because you can’t fabricate something like this. We just proved them wrong.”

Hurdleston remarked that manufacturers need to revisit with their architects and come up with a program of what the industry can really do to improve its standing. Though he had worked with RLPS before, it wasn’t until the opportunity arose to contribute a unique design that they saw the industry differently. “In my opinion, a lot of the architects believe we are an inferior product, and all we do is white-on-white standard sizes,” he said. “A re-education of our existing customer base needs to happen. That doesn’t involve just handing out some color samples. It’s coming to the table with a variety of different things we do, not just refreshing samples that are three years old.”

The bowl has already been used in a large-scale fashion. National Lutheran Communities in a nursing facility in Rockville, Md., has ordered 300 models to be installed in their facility. “The architects do a lot of work with retirement communities and are always looking for new ideas and new ways of doing things,” he says. “They spearheaded the effort to get in something that was less expensive but met the needs of what their customer was looking for, which was ADA accessibility.”