IntertechPira has announced its agenda for its leading conference dedicated to the carbon fibre industry, GOCarbonFibre2010, which will feature featuring Airbus, Boeing, Opel / General Motors and carbon fibre manufacturer Zoltek, amongst others.

The 13th annual Global Outlook for Carbon Fibre, newly branded as GOCarbonFibre, will take place on 29-30 September at the Barcelo Valencia Hotel, Spain and will cover all current industry issues from market analysis to virgin CFRP production and CFRP recycling.

Day 1’s plenary session will open with the keynote from Dr Roland Thevenin of Airbus SAS analysing the future of carbon fibre in Airbus.

"I spoke about the A350 and A380 projects at the Global Outlook for Carbon Fibre conference in 2007 in San Diego and found the event to be an excellent forum for discussion of technical and market aspects for carbon fibre composites. A lot of water has passed under the bridge on these projects and Airbus's further work with carbon fibres and I am looking forward to returning to IntertechPira's event in 2010 to share our experiences and vision for the future with the industry in what I'm sure will be a very interesting and enjoyable conference in Valencia,” said Thevenin.

The session will be chaired by Bernard Zeller of Structil and will also present Dr Ing Wolfgang Oelerich of Adam Opel GmbH, Bill Carberry of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Dr James Meredith of the University of Warwick.

Discussing the conference recently, Dr Oelerich said: “I am delighted to join the programme for IntertechPira's GOCarbonFibre conference to share the views of General Motors/Adam Opel GmbH on the future use of carbon fibre composites in the automotive industry. Carbon fibre has great potential to play a significant role in vehicle leightweighting for next generation vehicles. Combined with other clean technologies we are working with, such as hydrogen fuel cells, it will help us to deliver the best possible environmental performance from our mass production vehicles."

On the afternoon of Day 1 and morning of Day 2, the conference will split into two parallel streams called Virgin and Recycling tracks. The Virgin track will feature speakers from Structil, Oak Ridge National Laboratoy, National Aerospace Laboratory, Dürr Systems as well as the open forum discussion examining the need for industry standards, what these specifications should be and how to proceed with establishing an international standards system.

The Recycling track, chaired by Prof Steve Pickering of the University of Nottingham, will include presentations from Technical Fibre Products, Recco Project Team, CFK Valley Stade Recycling, Imperial College, University of Nottingham, Aeronautical Research and Test Institute and NC State University.

The conference will close with a presentation from Tom Hunter of Firebird Advanced Materials, discussing the challenges in engaging upstream users in the recycling process and the closing keynote exploring the future of commercial carbon fibres presented by Zsolt Rumy of Zoltek Companies Inc.

With many networking and social events, including a drinks and canapé reception at the stunning Parc des Sciences y de l'Artes, IntertechPira says GOCarbonFibre2010 is the ideal platform to make lucrative business connections and get the essential update on industry developments and issues. The complete and detailed programme can be found on the conference official website www.gocarbonfibre.com

IntertechPira provides events, market research, and publications, strategic and technical consulting to niche, emerging and high growth industries. Market coverage includes lighting and displays, clean energy, home and personal care, industrial biotechnology, performance materials and chemicals. IntertechPira is a division of Pira International.