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Ilkay Özkisaoglu
Since 04/2021 162 Episoden

#158 How can cutting-edge technology and sustainable practices transform the composites industry? Insights from my interview with Johannes Martin at JEC World 2025

22.04.2025 17 min Staffel 5 Episode 116

Zusammenfassung & Show Notes

Imagine a world where high-performance composites are not only innovative but also eco-friendly. Learn how Biesterfeld Group, one of the world's leading distribution and service companies in the field of plastics, rubber and specialty chemicals, is making this vision a reality

During the JEC World 2025, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Johannes Martin, Market Manager Composites and Tooling at Biesterfeld.

Our conversation explored the latest advancements in the composites industry, focusing on innovation, technology, and sustainability.

Innovation: Johannes highlighted Biesterfeld's commitment to innovation, showcasing their broad product portfolio including high-strength fibers and formulated resin systems from long-standing and renowned partners. These materials are designed to meet the evolving demands of industries such as aerospace and automotive, offering enhanced performance and durability. A standout innovation is the use of Kraibon, a rubber elastomer from Gummiwerk KRAIBURG GmbH & Co. KG, which integrates with composite parts to provide superior sound dampening.

Technology: Biesterfeld is at the forefront of technological advancements, representing a range of state-of-the-art products as well as providing superior technical application services and manufacturing process support. Johannes discussed their collaboration with Roboze and the investment in the Argo 1000, the world's largest pellet extruder for high-performance polymers. This technology enables on-demand production of complex, high-performance parts, reducing the need for traditional tooling and lowering costs.

Sustainability: Sustainability is a core pillar of Biesterfeld's strategy. Johannes outlined their support of initiatives to reduce environmental impact through sustainable sourcing and eco-friendly production methods. The distribution of ExxonMobil Proxxima™ Polyolefin Thermoset Resin Systems™, a polyolefin-based thermoset resin from ExxonMobil, exemplifies their commitment to sustainability. Proxxima offers recyclability and a low CO2 footprint, providing an end-of-life solution for the industry.

Demo area at the booth: In a separate segment, Stig Eines, Head
of Sales at Biesterfeld Norge AS, shared insights into the future of composites. He emphasized the importance of collaboration and innovation in driving the industry forward. Stig highlighted several projects from Biesterfeld’s partners worldwide, that are focused on developing sustainable solutions and integrating advanced technologies, underscoring the need for continuous improvement to meet the growing demands for eco-friendly and high-performance composites. See for example the carbonfibre rim from South Africa.

YouTube Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfyUjDeqY5Q

Transkript

So wonderful. Good morning, dear LinkedIn community. This is day two at JEC World 2025 and I have the honor to host now an interview with Doctor Johannes Martin of Biesterfeld SE, which is a first time exhibitor on JEC World. Welcome to JEC World. -Thank you. Happy to have you here. Johannes, we have known each other now for, I think two to three years. And we decided now finally, that we come together and put the fantastic solutions of the composites division of Biesterfeld in front of our community. Can you explain us in a few words, what is your role as a Market Manager Composites and Tooling at Biesterfeld SE and explain us what Biesterfeld SE actually is doing. In the end, I came to the Biesterfeld company 7 to 8 years ago. I started here as a sales manager for the field of composites and tooling, and over the years I had several roles. And since one and a half years, I am leading our full global strategic activities in the field of composites and tooling. That means supplier management, relationship management, making decisions to grow strategically with the Biesterfeld Group and the market sector of composites and tooling. -As far as I understand, Biesterfeld SE has different divisions or departments. Can you explain us the department you are in is called P.P.? P.P. stands for? Performance Products. So the Biesterfeld Group is next year celebrating its 120th birthday. We are founded in 1906. We are a family owned company who is strategically working with long standing partnerships, and we are having partnerships of more than 50 years with our suppliers, and we have seven business units. And inside the business unit industrial, the so-called segment of our team PP is located. PP stands for Performance Products. Inside Performance Products we have formulated products that are ready to use for our customers. So talking about composites and tooling, we have already formulated resin systems. We have already formulated gelcoat systems. We have tooling systems like tooling prepreg, tooling boards from valued suppliers in the market. And our goal is to supply our customers with everything that is needed from the very first idea producing master models, producing molds and the final parts the end customer is then using in his part he wants to produce. -So, as you know, dear community, our three content pillars are innovation, technology and sustainability. And I've decided now with Johannes to move a bit around the Biesterfeld booth, because there are very nice eyecatchers us here, I will say, and we will start with innovation now with the doors of a car. Now every one of you know that the carbon composites have a very light and high (acoustical) tone. But in the car, when you close the doors, you want an elegant sound when closing those doors. And we will demonstrate you now how you can do that. But before we do that, I will ask now, Johannes, to explain us how they are achieving this classic and more elegant tone. -Thank you for this very nice question, Ilkay. We are doing this with a rubber elastomer. It is an uncured rubber elastomer from the company Kraiburg. It's named Kraibon, and with this material, we can connect the very good properties of a rubber elastomer together with the very good properties of a composite part. So how do we do this? This rubber elastomer is ready to use product which could be directly integrated into the composite layup. It co-cures with thermoset resins and immediately transform any composite part to a higher level. So due to the fact that it is a rubber elastomer, it turns energy, impact energy or vibrations into deformation energy. And with this transformation into deformation energy, we can, for instance, achieve very good properties of the composite part. One very good property we were talking about now is that we have a sound dampening effect. We are showing here some doors made of a carbon material, and with just adding a little bit of the Kraibon material, we can achieve the fact that the sound dampening of this door is much, much higher, about 20 dB(A). What happens is that in the automotive industry, sound dampening is very often achieved with very heavy aluminium butyl. With this material, we can have almost exactly the same effects on sound dampening with just adding a little more weight compared to aluminium butyl. Okay, the upper door is the door without Kraibon, but has a weight of 5.47kg and this is the sound. So you are very much familiar with the sound of this carbon material. And here you see the same door with the same carbon layup, adding just a little bit of the Kraibon material. This door has a weight of 5.75kg. And this is the sound. So this is our second part of our interview at the Biesterfeld interview here on the Biesterfeld booth here at JEC World 2025. The second part, we've talked about innovation (on the prior first part). The second part is now technology. And I have with me now a colleague of Johannes Martin, which is Stig Eines, and he's from Norway, the Oslo region, where, of course, Biesterfeld is also active. And yes, they have found a very great new technology. And Stig will explain you how that technology is going. We have a very shiny surface here. As you know, I like these shiny carbon surfaces. It's very lightweight, you see? Like a feather. Yes, totally like a feather. So, Stig, what is this? -This is an automotive part for Corvette. This is made as an example of the new technology coming out of ExxonMobil, representing the new thermoset technology under the brand of Proxxima. And what is Proxxima? Proxxima is the latest innovation coming out of ExxonMobil. It's a polyolefin based thermoset resin showcasing some incredible new performances, not only mechanical, but thermal chemical, and also a solution that paves the way in terms of recyclability and low CO2 footprint. So this is the new future solution for sustainability in the advanced composites field. And what is all important here? Really, the really, really key message here is that ExxonMobil, with Proxxima is bringing an end of life solution to the industry. Proxxima has the capability to be recycled back into original material by low temperature pyrolysis. And the fraction you get out of this, the oil residues, they are so clean. There are no nitrogen, no oxygen, no hydrogen in there. That leaves us with a really, really clean, raw material that can go directly back to produce new Proxxima, or can be used upstream in other processes to produce lubes and lubricants for industrial purposes. So by this, ExxonMobil is giving the industry a solution for end of life. So what do we have here at the stand today to show you guys? Biesterfeld, we are a technical distributor. We are a consultant advisor, but we have products here on the stand showcasing from you everything from the early, early ideal all the way through to the final part and beyond. So there will be products here for the prototypers, for the mold makers, for the part production companies and later on for the assembly companies. Here we have a part that represents the marine industry, where we supply carbon pre-pregs products for lightweighting applications and structural requirements. Further on, in the marine industry, we represent Maridur from OBO Werke. These are thermoformable, very durable, water resistant products for interior into the marine industry. Further, we can move on here. We go over to infrastructure. Where we are also present with composite resins from Huntsman to producing the next generation of composite poles for the high voltage industry. Moving on, we walk over to the automotive sector. This is a part for the racing car industry. We represent Kraiburg in this case for dampening and vibration resistant applications. Moving from a very rigid part over to another part, you need to, in this case, reduce the vibration. Deeper on our stand you find a nice piece here from South Africa, where they are doing lightweighting the automotive industry for carbon wheels (rims). That's very interesting for the motorsport industry. -So that was a fantastic tour from Stig Eines and now I'm back with Dr Johannes Martin. And you see here is a final department, a final solution that we would like to address with you, because this is one of the trends in the future. Without 3D printing, additive manufacturing, we are losing out on many, many opportunities. So Johannes, what is your value addition for the community on 3D printing? You're right, 3D printing will play a crucial role in future. And in fact, also Biesterfeld would like to cover all the three pillars that you have chosen sustainability, innovation and technology. And here we are talking about technology. We are super proud that we started a collaboration with Roboze and recently the Biesterfeld group Who invested in the world's biggest pellet extruder for high performance polymers. The Argo 1000, which has a printing chamber of one cubic meter and the printing speed of two kilograms per hour. How do customers benefit with such technologies? All of our customers will have immediately on demand production. With 3D printer, they can print very complex, high performance parts with a carbon PA with super polymers like Ultem or PEEAK, and you reduce the workload and the cost you have and you don't need the traditional tooling anymore. That's also very additional and very useful information, Johannes. So we are coming close to the end of our interview here at JEC World 2025. My question to you is how was JEC World as a first time exhibitor so far for you? -So this is today, the second day. Yesterday I never have seen such a super first busy day at JEC World in my entire career, and I am visiting the JEC World now for the last eight years. Today, we just started the second day. I am very happy to see what this day will bring and for sure we will be there next year again. We've talked about Biesterfeld. Their different departments, dear community. We've covered innovation, technology and sustainability. As Composites Lounge, we are creating sustainable value, but not only content for the purpose of the content, we are finding the facts of the market in order to serve you and be a resource for you. Thank you so much, Johannes and your colleagues for this interview. Thank you very much for having us.