SAMPE Preview

Dateline: 04/21/97

This feature covers the SAMPE 1997 Symposium, and most of the links no longer work. Please visit the most recent SAMPE preview page, currently 1998.

The 42nd International SAMPE Symposium and Exhibition (ISSE) is only two weeks away--Sunday May 4 through Thursday May 8, in Anaheim, California. This is probably the biggest technical and trade show of the year for composite students and professionals. It's definitely worth attending every two or three years (more often if you're presenting a paper or running an exhibit booth).

It's too late to pre-register, but you can fill out the registration form on-line and and fax it in (although it says you can submit it on-line, there is no "submit" button). Or you can register at the door. Full registration is $450 for members, $570 for non-members, or $50/$75 for students. One-day full registrations are $225/$295. Most tutorials are $79 for professionals and $59 for students; the hands-on workshop is $179. SAMPE also provides hotel and travel information.

Technical sessions run Monday through Thursday at 1:00 PM, and also Wednesday and Thursday at 8:00 and 9:00 AM. There will be over 200 papers presented on topics ranging from basic materials research to applied structural applications. Six or seven sessions run concurrently, so get a session schedule before you leave for the conference and plan your days.

The exhibit hours run from noon to 7:00 PM on Monday (with a reception in the exhibit hall Monday evening), from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Tuesday, and from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Wednesday. There will be no exhibits on Thursday. Over 200 companies and organizations will be exhibiting.

John Lee, the CEO of Hexcel, will present this year's keynote address on Tuesday morning. Following that will be a plenary session on Design with Composites. There will also be four panel discussions:

• Monday 10:00 AM--Fabrication of Affordable Complex Composite Structures
• Wednesday 11:00 AM--FRP Applications to Infrastructure
• Thursday 8:00 AM--Seismic Retrofit Program
• Thursday 9:30 AM--Programs That Will Leverage the Composite Community into the 21st Century

As usual, there will also be a series of tutorials. I haven't attended these since 1989--all I remember is sitting in a room with several hundred people and watching Stephen Tsai rapidly flip through some viewgraphs--but hopefully they have improved over the years. The tutorial schedule this year is:

• Sunday 1:00 PM--Introduction to Composite Processing
• Monday 8:00 AM
  • Composites--The Dream and the Present
  • Designer's Cost Model for Composites
  • Composite Repair
• Wednesday 11:30 AM--Trade Secrets and Patents for Non-Lawyers
• Thursday 8:30 AM (all day)--"Hands-On" Composite Structural Repair (Workshop)

The latter workshop is probably the most useful, because you will actually get to work with composites. Also, SAMPE will have a booth set up on the exhibit floor which will demonstrate the manufacture of a graphite putter. The demo covers the entire process: cutting the prepreg, wrapping it on the mandrel, shrink wrapping, curing, finishing the shaft, and bonding on the club head and grip. Cost is only $35 and participation is limited. It's not clear from the description whether you make the putter yourself or only watch the process. But in either case, you get to take home a putter.

Please check all of the schedule times against the official SAMPE schedule. I have verified the times against the SAMPE web site, but the hard-copy schedule may differ, or the schedule may be changed between now and the conference.

Are you attending SAMPE this year? Drop me a note at composite.guide@miningo.com when you return, and I'll compile the responses into a post-symposium column. (This is one of my "off" years, so I won't be attending.) I would especially like to hear about the tutorials. All responses will remain anonymous, unless you want your name identified.

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