With the coordination of Consulate General of the Netherlands in Istanbul and Holland Innovation Group along with Turkish Composite Manufacturer’s Association and Aerospace Cluster Association of Turkey (ACA – HUKD),  a Turkish Team with delegates from TAI, Kordsa, Dow Aksa, Ases Aviation, Ozyegin University and ACA – HUKD have visited Holland between dates Nov. 21st till 23rd, 2018  and had meetings in several research Institutions, application centers  and universities to gain information on High Value Composites and Thermoplastic Technologies as well as having B2B meetings with the Dutch counterparts in creating a valuable network for further collaboration.

The mission was a follow up to the successful joint seminar that took place on May 14th, 2018 at the Istanbul Consulate, to further learn the capabilities of Dutch Institutions in the field of Composites and especially Thermoplastics for high value added applications such as automotive and aerospace industries.

In this respect, it was a great experience to visit TRPC /TPAC and NLR facilities as well as attending the “8th International Symposium on Composite Manufacturing for High Performance Applications” at the NLR facilities, Marknesse.

Visit to TU Delft was also a great learning experience where the team visited state of the art laboratories. Also the teams held a successful B2B session, meeting valuable Dutch Companies working in the field of Composites and its various applications. NAG (Netherlands Aerospace Group), a member of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership (EACP) was also present in the meetings where teams discussed collaboration on EU based projects like Cleansky 2. 

Finally, the last visit was to Ypenburg Technology Park where some of the team members also had a chance to visit the Digital Factory for Composites (DFC) as well as visiting two major companies working of high value added applications.

Based on the outcome of the successful visits and meetings, it seems like there are several opportunities where the Turkish Companies and Institutions may mutually work on with their Dutch counterparts in the near future.

As a follow up to this mission, in support of the ongoing “Composite Technologies Road Map” study, related parties have discussed organizing workshops / seminars in the coming months to increase the awareness on High Added Value Applications of Composites and Thermoplastics.