UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 6, Page 6
October 7, 1993
Composites center awards medal to Georg Menges

     Georg Menges, director of the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV)
in Aachen, Germany, from 1965-87, received the 1993 Medal of Excellence in
Composite Materials from the University's Center for Composite Materials
(CCM).
     Given annually since 1984,the medal honors those who have achieved
outstanding leadership in the composites field and who have maintained
scholarly endeavor, invention and/or economic enterprise over a sustained
period of time.
     The medal was part of the CCM's annual Research Symposium, held Sept.
29-30, at Clayton Hall. The presentation was made by University President
David P. Roselle at a luncheon on Sept. 29.
     Menges, who is also professor emeritus of plastics processing at the
University of Aachen, earned his doctorate from the University of Stuttgart
in 1955. When he joined the IKV as director in 1965, it was a small
research institute. Under his leadership, it quadrupled in size and emerged
as Europe's largest university-affiliated research institute in the area of
plastics processing.
     During the 1960s, Menges and his research team conducted important
pioneering work both in the refinement of design and processing methods for
fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites and in the development of new
applications for glass- and carbon-reinforced materials. The institute's
success was achieved through close interaction between the IKV and
processing firms, as well as end users, in developing methods for the
manufacture of parts from these materials on an industrial scale.
     His significant achievements include the development of
        * CADFIBER, a modular, integrated software package that enables the
          user to solve the problems of material selection, design,
          dimensioning and process simulation comprehensively;
        * a fully automated processing line for SMC parts; and
        * EXPRESS, a program that simulates the behavior of
          fiber-reinforced, pressed parts depending upon the manufacturing
          conditions.
     Menges' scientific achievements are documented in some 20 books, more
than 700 papers and over 150 lectures. He has received numerous honors,
including the Swinburne Award, the Society of Plastic Engineers'
International Award and the most prized award of the plastics industry in
Australia: the John W. Derham Memorial Award.
     At the Medal Of Excellence Lecture, Menges duscussed the state of the
art of composites recycling in Europe and both mechanical and chemical
processes for recycling fibre-reinforced plastics. He provided details on a
large consortium in Germany that currently sponsors a mobile program for
recovering scrap sheet molding compound from production plants.
                                                  -Diane Kukich