Site: Kyoto Institute of Technology (KIT)
Matsugasaki, Sakyo-ku
Kyoto 606, Japan

Date Visited: December 9, 1992

Report Author: B. Kramer

ATTENDEES

JTEC:

J. DeVault
B. Kramer

HOSTS:

Dr. Zenichiro Maekawa

Dr. Eng. Hamada Hiroyuki

Mr. Akihiro Fujita

Gabriel O. Shonaike, Ph.D

BACKGROUND

Professor Maekawa's research group in composites is the largest in Japan, with 40 industry affiliates, seven doctoral candidates, nine masters candidates and 12 bachelors candidates.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Professor Maekawa summarized the research projects in his laboratory (see Table Kyoto.1). The JTEC team was provided with an extensive collection of recent papers and research reports (mostly in Japanese). There is extensive work in braiding, with KIT performing braiding, industry conducting curing, and KIT doing characterization. A particular emphasis is on co-mingled yarn systems. They hope to organize an international symposium on fiber-resin interface studies in Japan in 1998, to complement an annual symposium on the subject in Japan.

Table Kyoto.1
Research Programs in Dr. Maekawa's Department

SUMMARY

KIT is conducting an impressive range of research activities, with strong modeling and characterization efforts and very strong and effective links to industry. The research group appears to be limited by a severe shortage of space and, particularly, of space that is of sufficient quality to perform the most demanding composites processing applications.

REFERENCES

Tokyo Institute of Technology. 1992. PM KIT.