Program planning committee

A.R. Bunsell, Chairman, France, C. Bathias, Vice Chairman, France, A. Martrenchar, France, D. Menkes, Vice Chairman, France, G. Verchery, Vice Chairman, France

The response to this "Third International Conference on Composite Materials" both in numbers of papers proposed and their quality has demonstrated vividly the increasing world wide interest in fibre reinforced composite materials. Authors from twenty six countries have contributed papers which range from purely theoretical to highly applied topics and from space applications to those for the ocean environment. On this occasion ICCM-III has been combined with the second French national meeting JNC-II (Secondes Journées Nationales sur les Composites), a series of meetings which demonstrate the considerable and growing interest in composite materials existing in France.

As in previous meetings, the mechanical and failure properties of composites preoccupy many contributors. This is as it should be for the types of composites considered vary greatly as does their behavioxir and the uses to which they are put. These uses are becoming increasingly diverse as composites, once more or less exclusively reserved for the high performance applications of the aerospace industry, are gradually being adopted by other industries. This requires a transfer of knowledge and techniques from one type of industry to another, the adaptation of the material to new applications and the adaptibility of designers to exploit the properties of composites. The aerospace industry was initially attracted to composites because of their impressive specific properties. Other industries are now examining composites often for the same reason with the growing realisation of the need to conserve energy resources. This can only mean that fibre reinforced composites will play an increasingly important role in the future. These materials are however very different from the more traditional metals and it is interesting for example to see the various approaches for tackling the problems of predicting long term behaviour, determining environmental effects on properties, control, doth destructive and non-destructive, and designing for these types of materials.

The organisation of this meeting has required the combined efforts of many people and îti closing, I should like to thank the French organising comittee, the general secretary of ICCM, the reviewers who aided in the selection of papers, the chairmen of sessions and round tables and all others who have helped make this congress a succès.

A.R Bunsell, Conference Chairman
Ecole des Mines de Paris, France