Intra-materials Variety : Competition and Know-how as Exemplified by Composites

During our first involvement in the European Communities’ FAST programme, while studying the prospects for chemicals in Europe it became increasingly clear to us that the development of composite materials (CMs) was a possible avenue of diversification for chemicals producers. It revealed a new tendency vital to technological development as a whole; beyond the traditional processes of dissemination of technology and industrial learning, there are signs of a genuine revolution in the method of designing industrial objects. The variety of ordinary materials available to designers is not only being expanded by the newcomers but is even being bypassed by the new conception of customized design which accompanies them. The availability of materials “to order” offers a decisive advantage in an information intensive production set-up where the combinative aspect of product specifications is the main field of economic competition.