Since 1 January 2018, Philipp Zimmermann is the new head of the Composites/Surfaces business unit within the Reaction Process Machinery division at machinery manufacturer KraussMaffei (KM, Munich / Germany; www.kraussmaffei.com). He succeeds Erich Fries, who left the company to become managing director of composite materials specialist Hengrui Germany.

Zimmermann started his career at KraussMaffei in 2012 as sales manager for Asia. In 2014, he assumed the position of product and sales manager for fibre composite technology in Composites/Surfaces, and, since 2016, has been assistant manager of the unit. Before joining KM, the composites expert worked as a quality engineer at Germany firm P+Z Engineering. He sees his new goal in the further development and establishment of production-ready composites technologies – such as the thermoplastic resin transfer moulding (T-RTM) process or wet moulding – as well as the implementation of cost-effective surface technologies.