Making the Sustainable Business Case for Biocomposites

Reducing our Environmental Impact by Investing in Sustainable Product Design, Materials and Technology

Net Zero: Rapid Low Energy Processing

Use of reclaimed carbon fibre for auto parts

A circular route for carbon fibre re-use enabled through re-alignment technology.

Rapid forming of complex composite parts using Aligned Formable Fibre Technology

Processing Thermoplastic Composites

Towards better understanding of infusion

Electrified Structural Hybrid Automotive Designs for Optimised Weight ( eSHADOW )

Aerospace Sector- Design, Manufacture, In-Service and End of Life

The use of traditional carbon and glass fibre-based composites across industries is nowadays heavily challenged by environmental questions that arise due to their high carbon footprint and lack of efficient and industrial processes to recycle or dispose of the laminates at their end-of-life. Plant based natural fibres offer very encouraging numbers both in terms of their global warming potential and a mechanical point of view. Tomorrow’s mobility needs to become more sustainable, and this means we also must focus on large-scale mass transportation applications to maximise sustainable impact. The potential of sustainable lightweighting in aerospace applications is significant, with other mass transportation sectors like buses and trains also showing big potential for sustainable interiors.

Keynote session: The Future of the UK composite sector – The UK Composites Sector in Numbers

In light of the increasing material costs, energy costs and sustainability requirements, future designs across automotive, aerospace and tooling will need to be yet more proactively optimised. However, further gains in lightweight performance cannot come at the cost of excessive commercial development or end-user operating risk and costs. Even strongly optimized components must remain fit for purpose and behave robustly under real-world variabilities of operating conditions.

VARTM (Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding) processing is typically challenging for large scale aerospace grade composite components. Although VARTM processing methods are extensively utilised in the boat hull and wind blade manufacturing industries the tight tolerances and strict quality requirements of the aerospace industry often deem RTM (Resin Transfer Moulding) processing preferable over VARTM. Despite RTM being a very robust process both capital investment and processing time are increasing exponentially with the increase of the part size often making such processes not favourable over conventional prepreg Autoclave processing.

Sustainable Material Development

The volatility in the UK supply chain has been brought into question recently following the Global Pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the tensions over Taiwan.

With a considered approach to composite design and material selection, Carbon Composites can significantly boost the performance of machine metalworking and automated manipulation throughput. Using ultrahigh modulus pitch carbon fibres and innovative process technology new applications for composites have been developed.

Individual automation solutions are key to improve the efficiency and cost structure of a serial production. New process innovations are a major enabler.

To realise composite liquid hydrogen storage, materials that are typically used at a much higher temperature regime require requalification at cryogenic temperatures as low as 20K.

Context around existing and emerging safety standards for BEVs, issues around containment of pressure and spread of fire from thermal runaway of Li-Ion cells. Why new composite materials make sense from safety, weight and cost considerations.