Date Time
Major academic-industry collaboration to tackle global challenges in sustainability
The University of Oxford joins a major new collaboration with academia and industry to use sustainable chemical technologies to accelerate the UK’s transition to net zero carbon emissions.
The Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST) is a unique £17m facility hosted by the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT) that will accelerate the translation of sustainable chemical technology research to help tackle the global challenges of the climate emergency, sustainable development and plastics pollution.
It brings together industry with expertise at the Universities of Bath and Oxford, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult’s Sustainability Partnership (National Composites Centre and Centre for Process Innovation), innovation experts at SETsquared, Local Enterprise Partnerships and investors.
Teledyne Storm Microwave: Teledyne CML Composites Makes Significant Investment in Thermoplastic Processing Capability in Conjunction with the National Composites Centre
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210513005194/en/
Teledyne CML Thermoplastic Press (Photo: Business Wire)
The new processing cell utilizes two press and oven systems offering IR heating, platen heating, and a maximum force of 400 tons. The processing cell is capable of processing multiple aerospace, high performance reinforced Thermoplastics such as PEEK, PEKK, PPS, and PEI.
The new Thermoplastic processing cell provides a significant capacity increase at Teledyne CML Composites to support the continued growth of the commercial and defence aerospace composites manufacturer.
Robotic AFP-ATL system installed at the NCC
The new cell completes a £36.7 million programme of ten new machines.
6th May 2021
The National Composites Centre (NCC) in Bristol, UK, has installed a new Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) and Automated Tape Layup (ATL) cell.
The cell, created in the UK in partnership with Electroimpact of Flintshire, is uniquely designed to combine both AFP and ATL in a single system, enabling the processes to be used individually or together to create large, complex structures with minimal downtime. The robot is intended for medium to large scale manufacturing with a high performance and accurate motion platform.
Photo Credit: NCC
Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, U.K. composites research and development facility, the National Composites Centre (Bristol), recently unveiled its latest state-of-the-art capabilities in the form of a new automated fiber placement/automated tape laying (AFP-ATL) cell. According to the NCC, the new cell is the final piece in a £36.7 million investment, including ten new fully digital automated composite manufacturing capabilities that have been installed at the facility in the past 18 months.
The cell, created in partnership with Electroimpact (Flintshire, U.K.) combines both AFP and ATL in a single system. The dual system can reportedly be used individually or together to collaborate and create large, complex structures with minimal downtime. The robot is intended for medium- to large-scale manufacturing with high performance and accuracy robotic motion platform.
Will Searle, chairman of Axillium. Photo Credit: Axillium
GKN Aerospace (Solihull, U.K.) announced in March that it is leading a new U.K. industry consortium called ASCEND (Aerospace and Automotive Supply Chain Enabled Development) to develop and accelerate composite manufacturing and processing of composites technologies for the next generation of energy-efficient aircraft and future mobility.
The £39.6 million consortium is funded by a £20 million commitment from industry and a £19.6 million commitment from the UK Government via InnovateUK and the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI). It will focus on greater adoption of composite technologies, the industrialization of new technologies through the acceleration of commercial aerospace production rates to meet future flexible high-volume requirements.