Exciting news: we’ve just found out that we’ve been shortlisted for Composite UK’s national Net Zero Initiative Award! This is for our pioneering work to devise a lower-carbon manufacturing process for structural composites.
Last year we scooped the ‘Innovation in Composite Materials’ category at the same awards so it would be amazing if we could make it two wins in two years.
It’s particularly pleasing to be in the running for this Net Zero Award, because it recognises composite solutions that contribute significantly to decarbonisation efforts — and this is the key challenge facing our world right now.
Why we have been shortlisted
We’ve been shortlisted for a 33-month-long project that we started during the Covid lockdowns, which was part funded by an Innovate UK loan. It was incredibly challenging and at times we questioned whether it was wise to continue. Thankfully we did because we were able to achieve the following:
- A braiding and consolidation process that requires on average, 95–99% less power than traditional in-oven processing.
- Tooling that weighs around 50% less than traditional matched die in-oven tools and uses far less material. This also has benefits for handling and safety.
- A reduction in consumable waste. Because of the faster processing cycle, our consumable bladders can last for up to 10 times the number of cycles that is typical for an in-oven process.
On top of these decarbonisation benefits, our new process and tooling means we can:
- produce composite components in higher volumes and at lower costs
- consolidate parts in minutes instead of hours
- make larger, more complex tubular components
- use materials that can’t be successfully processed in-oven.
This is a game-changing capability. If this process is adopted by multiple users — which is our aim — it will help deliver decarbonisation at scale. We are already talking to third parties about increasing the awareness and availability of these capabilities to multiple sectors.
In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for us! We’ll find out if we have won the Net Zero Award at a ceremony in Birmingham on 2 November.