We’re just back from the Composites UK Awards in Birmingham, where we were delighted to pick up the Sustainability Award: Net Zero! This is for our pioneering work to devise a lower-carbon manufacturing process for structural composites. This work was part funded by an Innovate UK loan.
Incredibly, this is our second Composites UK award in two years — last year we scooped the ‘Innovation in Composite Materials’ category.
It just goes to show what small companies can do, when you have an innovative team and funding behind you.
What did we win for?
We won for a 33-month-long project that 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. If you would like to learn more about this innovation, please get in touch.