The UK’s Composites Innovation Cluster (CiC) has funded two additional composites projects in its third year.
The first of these projects, entitled ThermoCARB will be run by tooling specialist Formaplex which will establish a production process and cell to manufacture a thermoplastic composite rear bulkhead component for the automotive sector.
Geneos is the same of the second new project run by graphene producer Haydale Composite Solutions and BAE Systems, who will use thermal modelling to model the feasibility of using graphene to improve the thermal properties of aerospace grade composite tooling materials. This will enable the manufacture of prototype graphene-enhanced tooling materials which will be tested and compared against the model predictions.
The thermal efficiency of tooling materials is becoming a major issue for composite component manufacturers and through this project we will use advanced thermal modelling to show that graphene enhanced materials can improve the efficiency of composite tooling,’ said Dr Matthew Thornton, senior manager at Haydale Composite Solutions.
This story is reprinted from material from the CIC, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
