The 15,000 ft2 R&D Innovation Centre will house machines including filament winding, prepreg processing, slitting and spooling, automation and recycling equipment, the company said.
Cygnet Texkimp says that it wants to improve the equipment used in fibre processing, materials and part manufacturing, and recycling. Organizations can also reserve time on site to carry out trials to validate their process design, evaluate materials, and gather evidence to prove their business case or justify investment.
“Our Innovation Centre forms part of our commitment to reinvest in UK capability and to accelerate learning in this area of materials science, so that organisations involved in the development and application of advanced materials can achieve more and do so more quickly,” said Cygnet Texkimp CEO Luke Vardy. “In this way we hope to create an asset for the world’s composites and advanced materials industry, and to support the work of the UK’s composites industry.”
The full list of technology available is:
- Direct melt thermoplastic processing line capable of producing uni-directional (UD), and narrow tape prepregs from standard industrial feedstock
- Multi-roll stack, high-speed, short-footprint, vertically stacked prepreg manufacturing line
- High-precision slitter-spooler-rewinder to process UD prepreg slit tapes
- Nine-axis robotic filament winding system with a range of fiber feed and resin dosing systems capable of high tension and thermoplastic winding
- Multi axis and 3D winders providing high-rate deposition for wound parts of varying geometry
- Automated filament winding cell
- Composites reclaiming & recycling solutions
- Spread tape line for low crimp fabrics
- High-temperature consolidation line
- Automation demonstration equipment
- Automated guided vehicle (AGV)
- Fibre unrolling creels.
