This project relates to the development of a novel protective repair solution for wind turbine blade leading
edges. The project will develop a unique thermoplastic adhesively bonded shield material, which when
combined with a remote on blade machining capability, and pre-formed to the blade CAD profile, will allow
significantly faster leading edge repair capability.
Three thermoplastic solutions will be tested within the project, all developments of a thermoplastic solution
which in rain erosion tests showed outstanding performance, predicted to be capable of 20+ years of in-service
lifetime. One thermoplastic and adhesive solution will be developed to TRL5, ready for in-service trials. The
solution will be compared for its realistic repair mechanical properties against a composite filler repair and
production material.
There is increasing industrial, regulatory and consumer demand for the use of greener alternatives across a range of everyday products, with a particular focus on formulated non-food items. It is also a key strategy for the UK government and manufacturers to use biobased alternatives to petrochemical-derived ingredients across the chemical industry. Bio-refining of a range of low-value biomass residues offers a way to produce intermediate chemicals to replace fossil-based materials, whilst simultaneously increasing their value and reducing their impact on the environment. However, current biorefining technologies are wasteful, inefficient and often unprofitable.
Bio-Sep, using its novel, patented ultrasonic processing technology, aims to make a step-change in biorefining while stimulating investments in the UK bioeconomy. In collaboration with a strong consortium of global leaders in process innovation, chemicals, composites and automotives, Bio-Sep aims to optimise the Sonichem technology for specific, renewable, consistent, and widely-available UK biomass and generate platform chemicals directly relevant to the paints, coatings, cosmetics, construction, resins, pharmaceuticals, and additives markets. The consortium will explore the use of lignin to pioneer composite resin formulations that contain high-levels of renewable, non-petrochemical content, and utilise low-carbon feedstocks. As part of the project, applications of this material to composites for automotive applications will be investigated.
The main outcome of the project will be optimised and validated ultrasonic fractionation of UK biomass residues, achieved in a commercially-viable and environmentally-sustainable manner under mild operating conditions, to produce high-quality lignin. The lignin will be demonstrated as suitable for the production of renewable, low carbon and bio-based feedstocks for composite materials relevant to the automotive sector. These outcomes allow Bio-Sep to provide a basis for the scaling of the innovation, promote the Sonichem biorefinery concept more widely, and advance subsequent commercialisation with exploitation partners across the chemicals industry.
The automotive industry faces major challenges to meet targets for emissions, efficiency, performance and cost; light weighting of parts using composites enables all of these to be addressed, except for cost. A key driver of cost of composites is the limited ability & capacity in the joining technology available. In project Light-Join, JLR, Nissan and their Tier 1 suppliers aim to develop a number of solutions that will enable cost effective integration of high performance composite components into volume car production. Light-Join aims to enable replacement of specific metal vehicle components with composites, specifically focussed on developing rapid joining solutions, raising the manufacturing maturity to produce a small scale demonstrator component (MRL5) and assessing the potential for scale-up to MRL9A. This project will develop a solution leading to 30% weight reduction for all-aluminium construction (for JLR) and 60% compared to an all steel construction (for Nissan). Critically this approach will have industry wide applicability, allowing a lower risk introduction of lightweight composite components to the mass market.
This programme concerns the production of low weight, affordable vehicle structures that can reduce weight of existing steel bodies by 60%, whilst allowing B sized vehicles and larger to be profitable in the mass market. The NAIGT roadmap observes that vehicle light weighting will continue to be an enabler for low carbon emission vehicles. This level of light weighting is achieved by having a complete polymeric composite vehicle structure.
Axon 60 is a vehicle enabler for the very low CO2/km fleets of the future. The car delivers 100+ mpg whilst meeting EU vehicle legislation. A unique vehicle structures technology will be productionised for the first time. The structural carbon technology is a globally patented carbon beam technology that can be exploited by UK. The vehicle is light weight (500kg), low drag and is powered by a best practice 500cc engine and CVT from UK supplier. This gives a competitive power to weight ratio. The project explores the bounds of Plug in Hybrids in light vehicle applications.