Public Funding for Haydale Composite Solutions Limited

The aim of this project is to determine the feasibility of utilising graphene to improve the hydrogen barrier resistance of thermoplastics for the manufacture of high pressure hydrogen storage vessels. Carbon reinforced thermoplastic composite hydrogen storage vessels are currently being developed that will be fully recyclable, impact & fatigue resistant and more durable than is currently possible with metals and thermoset composites. Unfortunately some of the best performing polymers in terms of hydrogen permeation resistance are expensive, difficult to process and can have limitations in the amount of carbon fibre reinforcement that is capable of being used. The aim of this project is to develop methods to improve the hydrogen resistance of better-suited thermoplastic polymers and thermoplastic composites through the inclusion of functionalised graphene.

The growing demand for composite materials in aerospace due to lightweight advantages over their metallic counterparts has given a new impetus to the development of eco-friendly, cost-effective composite manufacturing processes. A350 XWB and Boeing 777X use more than 50% composites by weight, with the latter having the world's largest aircraft wings formed from composite materials. Historically, aerospace composites have been manufactured using autoclave processes. However, the extremely high equipment and operational costs, prolonged process cycles and inability to make in-process adjustments have led to the need for developing more versatile, less costly out-of-autoclave (OOA) manufacturing routes. While OOA is mostly used in aerospace, sectors such as automotive, renewable energy and consumer electronics are adopting this technology, hoping to improve the efficiency of their processes in terms of time and cost as well as the quality of their products. The continuous need for efficient composite parts renders the development of self-heated tools and in-process adjustment systems along with robust in-process and in-service monitoring imperative. OOA offers efficient thermal management, low cost and the ability to make in-process adjustments over conventional processes. Current self-heated tooling solutions suffer from temperature inhomogeneity and high system complexity. In addition, monitoring capabilities are often limited due to the complexity and high cost of currently available technologies. This implies that the development of low-cost non-intrusive sensing solutions able to withstand processing conditions would significantly enhance the quality of composite materials exploiting their full potential. Therefore, composite manufacturing can be significantly improved by combining effective multi-zone, self-heated tooling in OOA processing with an on-line process and in-service monitoring to ensure robust defect-free manufacturing. The ESENSE project aims to bring to market a smart composite manufacturing route comprising a self-heated, multi-zone OOA composite tooling capable of manufacturing composite parts with process monitoring and through-life sensing capabilities. ESENSE will be a fully controlled processing tool that will minimise the required energy budget and offer unparalleled quality assurance. This will enable first-time-right efficient OOA processes, effectively replacing the extremely costly autoclave moulded parts as well as offering a more robust and cost-effective alternative to existing self-heated tooling solutions. ESENSE's **Unique Selling Points** lie in: 1. 45-55% less costly solution than traditional autoclaves. 2. First-time-right, high-quality and cost-effective OOA aerospace parts. 3. Unparalleled part quality assurance with real-time process monitoring and non-intrusive through-life sensing capabilities via embedded graphene ink sensors. 4. 20% shorter lead times and 15% energy savings throughout the composite-curing processing cycle.

The HiBarFilm2 consortium will build on the success seen in our feasibility study project (HiBarFilm) and continue the development of high barrier monolayer films for food packaging applications. Multilayer flexible films, used commonly at high volumes in food and medical packaging, are one of the most challenging plastic products to recycle, these materials represent nearly a quarter of all consumer packaging, yet only 6% is currently recycled (WRAP). These thin films are typically between three and twelve layers of different plastics adhered together, often meaning they are not economical to recycle or if recycled can affect the quality of waste streams due to the mix of materials, consequently these materials are commonly incinerated or sent to landfill. Multilayer flexible films are currently a necessity in the food industry. Food production is an energy and resource intensive industry, to which plastic packaging has the potential to achieve a net positive environmental impact by reducing food waste and increasing shelf-life. The combination of these multiple polymer layers is what provides the barrier performance -- increasing the shelf life of products by controlling the transmission rate of oxygen and water, it is also responsible for the packaging's physical and mechanical performance, such as puncture and tear resistance and heat sealability. There remains fine balance between the use of these often challenging to recycle, multi-layered single use plastics and an increase in food waste. HiBarFilm2 has an ambitious objective to achieve the same barrier performance using a mono-material polyolefin film as the currently used multilayer barrier films. The consortium aims to accomplish this using plasma functionalised nanomaterials to increase barrier performance in two main areas of focus; firstly by mixing the nanomaterials directly into the polyolefin prior to filming, adding barrier properties to the film itself - both polyolefin films and compostable plastics will be used to also address the issue with contamination of the films with food waste such as fats and blood; and secondly by dispersing the nanomaterials into a barrier coating which can be applied to the polyolefin substrate. The advantage being the two solutions can be combined to increase the barrier performance further. By manufacturing mono-material flexible films the recyclability of these materials will increase, and value will be added to this versatile material.

The REACH-OUT project is focussed on the challenges of delivering inexpensive hydrogen storage, through utilising novel materials, for the automotive sector. The project will combine the expertise of the world-leading research organisation (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing), with a global industrial partner (Haydale Composite Solutions Ltd (HCS)) with the aim of breaking existing barriers to widespread adoption of hydrogen as a transport fuel in the automotive sector. Barriers to overcome include the use of expensive materials (carbon fibre), slow manufacturing processes, fatigue and embrittlement problems, poor barrier properties and the lack of cost-effective manufacturing facilities. REACH-OUT aims to address these challenges using a combination of novel material solutions, including nanomaterial-enhanced prepreg which give superior performance, and state-of-the-art manufacturing processes which will reduce the time (and cost) of manufacture. Overcoming these key barriers using the technologies developed by HCS and AMRC will help bring forward the widespread introduction of hydrogen as an economically attractive and technically viable energy vector; forming the basis of a clear exploitable business opportunity through the establishment of new materials and manufacturing techniques, within a supply chain that can be exploited on a global basis.

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The Haydale group have a range of plasma functionalised nanomaterial (HDPlas) products which they disperse in a variety of polymers to enhance their customers products. Countless developments conducted within Haydale have demonstrated that the use of their patented HDPlas plasma technology is effective in imparting specific functional groups to the nanomaterial surface for improved compatibility within the host polymer. This nanomaterial surface functionality leads to property enhancements in the final products above and beyond the use of unfunctionalised nanomaterials. Interpreting the mechanism by which the plasma functionalisation of nanomaterials enables the observed property improvements, such as mechanical, thermal and electrical conductivity, will enable Haydale to focus the development of their entire product range; allowing quick and efficient selection of improved functionalisation chemistries that can optimise the performance of their current products. AFINITY aims to uncover this mechanism using a dual approach of advanced analytical techniques at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and modelling at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). This dual approach of using analytical facilities with complimentary modelling will ensure that the highest level of information is obtained from AFINITY, and that any conclusions are drawn with a high level of confidence and accuracy.

This project will develop an innovative composite damage detection system, which can be incorporated into composite laminates at the point of manufacture. This system will allow precise location of the damage event, in addition to an indication of the severity of the damage. The technology that will be developed in the project will be capable of being incorporated into composite parts giving damage detection capability across a large area without adding appreciable weight, cost or complexity.

"Defects can inadvertently be produced in composite materials either during the manufacturing process or during the normal service life of the component. Some non-destructive testing methods such as ultrasonic testing and strain gauging exist for defect detection in composites. However, these have limitations (including cost) that have prevented them being used extensively. Notwithstanding, the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) UK Composites Strategy, insists that the UK needs to focus on advancing composites reliability and increase market share of existing sectors and ensure the use of composites in new sectors"" This project therefore seeks to develop GRAPHOSITE (A Graphene Sensor for Defect Detection and Predictive Maintenance in Composite Materials for use as a highly efficient, more convenient composite monitoring tool). Our technology will be based on an enhanced graphene-substrate interaction, with the ability to embed within a composite strucutre. The successful exploitation of the technology will result in cumulative revenue of £103m after 6 years in the market."

"Moulds for forming composite components can be made from ceramics, metals, composites or other materials such as fibreglass, high-density foams, machinable epoxy boards or even clay or wood/plaster. Tooling costs and complexity increase as the part performance requirements and the number of parts to be produced increase. Composite tools are more easily constructed than metal tools and, because they are made from materials like those the composite manufacturer will use for the part, they can be made in-house and their properties are closely matched to that of the components that they are used to manufacture. But they are more vulnerable to wear and typically find service in low-volume production. However, several tools can be made with composite materials for less than the cost of a single hard tool, making larger volumes more cost effective. The thermal conductivity of the composite tools is lower than that of metal tools which means that heat does not transfer as readily through the tools and they take longer to heat up. This adds production time and cost. Composite tools are used widely in the automotive, aerospace and marine sectors. Haydale Composite Solutions have developed prototype composite materials where the thermal conductivity of the laminated materials has been increased by modifying the resins using nano-fillers such as graphene. A masterbatch of the carrier resin with a concentrated level of nano-filler is prepared by Haydale in South Wales. The nano-fillers (graphene, CNTs or other fillers) are funtionalised for improved dispersion in the resin and improved adhesion to the resins using a low temperature plasma process. The masterbatch containing the concentrated functionalised fillers is then safe to handle in normal composite manufacturing processes. Graphene is a multi-functional material with the potential to revolutionise the mechanical and physical properties of thermoset resins across transport, aerospace, construction, renewable energy, consumer goods and sports goods. This project aims to achieve significant improvements in manufacturing times through improvements in the mechanical and thermal properites of the composite materials for the auomotive sector leading to a reduction in energy consumption, greenhouse and toxic gas creation (CO2 and NOx) thereby supporting climate change targets and reductions in raw material use. This project is a collaboration between Haydale Composite Solutions (HCS) based in Loughborough, Forward Composites (Forward) based in Huntingdon, University of Sheffield (UofS/AMRC) and University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) based in Preston."

The market opportunity and innovation in this project is for a novel means of routing and protecting cables in the ballast bed. Cables need to cross the rail lines as part of the signaling and power systems and the current cable crossing methods can be a weak link in the system causing signaling failures. Damaged cables cause network delays, do not enhance the customer experience and result in significant lost productivity for the UK workforce. Some current methods of protecting cables disrupt the tamping process which leads to maintenance delays and can result in less than optimum tamping as manual tamping sometimes must be used. Thermoplastic sleepers will be developed that will reduce the cost of installing, maintaining & managing the infrastructure at the same time as providing an engineered solution that is both recyclable, sustainable & reduces carbon emissions compared to concrete solutions. The sleepers will provide enhanced cable protection compared with orange tubes and will provide a simple, low cost solution for cable management. The sleeper will improve on the current state of the art by providing a lightweight, easy to handle, non conducting, cable carrying sleeper.

This highly innovative project will investigate the use of a patented plasma functionalisation technique for the enhancement of recovered carbon materials that are produced from the recycling of waste tyres so that these materials have the desired properties to enable them to be reused in the tyre industry and other engineering applications of rubber. The project will also use plasma functionalised graphene, either alone or in combination with the newly developed recovered black materials as a hybrid system, to develop new multifunctional elastomeric materials that can find a wide variety of applications in a number of different industry sectors.

Graphene is the world's first 2D material and since its isolation in 2004 it has captured the attention of scientists, researchers and industry worldwide. It is ultra-light yet immensely tough. It is 200 times stronger than steel, but it is incredibly flexible. It is the thinnest material possible as well as being transparent. Graphene and other nanofillers can be used in polymer composites to enhance mechanical and physical properties for example increased tensile strength, tensile modulus, impact strength, electrical and thermal conductivity and to reduce exotherms. However graphene is an inert carbon nanomaterial which is prone to aggregation and difficult to disperse within a polymer matrix. HCS has access to a patented functionalisation process at its sister company Haydale Ltd in South Wales. Functionalisation helps with the dispersion of the graphene within the polymer matrix. To optimise the use of graphene as a reinforcement in composite materials requires a knowledge of where the graphene is within the structure of the laminated materials and how well dispersed it is. This project will use the knowledge and analytical capabitilies of NPL to assist Haydale Composite Solutions to better disperse the graphene within laminated composite materials and to better understand how to influence the properties on an industrial scale.

This project will develop a zero emission drivetrain for a 3500kg van with range and payload suitable for normal urban operations. Leading UK fuel cell system integrator Arcola Energy will carry out a full drivertrain design and integration to convert a transit van to full electric mode, with a fuel cell and hydrogen system providing the range required without compromising payload. With cmoposite material experts Haydale composite solutions, the project will also develop a 700bar hydrogen tank and system to suit the emerging refuelling standards and enable the range extension for the vehicle. The vehicle will be trialed by Commercial Group as the first fully zero emssion vehicle in their fleet of hydrogen powered vehicles which is currently the largest in the UK.

The aim of this interesting project is to prove the feasibility of upscaling the manufacture (using industrially relevant processes) of Graphene enhanced epoxy masterbatch. In doing so we will prove that we can impart radical improvements in thermal properties of epoxy resins that have previously only been shown at academic and lab scale level. Additional improvements may also be seen such as material durability, resistance to wear and improvements in thermal cycling.

Project Creosote investigates the potential of graphene additives to Carbon/ Carbon composites in a range of thermal management applications.

To introduce Graphene Nano Platelets into Thermoset and Thermoplastic resins to achieve uplifts in performance over an array of parameters such as strength, stiffness, toughness, conductivity, permeability/fatigue.

This project aims to develop materials that when incorporated into composite structures, provides those composite materials with the ability to “bruise” or show a visible indication that the material has suffered damage.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The aim of this project is to design develop and manufacture thermoplastic composite vessels and pipes for hydrogen storage and transfer applications at pressures up to 700 bar. Such products will be fully recyclable, impact resistant and durable. A key objective is to produce such products at economically acceptable levels in order to drive forward the hydrogen vector for all energy sectors.

The oil and gas industry is a hugely important business within the UK. More than 89,000 km of pipelines and control lines will be installed globally from 2012-2016 (http://tinyurl.com/7rw2hoh) but new oil fields are increasingly being found in more extreme environments where traditional steel pipeline technology is reaching its limits. Fully bonded composite pipes can be manufactured in continuous lengths and offer advantages over steel pipes in oil and gas applications, particularly offshore, where their resistance to corrosion, wax hydrates, fatigue and embrittlement as well as rapid installation can significantly reduce installation and through-life costs. Other benefits of composite pipe include improved spooling at small diameters, no or few joints leading to lower failure rates, fully bonded systems with excellent collapse resistance, effective load transfer at joints through solid construction, excellent rapid gas decompression resistance, reduction in top tension through lower weight and improved thermal properties for flow assurance. This project aims to build on existing research that has proven the feasibility to effectively manufacture thermoplastic composite pipes with excellent mechanical properties and the advantages described above. In order to take the technical feasibility towards commercial reality it is necessary to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing cell both in terms of throughput and energy use. This project will demonstrate an order of magnitude improvement in the manufacturing rate of thermoplastic composite pipes through innovations in machine design, heating and consolidation means and by doing so will demonstrate the commercial effectiveness of such technology to economically compete against traditional steel and flexible pipeline technology whilst improving on their capabilities.

To embed advanced computational design procedures in the design portfolio and to use these procedures to develop composite applications.

This feasibility study will evaluate and produce a novel business model for the exploitation and commercialisation of new high value manufacturing technology based on design & manufacture of lightweight, aerodynamic, fibre reinforced polymer composite heavy goods vehicle (HGV) semi-trailers.

This project focuses on the UKs growing need for energy storage solutions to support renewable energy deployments & grid integration & to reduce strain on the national grid during peak times as outlined in the TSB’s Energy Supply Strategy 2012 – “supporting renewable energy deployments through energy storage developments to meet legally binding targets for greenhouse gas reduction”. The proposed solution is to develop much larger Composite Flywheels producing MWh’s rather than kWh’s with existing solutions. Key objectives are to prove the technical & cost feasibility & benefits of large composite flywheel energy storage. Through discussions with potential end-users, the commercial product requires the following objectives/applications: Low Voltage Ride Through insensitive, VAr management, storage efficiency, spinning reserve, Black Start, rapid response with fast ramping & small footprint. Project innovation is to prove the concept of an in-situ manufacturing process capable of building composite flywheels with the quality of bond & inclusion size to support the demands of hoop & radial stress. Further innovation is to develop a magnetic bearing arrangement supported on a frustrated cone to centre the rotor & compensate for radial growth during operation. The system will run in a vacuum utilising Halbach arrays to support the flywheel weight for friction free running. Key project benefits are to prove the concept innovations in the workshop & to complete basic material strength trials to validate the theoretical design work & manufacturing process. This enables EPL to develop an exploitation roadmap to further develop the technology to build an initial prototype flywheel in conjunction with key material & systems partners. If successful, the project contributes to the longer term goal of resolving energy storage issues in the UK & abroad & supports the deployment of renewable energy systems & strengthening local grid usage & stability.

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This project aims to determine the feasibility of, and optimal methods and techniques to embed remote strain measurement sensors within lightweight structural composites. Techniques will be investigated to take the ongoing and updated embedded data and use the information to continually update a long term life prediction in order to increase confidence to potential end-users, improve structural calculations and reduce unnecessary safety factors, and to improve the ability of asset managers to accurately predict product life.

About 100 million gallons of oil are spilt accidently in the oceans every year as a result of oil expoloration and transportation. Oil remediation materials (sorbents), which soak up oil in preference to other liquds, are usually deployed as part of a clean up operation. Currently available sorbents are in-effcient, made from expensive virgin polymers and cannot be re-used. This project proposes to address the issues with current materials by devloping and proving a concept of sorbents made from recycled industrial waste fibres. The project is innovative because it will research the underlying science of recycled fibre oil absorption to allow development of novel, higher performance, lower cost sorbents, tailored to end user needs. Furthermore, it will develop an innovative re-processing route to enable the re-use of used, oily materials. The key objectives of this project are: to conduct lab analysis of recycled fibre oil absorption; to make prototype recycled sorbents using knowledge gained; test performance in line with end user and indusrty requirements to validate the concept and to develop a process for converting used, oily materials for re-use. The ultimate aim is to prove the overall concept is commercially viable. The main benefits of this technology will be: Lower cost, higher efficiency materials, tailored to end user need; a new use for recycled industrial waste (that would normally be landfilled) and the added value of a recognised re-processing route. The likely outomes and impacts of this project will be the creation of new manufacturing technology for recycled waste with economic and social impacts of job and wealth creation. More efficient, recycled sorbents will have several positive environmental impacts including reduction of virgin material production, prevention of landfill waste and more efficient oil spill clean up.

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In order to address the concerns of end users and to promote confidence in the use of composite materials in engineering structures, EPL Composite Solutions Ltd set out to build on existing Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) techniques by developing a simple, low cost, visual based damage detection technique that will enable maintenance engineers (unfamiliar with composite materials and NDE) to rapidly identify and quantify any damage to a composite structure, thereby enabling decisions to be made regarding further detailed inspection or repair/replacement of the structure.

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The objective of this project is to develop a novel, low cost, high pressure (350-700bar) gaseous hydrogen storage vessel for the automotive and industrial markets. This tank aims to offer significantly improved fatigue performance than current solutions with the added benefit of being fully recyclable at the end of life. This step change in performance will be achieved by the development of monolithic thermoplastic composite pressure tanks. The project will research and develop new formulations of low cost engineering thermoplastic polymers and co-polymers that have excellent hydrogen barrier properties, are low density (resulting in a lighter weight structure) and are inherently recyclable so the product can be broken down and re-used at the end of its service. Working prototypes will be built and tested to: a) determine the enhanced durability capabilities of the monolithic vessel; b) test the prototype to current hydrogen storage standards; c) conduct a comprehensive life cycle and techno-economic analysis.

This project aims to develop a new generation of sustainable, recyclable, lightweight materials which will offer significantly improved energy absorption and shock mitigation capabilities under dynamic impact and shock/blast loading at reduced economic cost. Methods of designing and manufacturing structural components incorporating the novel material will also be developed, leading to improved safety and protection in a range of sectors. The proposed material is a syntactic foam based on a stochastic dispersion of porous recycled glass particles dispersed in a recycled and/or bio-based polymer matrix. The focus will be on developing a fully recycled and recyclable material. To optimise materials performance, particularly energy absorption, novel multi-scale materials models (using explicit FEA methods) will be developed and used during the materials design stage of the programme. This will be supported by experimental characterisation of rate dependent properties and failure mechanisms. A new soft processing technique will be developed that avoids damage to the glass particles and degradation of the polymer. Multi-material sandwich structures, comprising the recyclable syntactic foam core and glass-reinforced thermoplastic composite skins, will also be developed, again with full recyclability being a goal. To address multi-sector use, three demonstrator parts will be developed: an anti-blast panel for military/civilian vehicles and infrastructure applications; a generic medium velocity shaped impact structure for in-vehicle occupant protection; and a high impact thermoplastic composite sandwich panel for truck bodies.

Development of a model to predict conditions for optimal orientation of nanoparticles in an extrusion process, together with methods of manufacturing non-leaching pipes based on nanoclay technology. The role of the nanoparticles is to form a barrier to render the pipe non-permeable to hydrocarbons and contaminants. The orientation of nanofillers determines the effectiveness of the pipe in preventing permeation. The innovation is the process of producing layers of aligned nanoclay platelets in the pipe body reducing permeation and leaching and using a multiscale model of the nanoclay/polymer systems to predict exfoliation and orientation of the platelets. The model is used to predict conditions for optimal alignment to form a barrier layer in extruded pipes. Factors involved include polymer blend selection, nanoclay type, surface treatment, compounding and processing methods & conditions. Project deliverables were the creation of a model based on the process parameters to predict the alignment and distribution of platelets in polymers, the development of compounding processes and extrusion technology to produce dispersed, exfoliated and aligned nanocomposite layers within the polymer matrix, the development of an online monitoring system to check the distribution and morphology of the nanoclays in the matrix and the adaptation of co-extrusion dies to accommodate the new approach.

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