To implement a digital operations strategy to develop and integrate a data management system and machine learning enabled Business Intelligence Platform.

Cadmium coatings have long been the preferred method for protecting components from corrosion in many critical applications across many strategically important industry sectors. Unfortunately, cadmium is toxic and, in recent years, there has been increasing legislation introduced to proscribe its use in many applications. Consequently, protective metal coatings suppliers have developed replacement processes that use less hazardous materials, and which aim to provide similar levels of protection. Of these replacement coatings, zinc-nickel alloys have been reasonably successful, but they are expensive and their performance is still inferior to cadmium in many applications. These alloy coatings are formed via an electroplating process using water-based solutions and the application of a direct current. In this project, the coatings will be deposited from novel, low cost, environmentally friendly materials known as ionic liquids. The project team has already shown that metal coatings deposited from ionic liquids can have superior properties to those deposited from aqueous solutions. In addition, instead of using conventional direct current electroplating, advanced digital (pulse plating) current control will be used, as this technique is also known to provide improved coating qualities. The partners have experience of using both ionic liquids and pulse plating to develop advanced coatings and, in this project, the two approaches will be synergistically combined in a new, reduced cost,high performance zinc-nickel plating process that will directly replace cadmium and offer competitive benefits to UK industry.

Electronics systems require the reliable attachment of large numbers of components on a printed circuit board. This is achieved using advanced soldering techniques to connect components to each other and to enable the device to function according to its design. Therefore, the quality and reliability of the solder joints is extremely important. Demands for increased electronic performance and reduced size have resulted in less area being available to connect components to the circuit board, so producing reliable joints has become a challenge. To achieve good solder joint reliability, a solderable coating is used on the circuit board, which also influences joint reliability. A new solderable coating, the subject of this project, uses nickel, palladium and gold (ENEPIG) based on the use of novel ionic liquids, which enable metal coatings to be deposited with markedly improved properties thereby ensuring long term electronic systems reliability, especially for those products used in harsh and challenging environments. The project will thus produce a new solderable coating that provides enhanced reliability and functionality to a wide range of electronic products, including several addressed in this call.

The STOWURC project is aimed at developing sustainable materials and processes that use waste products from the seafood industry to treat effluent and recover metals from the printed circuit board (PCB) and related industries. The UK PCB industry is strategically important to the country but its chemical processes can generate waste products that are expensive to treat. The shells of crabs and other crustaceans are a source of materials known as chitosans which can absorb metals. They thus have the ability to recover the metals that are found in PCB manufacturing effluent. The UK's seafood industry generates large volumes of shellfish waste and the project is using this waste to produce chitosan-based materials that can sustainably treat the effluent produced by PCB makers and companies producing similar types of metal bearing waste products. The project partners have identified international interest in using chitosan-based materials from PCB manufacturers and there are also much larger applications in other sectors, including surface engineering. Crab shells are typically expensive to dispose of and this project will enable them to become valuable raw materials.