Composite Materials and Sustainability

Name: Composite Materials and Sustainability
Start: 2022-07-19T09:00:00
Location: Seminar

Seminar, Online

19 July 2022

Booking multiple tickets (group discounts available), on behalf of someone else or need us to make a reasonable adjustment in order for you to attend this event? Please email us

Overview

Sustainability in their use phase is often a key driver for the selection of composites over traditional materials. Composite structures deliver a long service life combined with low maintenance requirements, and lightweight composites result in lower energy consumption throughout a product's life.

According to the National Composites Centre (NCCUK), composites play an important role in driving decarbonisation through:

light-weighting to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions
manufacturing higher performance products
increasing product lifespans by decades through corrosion resistance and durability.

However, the NCCUK also state that there are limited options for recycling and only 15% of the 110,000 tonnes of composites produced in the UK each year will be reused or recycled at their end-of-life.

Taking place live and online, this seminar will share cross-industry experiences of the challenges of ensuring the sustainability of composites addressing the key challenges and case-studies of maintenance and recycling.

Join your peers for a technical showcase of the latest developments in this field and take back the latest findings to enhance your organisation's products and contribute to sustainability strategy.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Alan Banks, UK Lightweight Innovations Manager, Ford
Ajay Kapadia, Knowledge Transfer Manager, Composites, KTN
Srinivasan Gopalakrishnan, Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Ben Andrews, Business Development Manager – Emerging & Sustainable Technology, SHD Composite Materials Ltd
Nathan Elliott, R&D Engineer, Racket Sports, HEAD
Katy Beardsworth, Environmental Strategy Manager, Network Rail
Darren Sharp, Principal Engineer, Track & S&C, Network Rail

WHY YOU NEED TO ATTEND:

Address the key challenges involved in the recycling of composites
Learn about industrial solutions enabling more diverse and efficient composites recycling
Hear cutting edge insights direct from the leading organisations in industry, research and academia
Benchmark your organisation's processes with those across different sectors
Make the most of dedicated question and answer sessions

WHO SHOULD JOIN:

All those involved in the creation, use, disposal and reuse of composite materials are strongly recommended to attend and benefit from the technical discussions and learning opportunities.

SUPPORT YOUR CAREER DEVELOPMENT:

Attending this event supports your Professional Development; if you're an IMechE Member, this can be tracked in the Career Developer section of your online account.

Day 1

10:00 - Agenda


09:00	Chair’s Opening Remarks Simon Smith, Managing Director, Transforming Stress Ltd.

09:05	Net-Zero Sustainable Lightweight Technology for Mass Production Alan Banks, UK Lightweight Innovations Manager, Ford · Circular Economy · Design for Disassembly and Reuse · Affordability and business case
09:25	Question and answer session
09:30	Do we really need to recycle composites? Ajay Kapadia, Knowledge Transfer Manager, Composites, Knowledge Transfer Network
09:50	Question and Answer Session
09:55	Sustainable materials and future solutions Ben Andrews, Business Development Manager – Emerging & Sustainable Technology, SHD Composite Materials Ltd
10:15	Question and Answer Session
10:20	Networking Refreshment Break
	Composites across Transport Sectors Chair: Alan Banks, UK Lightweight Innovations Manager, Ford
10:50	Application of Artificial Intelligence in Structural Health Monitoring Srinivasan Gopalakrishnan, Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India · Need for Machine and deep learning approaches for Structural Health Monitoring · Use of Ultrasonic guided wave (UGW) coupled with Machine and Deep Learning approaches for damage detection, damage localization and material property identification metallic and composite structures · The focus of the presentation is towards model-assisted and physics guided deep learning. In this approach, domain knowledge and expert-based supervision is utilized to steer the learning process · The performance of the networks is compared based on metrics like accuracy, loss value, mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, and coefficient of determination
11:10	Question and answer session
11:15	Composite materials and circularity in the railway Katy Beardsworth, Environmental Strategy Manager, Network Rail Darren Sharp, Engineering Consultant, Permanent Way Engineering · Composite sleepers as an alternative to concrete, timber or steel · Circular economy of rail materials · Potential for increased composite material use in rail
11:35	Question and answer session
11:40	Innovation in rail infrastructure – a case study in rail electrification Noel Dolphin, Director, Furrer and Frey AG · UK’s first composite railway electrification mast was installed in March 2022. · Composites reduced embodied carbon by 75% across the whole railway electrification system. · Challenges of installing in a real rail environment
12:00	Question and Answer Session
12:05	The Sustainability Challenges of Composites (WIP) Jonathan Wanless, Life Cycle Assessment Specialist, Polestar · The good things about composites for sustainability · The bad things about composites for sustainability · How Polestar is managing the two, case study: BCOMP
12:20	Question and Answer Session
12:25	Flax fibre composites for sustainable marine structures Adam Sobey, Associate Professor, Maritime Engineering group, University of Southampton · Variable behaviour of flax structures. · Case studies into the use of Flax in some Marine Structural applications. · Investigating hybrid flax-glass structures
12:45	Question and Answer Session
12:50	Networking Lunch
	Composites in Sports Engineering Chair: Thomas Allen, Manchester Metropolitan University
13:50	Sustainable Product Design in the Sports Industry Nathan Elliott, R&D Engineer, Racket Sports, HEAD · Building sustainability into carbon fibre products whilst maintaining high-performance attributes · Case study of natural fibre tennis racket: replacing carbon fibres with flax-based plant fibres · Ensuring high quality and durable design with limited co2 production through the entire lifecycle
14:10	Question and answer session
14:15	Bambú – an Innovative Change to the Sport of Hurling Aonghus Clarke, Innovation Lead, Torpey · The GAA and traditional hurley making background · Problem solving with sustainable products in mind · Innovative solutions and adaption
14:35	Question and answer session
14:40	Scaling Up to make a difference Gary Owen, CEO, Lineat Composites · Lineat Technology · Scaling Up- Difficulties & Opportunities · Commercial Validation
15:00	Question and answer session
15:05	Networking Refreshment Break
	Composites in Construction Chair: Sue Halliwell, Composites UK
15:35	Torkington Park – A first for Fibre-reinforced Polymer Reinforcement Martin Halpin, Innovation and Development Manager, Cheetham Hill Construction Ltd · Replacing steel reinforcement and concrete on a RC trash screen structure with FRP reinforcement and Reduced Carbon Concrete · Securing funding from the Environment Agency Net Zero Carbon Innovation Pathway Fund · Using ‘Combar’
15:55	Question and Answer Session
16:00	Recent Innovations in Circular Composites Jen Hill, Director, B&M Longworth · Bringing the solution to the waste - reducing transportation of waste · Examples of recent reclamation successes · Dispelling the myths of rCF
16:20	Question and answer session
16:25	Chair’s Closing Remarks
16:35	End of Seminar

Martin Halpin: Innovation and Development Manager, Construction Composites Ltd

Martin studied Civil Engineering in Nottingham and has more than 35 years’ experience working for contracting, client, and supplier organisations in a variety of roles on a wide-ranging portfolio of construction schemes. His passion is infrastructure, and he has been fortunate to be involved in design and construction projects working in collaboration with client organisations, design, and supply chain partners to deliver a wide range of projects using innovative solutions to overcome engineering challenges whilst placing safe by design, buildability, affordability, sustainability, and whole life cost high on the agenda

Jen Hill: Director, B&M Longworth

Longworth is an innovation tech company with a 46-year history in proven, effective reclamation of value waste streams. In recent years their DEECOM® technology has been increasingly applied to composites and been found to recover pristine condition, continuous fibre from industry and EOL waste. Jen brings a rare mix of strong commercial background and passion for sustainability. As a board director of Composites UK, she strongly feels that by pulling together, the composites industry can onshore advanced material production, optimise reuse, reduce import and supply chain issues and improve the UK’s export potential, all while leading on sustainability in composites.

Dr Nathan Elliott: R&D Engineer Racket Sports, HEAD Sports

Dr Nathan was awarded his Ph.D. by the Centre for Sports Engineering Research (CSER) at Sheffield Hallam University in 2015. Since then he has transferred his skills into industry to help HEAD Sport engineer high performance tennis, squash and padel rackets and continue to push the boundaries of racket research and innovation. His expertise lies in the field of product development, fibre-polymer composite engineering, data collection and analysis and image processing. Understanding engineering disciplines and extracting meaningful insights from data to analyse, gain knowledge and improve the performance of athletes and their equipment, is a particular passion.

Alan Banks: UK Lightweight Innovations Manager, Ford

Alan Banks is the Lightweight Structures Manager at Ford Motor Company. He started work at Ford in 1983 as an apprentice and his remit is to lead projects with light-weighting technologies and applications in design with mass production capability. Alan has a First-Class Honours Degree and an MSc from the University of Bradford, is a Fellow and Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering Technology and a Fellow of the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange and a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. He is Chairman of the Board for the Composites UK Trade Association, Chairman of the Vehicular Composites Group and the Chairs the Lightweighting UK Auto Council Strategy Group.

Ajay Kapadia: Knowledge Transfer Manager, Composites, KTN

Ajay is the Knowledge Transfer Manager for Advanced Composites within KTN. Ajay works with Industry, academia and RTOs who use or want to use composite materials. A Mechanical Engineer by Training, Ajay has a post graduate qualification in Manufacturing Systems. Ajay has been working with composite materials for about 25 years and has worked in most of the sectors that it is used in. Industry, academia and RTOs who use or want to use composite materials should contact Ajay for further information. Ajay can help other organisations by: signposting to capability; finding partners with end users; reviewing proposals; and running webinars, conferences, workshops, briefing and collaboration events. Alongside the Materials Team, Ajay works with Transport, Energy, Defence and Security, Chemistry, and Manufacturing.

Ben Andrews: Business Development Manager – Emerging & Sustainable Technology, SHD Composite Materials Ltd

Innovative engineer working closely with customers to provide design solutions in composite materials. A deep understanding of the materials and relevant processes has given rise to a proven track record in successfully delivered projects Extensive international travel to customers and suppliers has enabled the development of excellent interpersonal skills and global relationship management.

Katy Beardsworth: Environmental Strategy Manager, Network Rail

Katy is the national strategic lead for circular economy and environmental management in Network Rail, working in the central Technical Authority. With a strong background in environmental management (including waste, pollution, contaminated land and water), Katy currently leads a number of circular economy projects and programmes, covering procurement, asset management, design and material circularity. Katy has a BSc in Plant Science from the University of Edinburgh, an MSc in Environmental Management from the University of Stirling and is currently studying for an MBA in Innovation, Enterprise and Circular Economy at the University of Bradford.

Darren Sharp: Principal Engineer, Track, S&C, Network Rail

Darren has 32 years experience within Permanent Way Engineering covering design, innovation, manufacture, renewals and maintenance. He has worked for British Rail, Scott Wilson, Jarvis, Railtrack, Transport for London and various consultancies. Darren’s work has mainly concentrated on London Underground for over 20 years involved with project engineering management and as the Principal Engineer for Switches & Crossings. More recently he has worked with New York City Transit to improve track reliability and with Network Rail Technical Authority to develop a strategic plan for sleepers and sustainable track materials.

Gary Owen: CEO, Lineat Composites

Experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working in the environmental services industry. Skilled in Sailing, International Business, Environmental Awareness, International Sales, and Contract Negotiation. Strong professional with a Diploma focused in Environmental Survey from College of East kent.

Srinivasan Gopalakrishnan: Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

Noel Dolphin: Head of UK Projects, Furrer and Frey AG

Aonghus Clarke: Innovation Lead, Torpey

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