A CONSORTIUM OF COMPLEMENTARY EXPERTISE

Founded in 1860, MWS are manufacturers of high technology narrow fabric textile products, technical webbings and tailored products. Their 3DS advanced composites division manufactures carbon fibre reinforcements and structures in 2D and 3D. UK-based, with a CNC weaving design and manufacturing capability, they have twelve years R&D experience in 3D performance fibre structural parts. MWS has a culture of innovative engineering and manufacturing development for high quality engineered textile structures for demanding applications in high value sectors. The MWS facility includes fibre rewinding, bespoke 3D weaving looms, resin infusion equipment and mechanical testing.

MWS will support this programme with a novel 3D fibre preform design concept, manufactured using a new adaptive weaving system that will allow flexible radii reinforcement of preforms, modified according to component performance requirements. MWS is registered to ISO 9001-2008 and accredited to international aerospace standard AS 9100. Additionally, MWS have long standing relationships with aerospace primes such as Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, GKN and BAE Systems.

ETherNDE is the UK’s only dedicated manufacturer of Eddy Current non-destructive testing equipment, probes and accessories for the oil & gas, metals processing, aerospace, construction and additive manufacturing sectors. The firm have a range of Eddy Current technologies for different applications and industry to ensure the highest quality inspections can be undertaken to improve detection, asset management and ultimately reduce cost and risk for our customers. The firm’s infrastructure and resources relevant to the project consist of PCB design and layout, embedded system design, software in C++, C# and LabVIEW in addition to in house Eddy Current probe development, design and manufacture using Solidworks.

Based in Manchester, AHS specialises in the design and manufacture of semiconductor Quantum Well Hall Effect (QWHE) sensors. It supplies both wafer format and fully packaged sensors to a range of customers worldwide in industrial, medical, and the oil and gas industries. Its products have been used in some of the most demanding environments ranging from extremes of temperatures to very high sensitivity applications.

AHS have developed a Hall Effect magnetic field sensor component that is made from the compound semiconductor gallium arsenide (GaAs) rather than the traditional silicon (Si) material. The GaAs is prepared in such a way that it can produce Hall sensors that are several orders of magnitude more sensitive than those made from Si. In addition to high sensitivity, the AHS GaAs sensors have other attractive properties; their performance is not affected by variations in temperature and they consume very low power making them ideal candidates for battery powered systems.

Far Composites offers innovative solutions in the design and manufacture of lightweight carbon fibre components - developing processes, products and facilities for new and existing suppliers within the composites industry. The dynamic team at Far brings knowledge from the automotive, aerospace, mass transit and energy sectors to maximise the value of cost-effective lightweighting in manufacturing.We specialise in structural components, with particular expertise in crash proof and multi-material chassis parts - developing, designing and producing our own carbon fibre solutions or working with existing Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to bring new composite components into production and overcome barriers to market entry. Our extensive experience in material technology and design for high-volume manufacture are underpinned by technical expertise and capability in Finite Element Analysis (FEA) - simulating composite materials at micro, meso and macro-scale. We can manufacture one off proof-of-concept demonstrators or pre-production prototypes to validate the feasibility of new concepts within short-time scales and take lightweighting innovations to the next stage.

Established in Cambridge, UK in 1946 and with several facilities across the globe, TWI (www.twi-global.com) is one of Europe’s foremost independent research and technology organisations, employing 740 scientists, technologists, administrative and support staff world-wide (523 in the UK and Europe) and with annual (2017) group turnover of £60 million. TWI works across all industry sectors with expertise in key aspects of materials, materials joining, structural integrity, static and dynamic testing and Non Destructive Testing (NDT) and Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and has representation on over 100 standards committees.