Forming low-cost, high quality carbon tows for automotive application.

Carbon fiber reinforced composites are widely used in many industries due to their high performance. Its application in the aerospace industry has increased significantly, however, in mass produced automobile sector it is still limited. The current production of carbon fiber tow is slow and capital intensive. Thus, carbon manufactures produce higher tow counts to increase production rate to reduce its cost. In order to offset the higher cost of carbon fiber composite, an innovative and unique approach has been developed. The higher tow count carbon spools are split into smaller tow counts. Due to the delicate nature of carbon fiber, it is important to control the filamentation during that process. Different splitting process line strategies have been developed in this research work for understanding the process limitations and challenges involved. The process was made feasible for production by developing a fully automated process line with a laser feedback system. The system splits a 12K spool into two 6K tows. The quality of the 6K split tows has been determined statistically by recording real time data from the laser during the splitting process. It was demonstrated that the proposed process effectively controls filamentation and produces consistent tow quality.Company research funding by Bentley Motors Limite

Assessment of survival time of damaged Ro-Ro passenger vessels Research summary report

Research carried out by Ship Stability Research Centre (SSRC), Glasgow (GB)SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6924.82538(391) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Understanding contemporary challenges to INGO legitimacy: integrating top-down and bottom-up perspectives

In recent years, INGO legitimacy has been subject to growing scrutiny from analysts and practitioners alike. Critics have highlighted a backlash against INGOs in the Global South, a growing mismatch between INGO capacities and contemporary global challenges, and diminishing support for norms such as democracy and human rights that underpin INGOs’ work. Though these problems have attracted significant attention within the academic literature, this article argues that existing explorations of INGO legitimacy have broadly conformed either to a top-down approach focused on global norms and institutions or a bottom-up approach focused on the local dynamics surrounding states and populations in the Global South. We suggest that this divide is is unhelpful for understanding the current predicament and propose a new approach, which pays closer attention to the interaction between bottom-up and top-down dimensions, and to historical context. This new approach can provide important insights into current debates about the future roles and internal structures of INGOs