Composites Curriculum Development: tackling the skills gap in UK advanced composites

The aim of this project is to generate an industrially relevant and academically rigorous curriculum which could be deployed to tackle the significant skills gap in composites professionals, vital for delivering on the UK’s National Composite Strategy and allowing the industry to grow to its full potential, forecast by the Composites Leadership Forum to grow by a factor of 5 by 2030. A Masters’ level curriculum of short, industrially focused units has been specified and a small number of trial units developed. Engagement of academics in this novel collaborative curriculum development, utilising each institution’s expertise, has been very good and feedback from industry and participants in pilot units has been positive. Consortium participants are investigating numerous options for developing this further and have begun to put plans in place for the next stage

Overview of production of pre-preg, prototype and testing

The content of the scientific work is to evaluate the properties of matrix pre-preg systems of composite materials suitable for the production of high performance composite parts, for example for automotive or aerospace industry. The research work introduces composite materials, types, properties and fields of use of matrices and fibres. The main part deals with the description of the pre-preg production, the description of the state of the material conversion with a focus on the B-state of the resin, including the technologies for the production of composite materials from pre-preg systems. The practical part is focused on the testing of matrices intended for the manufacture of pre-preg systems of composite materials, it compares different types of epoxy matrix and glass fiber in several layers. The aim of the work is to evaluate the tested composite systems suitable for pre-preg applications, to compare the properties and parameters of the given application with the focus on the recommended production methods. The result of the work can then be used as the most suitable production application according to the customer's requirements for the product. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.TBU in Zlin [IGA/FT/2018/004