The Bristol Composites Institute (BCI) and National Composites Centre (NNC) recently hosted their joint annual conference at Wills Hall Conference Centre in Bristol. If you missed out this year, then a recording of the BCI & NCC introductions, Technical Presentations and the Keynote Lecture are available to view on the BCI Youtube Channel.
The focus of the event was on future applications of composite materials, through industry focussed innovation. We were at capacity with nearly 200 attendees, for an array of technical presentations and thought-provoking discussions. There were presentations from BCI and NCC on Sustainable and Natural Materials, CMC’s for High Temperature Applications and Future Structures – how composites can be redesigned to unlock function and performance.
This was followed by an insightful keynote lecture from Alison Green at Vertical Aerospace titled “How composites will help disrupt the future of air travel”.
We finished the day with a panel session which focused on 4 key areas:
- Challenges for new sustainable materials
- How to create a level playing field for LCA of materials?
- UK competitiveness in new materials
- Reduction of product development costs
The panel session was chaired by Mike Hinton of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, with an expert panel sharing their knowledge; Faye Smith (Avalon Consultancy Services), Jon Meegan (Solvay), Fabrizio Scarpa (BCI), Marcus Walls-Bruck (NCC), Lourens Blok (Lineat), Jonathan Fuller (NCC) and Alison Green (Vertical Aerospace).
