Around twenty five SAMPE UK and Ireland Chapter members and guests
joined the industry visits to Smiths Aerospace – Material Structures,
Hamble and Mclaren Composites, Cosham on 5 December 2004. Chapter
Secretary David Carlton reports: “It was a superb day and we were
privileged to have the opportunity to see UK advanced composites
manufacturing at its best. Special thanks to John Savage of Smiths
Aerospace and Rob Backhouse of Mclaren for setting up such impressive
programmes.”
– Full report to follow
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The Contenders line up
before the competition.
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The UK and Ireland Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE), in collaboration with the Composites Division of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), held their Annual Student Seminar on 23 November 2004. Student Co-coordinator John Summerscales reports: “Just as last year, the event was run on the same day as the State Opening of Parliament so the contestants had armed guards on Carlton House Terrace balcony and other distractions during the proceedings!
“Twelve students representing eight universities took part. Each
gave an interesting talk on their respective research project. The
majority of the presentations related to composite materials in some
way with just one paper addressing residual strains in high strength
stainless steel welds.
“Three students were selected to go forward to the European Student Seminar (prior to and during the SAMPE/JEC Conference) to be held at IBIS Cambronne Paris during 2-7 April 2005. They were (in order of their presentations):
• Giuseppe Dell'Anno from the Advanced Material Department at
Cranfield University who presented "Robotic Tufting: a novel approach
to through-the-thickness reinforcement",
• Cary Langer from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the
University of Bristol who presented "The influence of fibre wrinkling
and waviness on the manufacturing processes of composite parts", and
• Lee Harper from the School of Mechanical, Materials, Manufacturing
Engineering and Management at the University of Nottingham who
presented "The effect of filamentisation on the properties of short
fibre random composites".
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The Winners
Back row from left to right: Giuseppe and Lee, front row from left to right: Cary and Sophie. |
“The fourth place (reserve for the Paris meeting) was awarded to Sophie Cozien-Cazuc from the same School as Lee Harper for her presentation "Degradable bio-medical composites characterisation of phosphate glass fibres".
“We are indebted to the IOM3 for the provision of the venue and the audio-visual equipment and to SAMPE for funding the refreshments. The judges were Ivana Partridge (Cranfield University), Roy McCarthy (Dowty Propellers), Mike Clifford (University of Nottingham) and John Summerscales (University of Plymouth).
“Any prospective contestants (primarily research degree candidates
but outstanding undergraduate projects are not excluded) for the
competition next year should contact me, Dr John Summerscales at the
University of Plymouth School of Engineering (tel: 01752 23 2650,
e-mail: jsummerscales@plymouth.ac.uk).
A call for participants will be sent to key UK academics in composite
materials in September 2005. If you did not see the invitation this
year, then do ask to be included.”
Industry Visit to VT Halmatic and Chapter AGM, March 2004
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| Roy McCarthy thanks VT’s Ajay Kapadia on behalf of SAMPE |
Ajay explained that the hull construction is based on an E glass/aramid outer skin coupled with an E-glass reinforced inner skin, both in vinyl ester resin, either side of a PVC foam core. The composite hull started life as a foam cored glass and resin sandwich, but soon changed into a Kevlar, carbon, glass and foam matrix, reinforced with carbon along each stiffener and in way of each bulkhead.
Because of the vessel's size, much of the machinery and many of the fittings for the yacht have been developed uniquely for Mirabella V. The bulkheads were made via resin infusion involving the use of the “largest panel tools in Europe , possibly the World”. Panels were infused under vacuum in the Woolston panel shop at VT's former shipyard before being cut to form bulkheads using Mylar templates accurately cut on the VT laser cutter. Laminators from VT Shipbuilding and Powys Yacht Management used their skills to construct the detailed structure around the novel two anchor bow design, and the large garage at the transom of the vessel, capable of accepting a 37 knot tender.
Both the mast and boom were fabricated in carbon/epoxy. The hollow carbon epoxy mast, which has a maximum cross section of 1.6m. and structural thickness of up to 40mm, will support some 3400m 2 of sail. It was manufactured in halves, with the back half comprising two sections and the front half divided into three sections. The massive 88m structure used CF/epoxy LT prepreg, laid up in timber moulds and then consolidated under vacuum and cured and by heating electrically by means of special heater films. The mast was assembled from the five individual sections.
The project took two years to complete. Details on project costs were confidential but it’s no secret from press coverage that the project has gone over budget and VT had to make ‘appropriate provision’ in the balance sheet. Despite the commercial headaches the scale of the project can’t fail to impress. Mirabella V is owned by US businessman Joe Vittoria and now forms part of the Mirabella fleet of luxury charter vessels.
In contrast the proceedings of the Chapter AGM were rather less spectacular. The chairman presented his annual review and the treasurer confirmed that our financial position fitted neatly into the profit guidelines “somewhere between HSBC and Parmalat!”
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| The rapt audience hang on the Committee’s every word. Probably the most important question raised at the Chapter AGM was - “What time’s the bar open?” |
25 th SAMPE International Conference and Forums,
Paris
The SAMPE Europe International Conference held alongside JEC in Paris In April was another great success. With over 100 technical presentations in ten subject groups delivered in three parallel sessions over three days, the event attracted more than 400 delegates. Whilst there are still a few problem areas the overall. It should eventually provide the UK Chapter with a small income when the Conference accounts are finally completed.
Next year’s Conference is already well ahead in the planning. The Conference theme is ‘ Nanotechnology assists leadership & success of the Composite Technology (sic)’. Not the snappiest or best-worded handle ever but, on the basis of past experience, what the Conference lacks in a title will undoubtedly be made up for in the quality of the programme. The Call for Papers has gone out with a deadline for abstracts of 15 September 2004 . Klaus Drechsler and his technical team (including Roy McCarthy and Andrew Long) are aiming to have an outline programme together by mid-December. Disappointingly UK input (and influence) into the Conference seems to be falling. In 2000 almost a quarter of the papers came from the UK , whereas in 2004 there was less than 10% contribution.
International Students Conference, Paris , April 2004
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| ‘Just Four Men’ – Lucio, Konstantinos, Nunio and Andrea |
The overall winner was Nicholas Fedullo from KU ( Catholic University ) Lueven , Belgium . Our trio acquitted themselves very well and although they didn’t win they all put up very creditable performances. Our congratulations and thanks go to them and also to their respective supervisors for enabling them to attend and for their invaluable input to and continued support for the Student Competition.
The 2004 UK and Ireland Chapter Students Seminar will take place at the IOM 3 Headquarters in London on 23 November. Organiser Dr John Summescales of ACMC, Plymouth University is already making arrangements and will be sending out further details in due course. This year, under the John’s chairmanship, the adjudication panel will include Geoff Gould, Sue Panteny, Andrew Long and Roy McCarthy.
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| Jim Johnson and Adrie Kwaakernak help Agnes celebrate |