Our capabilities
We're providing manufacturers with the means to explore new opportunities, increase and maintain competitiveness while also helping to develop a wide, supportive supply chain.
The product development cycle
The types of support we can offer to help your business include:
- Concept
- Design
- Material selection
- Process selection
- Design for manufacture
- Manufacture & assembly
- Quality
- Testing
- Recycling & remanufacture
Our equipment
Factory space
With over 5000m2 of reconfigurable and hygienic spaces to facilitate a wide range of programme needs, our factory space also includes secure areas for commercially sensitive programmes.
Clean room houses
500m2 of class 7 clean room space for materials and product development and manufacture, perfect for manufacturers looking to create the next generation of lighter, more sustainable materials.
Xplore fibre spinning rig
The jewel in the crown of our FutureFibre testbed. With melt and solution spinning capability, our fibre spinning rig allows us to obtain fibres from just 5 - 10 g of material in up to 15 minutes. Reliable and reproducible, we can use less material for testing, plus material development time is drastically reduced.
Oxidising and carburizing ovens
Designed to create and screen novel carbon fibre blends and architectures, our ovens provide assurance of temperature uniformity at a variety of flow rates and control of the reaction, which ultimately enhances the quality of the final fibres.
Wetlay process
Perfect for manufacturing businesses on a net-zero journey, this pilot scale short fibre recyclate reformatting line is designed to produce consistent and high quality materials.
It can used in conjunction with in process composite waste or recycled end of life components.
Accudyne automated fibre placement (AFP)
A low cost robotic and digital composite manufacturing capability, this machine is currently the only one in the UK. Ideal for high impact processing of composites, it has been designed for academic and R&D applications, supporting automation and low material wastage.
PEI 340t press
400 degree celcius platten press with low pressure injection moulding.
Coexpair press
Capable of producing near net shape parts, this high volume, low pressure injection moulding press has a built in data acquisition system allowing for smarter manufacture of composite materials.
Breton Raptor 5-axis machining cell
Composite capable with a vacuum bed of 4m x 2m, this machine is perfect for producing complex, large scale parts at high speeds. Producing highly durable and reliable outputs, it’s the ideal choice for aerospace components.
Microcompounder
Designed for blending and melt extruding polymer products for screening, our mico-compounder produces high quality results with reduced processing time. Easy to use and clean, projects can be turned around quickly.
Autoclave
Spanning 980mm diameter, two metres in length and capable of reaching temperatures of 250 degree Celsius, the autoclave delivers a perfect surface quality of carbon fibre prereg parts, ensuring superior fatigue resistance and durability.