A new initiative to drastically cut the time needed to make complex composite aircraft components has been launched with the award of an EPSRC High Value Manufacturing Catapult Fellowship to Richard Day, Professor of Composites Engineering at Glyndwr University, Wrexham.

He will work with the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing (AMRC) and the National Composites Centre in Bristol (NCC) (nccuk.com) to develop microwave technology that industry could use to cut curing times, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Researchers have been using microwaves to cure composites for some years, but they have yet to develop robust processes that could be used by industry to make geometrically complex parts, as opposed to flat panels.

Mr Day said that the four-year research programme will explore and overcome manufacturing problems associated with microwave curing, before going on to make complex components of the type used in aircraft.

“The use of composites by the aerospace industry, in particular, is going from strength to strength. Some aircraft structures now comprise 50% composite, and that has put pressure on the supply chain.”

NCC collaborative research manager Dan Kells said: “We have been aware of the potential for microwave curing for a number of years. We hope that this fellowship will develop microwave curing so that it can become a real industrial process. This in turn will allow composites to continue to compete as a major structural material for aircraft and other applications.”