Today at the Farnborough International Airshow, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) launched A Framework for Growth: Securing the UK's Composites Advantage.
It identifies the technologies and capabilities needed to ensure the UK can meet the forecast growth in production rates of future aircraft.
Central to the framework are five priority pillars which the ATI has identified for coordinated sector action:
- High-rate industrial systems
- Advanced tooling capabilities
- Novel structural concepts
- Material supply chain resilience
- Depth of manufacturing supply chain
As the UK’s national Centre of Excellence for composite technologies, NCC welcomed the opportunity to help shape the strategy, alongside industry colleagues within the ATI Composites Working Group.
The publication of strategies like this is critical to alignment in sectors where future UK success will be delivered by a diverse group of stakeholders: businesses, RTOs, government departments, innovative SMEs.
The alignment between, ATI, NCC and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVM Catapult) is clear:
High-rate industrial systems and novel structural concepts
We know that Next Generation Platforms are coming, and the UK has a distinct and compelling offer for productive, high-quality industrialisation systems.
NCC’s £15.8m High Rate Manufacture Capital Acquisition Project (HRMCap) is focused on delivery of high-rate industrial systems to de-risk and accelerate innovation for composite structure manufacturing.
Building on decades of investment and learning from major aerospace programmes, including the manufacture of full-scale primary composite structures, NCC is continuing to mature the technologies, processes and production approaches needed for the next generation of aircraft.
Through HRMCap, and other supporting programmes, we will accelerate and scale these capabilities to help secure the UK's role in future aerospace programmes.
Advanced tooling capabilities
Earlier this year, NCC’s Mark Bowering, Chief Engineer for Civil Aerostructure, and Shaw Beattie, Engineering Capability Lead for Design, argued for the importance of tooling: “Tooling touches every part of manufacturing - speed, cost, quality, flexibility. If we want to make the next generation of products here in the UK, we need this capability in place.”
Material supply chain resilience and depth of manufacturing supply chain
NCC-led work on material supply chain resilience, part of HVM Catapult’s Strategic Materials programme, has quantified the value of composite materials for the first time. Carbon fibre alone is worth 1.3bn to the UK economy, yet we're 100% reliant on imports for aerospace and defence applications.
NCC’s Carbon Fibre Development Facility and Advanced Materials Partnership with CPI form part of the response, aimed at providing the UK with new, end-to-end development and innovation capabilities for materials.
From strategy to delivery
With this new framework as a guide – complemented by strategies from AGP, HVM Catapult, and NCC – our focus remains on coordinated investment and capability development to deliver on the UK’s aerospace ambitions.
Rich Oldfield, CEO, NCC said:
"The transition to next-generation, ultra efficient aircraft represents a major opportunity that the UK must seize. By focusing our world-class composites expertise on the technologies that matter most, we can strengthen the UK's global leadership in advanced aerospace engineering. We're proud to have helped shape a framework that gives industry a clear, shared direction for the years ahead."
