Professor Conor McCarthy has been awarded €921k from the SFI Infrastructure Programme for the establishment of The Composites and Plastics Joining Suite, at the University of Limerick. This is a unique set of tools to join virtually any pair of materials or components to form new lightweight hybrid products with increased functionality for higher added value consumer products being manufactured in Ireland. For example, we will now be able to join composite materials to metals in a simple one shot process, and this will yield new very lightweight and strong parts for transport vehicles that are electrically conductive, while at the same time being very energy absorbent under impact scenarios, thus increasing safety for human life. The suite will develop new technologies such as ultrasonic and induction welding, laser joining, and hybrid joining tools where we will mix the best elements from bolting and gluing technologies to form truly distinctive Irish joining solutions for exploitation globally.
