Traditionally used in glamorous high-end applications (e.g. spacecraft, F1 cars), Polymer Composites are materials which are increasingly appearing all around us in everyday society. For example, the transport sector has embraced composite materials in aircraft, trains, automobiles and marine vessels. Polymer Composites offer the potential to achieve lightweight load bearing, corrosion-resistant engineering components and are increasingly replacing metallic materials in industrial applications. Lighter transport vehicles mean less emissions and increased range for existing fossil fuel and new electric vehicles. Broadly, the challenges to be addressed are to develop cost efficient materials to secure supply chain and develop novel automated manufacturing process for high production rate and reliability. IComp operates the only laser assisted ATP (automatic tape placement) cell in Ireland (one of only a handful in Europe) and has built up considerable expertise in the use of this technology. Ajay Kumar Kadiyala a postdoc at UL was awarded Marie Sklodowska Curie Career-FIT Programme Call 2, in which he proposes to “Develop dry-fibre tapes for ATP using water based dispersions” under the supervision of Dr. Anthony Comer. It has always been the motivation of Dr Kadiyala to develop affordable lightweight materials. The proposed project aims to allow increased use of composite materials in society through increased automation at the point of manufacture.
