Second EPSRC Success for the Design Simulation Research Centre

4 November 2009

The Design Simulation Research Centre, in partnership with BAE Systems, have been awarded their second EPSRC Industrial CASE award.

The Design Simulation Research Centre in DEC have just been awarded their second EPSRC Industrial CASE award to investigate and develop a “new low-cost flexible tool for large scale manufacturing of composite components”. The project, worth £95k over three and a half years and is jointly funded by BAE Systems and the EPSRC.

Bournemouth University’s Chair in Advanced Technology, Professor Siamak Noroozi and Senior Lecturer Dr. Philip Sewell have joined forces with Professor Bob Cripps from BAE Systems Surface Ships to undertake this research.

There has been an increased demand for the use of composite materials in the constructions of marine craft. However, the composite manufacturing process is expensive, time consuming, inflexible and produces a huge amount of non-recyclable waste. This research aims to address these issues by developing a low-cost flexible composite tooling strategy to manufacture a range of composite marine structures using a single reusable tool bed, hence, producing true flexibility in composite tooling with minimal waste. Potentially this tool will provide flexibility comparable to that offered by CNC for manufacturing metallic components.

Dr Sewell said “the outcome of this research will assist the marine industry by removing many manufacturing issues and bottlenecks hence improving productivity. Together with a match funded BU Studentship we have with BAE Systems Surface Ships for dynamic design verification and in-service load monitoring on composite marine structures we hope to be able to have a significant impact on both the design and manufacture of navy and marine craft.”

Professor Noroozi said “Our long term aim is to expand our research in composite technology and medical engineering. This award, together with our first EPSRC grant to advance lower-limb prosthetic fitting, in collaboration with Blatchford [the UK largest manufacturers of prosthetics technology], will help us towards achieving this aim.”