We’ve built on our aerospace market analysis work of 2018 over the last 12 months, publishing a Vision and Roadmap for Sustainable Composites in the spring, and a Roadmap for Composites in Construction to be published this autumn. Both of these documents are being turned into action plans through the relevant Composites Leadership Forum groups, with the outcomes presenting an opportunity for the Composites UK subgroups to deliver against. If you’d like to get involved in either of these areas of work, please drop us a line. Download the sustainability roadmap here: https://compositesuk.co.uk/sus-roadmap
Much of this market analysis feeds into the work that Charlotte White, our SME Relationship Manager, is doing in mapping the support needed for the SME community to exploit the opportunities on offer. 85% of the composites supply chain comprises SME organisations, and for them to continue to compete in an ever-changing industrial climate, ensuring they know how to access the support available is critical. Starting with member companies, Charlotte will be helping companies to make those vital connections.
This is reflected in some of our newer events, where we are working to bring different parts of the sector together to learn where technology transfer might be useful – the Additive Manufacturing event being a case in point where the composites sector learned what this technology could offer them now and in the future. Keep an eye out for other events in this series.
We’ve also completed a gap analysis of standards for the transport sector on behalf of BSI, identifying which standards are fit for purpose, where there are gaps and where there are standards that act as blockers to the uptake of new materials. The report can be found here: https://compositesuk.co.uk/industry-support/standards
We work closely with BSI to ensure appropriate composites representation across a number of their technical committees. If you would like more detail or to get involved please contact the office.
Finally, we look forward to the Advanced Engineering Show this October – a flagship event in the industry calendar. As in previous years, we’ve been heavily involved in developing exciting content for the forum sessions over the two days. We’re also pleased that a higher number than ever of our member companies are taking advantage of the 15% discount on stand costs they receive to exhibit at the show.
We’ve had an impressive number of high calibre entries to our annual industry awards and the shortlist has recently been announced. The overall winners will be presented with their award at the Awards Dinner on 30th October 2019 held at the National Motorcycle Museum to coincide with the Advanced Engineering Show. As always, more details about this are available through the website.
