The Current State of Play and Future for the Carbon Fibre Industry

Professor Andrew Walker from the National Composite Certification and Evaluation Facility tells us about their role in helping UK manufacturers develop composites expertise and transitioning from manufacturing traditional metallic materials to fibre reinforced composite materials and future proofing their businesses. In doing so, they develop materials standards, processing technologies and design parameters. He also contrasts this to the role of VCAMM in Australia.

He also exlpains the corrleation between oil price and carbon fibre pricing, relates this to weight and fuel savings, and explains the economics of this in relation to the aircraft and automotive industries and where he sees the carbon fibre is at the moment and where it can go.

The use of carbon fibre-based composite materials will also become commonplace in the future, where materials like steel and aluminium will be replaced. However, to do so, large scale manufacturing will be required, and nanoparticles will find their way into matrix materials where they will improve toughness.

This interview was recorded at the Carbon Fibre - Future Directions conference, held in Geelong Australia and organised by VCAMM and Deakin University.

Run time - 14:28min