This research, valued at US$10 million, will investigate all aspects of coal-derived carbon fibre production – from computational chemistry and pitch processing to the final spinning and heat treatment process of the fibres. The aim is to produce fibres with superior properties at a lower cost than currently available.

Through this effort, ORNL researchers will work to understand the chemistry and processing conditions required to produce different grades of coal-derived carbon fibre. NETL, ORNL, and the university teams will work closely to diversify U.S. coal use in domestic manufacturing while making coal and coal-based products more attractive for export.

Because of competition from low-priced natural gas and incentivised renewable energy, the market for coal in the electric power generation sector is decreasing. However, coal-to-products opportunities can develop new markets for coal, which have the potential to offset this decrease.

For example, the market for carbon fibres is estimated to see an annual growth rate of 12 per cent through 2024, driven largely by increased use in aerospace and defence applications and in light-weighting of vehicle structures. Additional market growth is also possible in other high-volume applications, such as thermal insulation for buildings and materials for construction and infrastructure.

The $10 million that ORNL’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility will receive comes as a part of $30 million in the fiscal year 2020 Congressional appropriations to support DOE’s Advanced Coal Processing Program. This program supports the development of technologies that can utilise coal for purposes outside the traditional thermal and metallurgical markets.

Of the $10 million funding, $4.5 million will support University of Kentucky research to determine how coal tar pitch, the carbon fibre precursor, can be tailored and optimised for the specific type of desired fibre. Additionally, $80,000 will go to Pennsylvania State University for material characterisation.

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Situated on Netherton Campus at the centre of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland (AMIDS) in Renfrewshire, the council’s planning authority gave the green light to plans for the brand new energy carbon-neutral building.

At around 1.5 times the size of Hampden football pitch, the facility will include a skills academy, a fully digitalised factory of the future and a collaboration hub. The new facility will help support manufacturing and engineering firms of all sizes and from all sectors across the country, and internationally, to innovate and grow their businesses.

NMIS is a group of industry-led manufacturing research and development facilities where industry, academia and the public sector work together on ground-breaking manufacturing research to transform productivity levels, make companies more competitive and boost the skills of our current and future workforce.

 It is operated by the University of Strathclyde and supported by Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, High-Value Manufacturing Catapult, Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Funding Council and Renfrewshire Council. 

NMIS will be an international centre of expertise where research, industry and the public sector will work together to make Scotland a global leader in advanced manufacturing and attract investment.

Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of  Strathclyde

The new facility, along with the NMIS specialist technology centres: Lightweight Manufacturing Centre and Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre; the only High-Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre in Scotland, are key facilities in the manufacturing innovation district being developed next to Glasgow Airport, with Netherton Campus also home to the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre.

Construction is well underway on the district’s enabling infrastructure, funded through the Glasgow City Region City Deal.

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The global market for composites is predicted to be worth $105.8bn in 2020 and growing at 6.5% per year. In the UK alone, the value of composites is expected to reach c. £12.5bn by 2030.

Aerospace is a significant driver of demand, with operators looking to replace ageing aircraft fleets with the latest, most fuel-efficient models.  Using current, labour-intensive techniques, manufacturers can only make 6 pairs of wings per month. The market requires 100. Meeting this need means radically re-thinking how these wings are made.

For the past two years, a team comprised of engineers, researchers, software architects, roboticists and textile experts have explored how digital technologies can make composites easier to design for, as well as quicker and cheaper to make. A key goal was to demonstrate that they could be a viable, mass-producible alternative to traditional metallic parts.  The results of this research are 10 ground-breaking new machines which redefine the ‘state of the art’ for composite manufacturing.

The stars of the new facility are two huge industrial robots that automate the wing production process. Weighing 45 tonnes and 24 tonnes respectively, the robots measure, cut, lift and place pieces of carbon fibre fabric (‘plies’) with millimetric accuracy. They can also lay 5m wide strips of composite material, up to 20m long, in one precise movement. This could cut the number of fabric components required from c.100,000 to just 150 and reduces wing-build time from one week to one day. This has the potential to revolutionise aircraft production.

Other technologies include a giant circular Braider, the largest of its kind in Europe, which automatically weaves up to 288 individual strands of high strength carbon fibre to create hollow 3D shapes (or geometries), for products such as pipes or aircraft propellers.

The Overmoulder, meanwhile, shows how composite components can be mass-produced at rate. This would enable carmakers, for example, to use more of the technology in mainstream vehicles, making them lighter and more durable. These are key considerations given the long-term shift towards electrification and, beyond that, new models of shared ownership where cars will be expected to do vast mileages.

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The new facility, which will create more than 100 new jobs in Scotland has been equipped with state-of-the-art composite manufacturing machinery using the latest automation and robotics. With this new facility, Spirit will achieve the required rate of approximately 700 aircraft and 7,000 spoilers annually.

The opening of this new facility is part of Spirit’s journey to becoming a leader in advanced out of autoclave composite technology. It demonstrates how we can develop cost-effective new technologies and manufacturing processes that will play a central role in the next generation of aircraft programs.

Scott McLarty, Spirit AeroSystem’s senior vice president of Airbus programs

Spirit AeroSystems is one of the largest manufacturers of aerostructures in the world with design and builds capabilities for both commercial and defence customers. In addition to spoilers, the company currently produces Airbus’s A320 family leading and trailing edge.

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The project is a $12.5 million investment by the consortium with support from the Federal Government in order to design, develop and manufacture flight-ready cryo tanks.

It brings industry and academia together to use advanced robotic filament winding using exotic materials suited to the extreme operating conditions of space. The new carbon fibre cryo tanks have the potential for up to 30 per cent weight saving and 25 per cent cost saving.

We are grateful to receive this funding, which will allow us to develop world-class composite materials and components for our orbital launch vehicles – making our rockets more efficient and reducing the cost of access to space

Gilmour Space, a Gold Coast-based rocket company, signed a strategic agreement with USQ in 2019 to collaborate on advanced rocket technology research.

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From February the company will handle the concept, designing, prototyping, evaluations, marketing and technical research for next-generation automotive components, using the group’s capabilities to provide a range of solutions for next-generation vehicles.

The new centre is expected to speed up concept, designing, prototyping and the evaluation of technical proposals. In future the centre will develop marketing and research functions to explore opportunities for new technologies and M&A, aiming to accelerate developments with European automakers. The company also has plans to establish similar centres in both the United States and China to satisfy demands.

Teijin is targeting automotive composite business sales of approximately EUR 1.7 billion by 2030. Amid the ongoing shift toward Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric (CASE) vehicles, the automotive industry is urgently transforming its business models to create more lightweight and multifunctional next-generation vehicles.

The company has previously acquired Continental Structural Plastics Holdings Corporation back to become a Tier 1 supplier focused on multi-material automotive composite. In Europe, CSP’s French operation will open a new sheet moulding compound plant and Teijin has acquired leading automotive-composite suppliers Inapal Plásticos SA of Portugal and Benet Automotive s.r.o of Czech Republic.

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While the United States produces 10 million tons of hydrogen annually, a significant increase in hydrogen supply and demand will be required to fully realise hydrogen benefits across the economy. Hydrogen can add value to sectors such as steel and ammonia production and accelerate the integration of renewables in the energy system. Opportunities also exist in large-energy use applications for mobility, such as trucks, rail and marine, as well as in energy storage.

The funding from the DOE will be broken down as follows

• Electrolyser Manufacturing R&D (up to $15M): Lowering the cost of hydrogen produced from megawatt- and gigawatt-scale electrolyzers by improving large-scale, high-volume electrolyzer manufacturing in the U.S.
• Advanced Carbon Fibre for Compressed Gas Storage Tanks (up to $15M): Reducing the cost of hydrogen and natural gas storage tanks by developing low-cost, high-strength carbon fibre and scaling up to industry-relevant scales.
• Fuel Cell R&D and Domestic Manufacturing for Medium and Heavy Duty Transportation (up to $10M): Advancing the development of domestically manufactured fuel cell components and stacks that meet the cost and performance needs of trucks and other emerging heavy duty applications. 
• H2@Scale New Markets R&D – HySteel (up to $8M): Enabling the use of hydrogen in steel manufacturing applications, aligned with FCTO and H2@Scale priorities for fostering new markets for hydrogen.
• H2@Scale New Markets Demonstrations in Maritime and Data Centers (up to $14M): Developing first-of-a-kind demonstrations to jumpstart emerging new market opportunities for hydrogen in maritime and data centre applications.
• Training and Workforce Development (up to $2M): Creating cohesive, strategic, and well-coordinated regional efforts to develop the skills necessary to support the growing hydrogen and fuel cell industry.

Concept papers are due February 25, 2020 and full applications are due April 20, 2020

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Bureau Veritas measured total oxidation times of sub-15 and sub-20 minutes over two separate production campaigns of 24K standard modulus (SM) carbon fibre, achieving fibre tow properties in excess of 270 GPa tensile modulus and 3,500 MPa tensile strength.

The BV audit was conducted on Carbon Nexus’s 100 metric ton (nameplate) pilot line which is currently producing samples for trials with LeMond’s target customers in several SM industrial markets. In addition to accurately measuring oxidation times and assuring process traceability, BV oversaw the fibre sampling, packaging and shipping of audit samples for extensive testing at the BV laboratories in Pessac, France. Composite tow tests of the LeMond fibre were completed according to ASTM D 4018-17 standards.

This is a significant milestone for our company. Having our technology independently verified by BV validates the revolutionary nature of our technology. My team and I are excited to bring our high-performance low-cost carbon fibre to the global market and look forward to expanding into new markets where the current high cost of carbon fibre has been a significant barrier to adoption Greg LeMond, Founder and Chairman of the Board of LeMond Carbon

LeMond and Deakin University are teamed to commercialise this innovative technology which enables reductions of 75% and 70% in Capex and energy consumption per kilo of output respectively. The rapid oxidation process enables LeMond to produce carbon fibre with the lowest embodied energy of any standard PAN-based carbon fibre available today.

Having proven the capability to successfully produce a competitive standard modulus carbon fibre, LeMond has launched a new capital raise to develop a 5,400-metric ton (nameplate) production facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. To date, parent LeMond Companies LLC has raised approximately USD 18.6M of seed capital from individual and institutional investors, including Deakin University.

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The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland or NMSI is a £65 million, industry-led international centre of manufacturing expertise led by the Scottish Government in partnership with its enterprise and skills agencies, University of Strathclyde and Renfrewshire Council. Operated by Strathclyde, as a national facility for Scotland, it is where research, industry and the public sector work together to transform skills, productivity and innovation to attract investment and make Scotland a global leader in advanced manufacturing.

The new, energy carbon neutral, facility next to Glasgow Airport will include a skills academy, a fully digitalised factory of the future and collaboration hub for manufacturers of all sizes and from all sectors to work together with research partners and the public sector to innovate and grow their businesses.

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NMIS also includes two specialist technology centres: Lightweight Manufacturing Centre which was opened earlier this year by the First Minister and Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre; the only High-Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre in Scotland.

NMIS will deliver benefits for businesses across Scotland well before the building is complete including through the existing capability available at the Lightweight Manufacturing Centre which adds to the wider support available from our enterprise agencies to help companies improve their productivity. Strathclyde’s Principal, Professor Sir Jim McDonald

NMIS and the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, in which Strathclyde is lead research partner, will be the anchor institutions in the advanced manufacturing district. The district is benefitting from a £39 million investment to provide the enabling infrastructure, funded through the Glasgow City Region City Deal. It is also home to the NMIS specialist technology centres.

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Glasgow-based HLM Architects is leading the NMIS design team, which also includes Waterman Civil & Structural Engineers, Davie + McCulloch Building Services Engineers and Robinson Low Francis LLP Cost Mangers. HLM will also be providing landscape architecture and interior design services, while Turner and Townsend have been appointed as Project Managers under Strathclyde’s Framework Agreement. The application will now be considered by Renfrewshire Council.

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We’re excited to establish a dedicated team of engineers and technicians working on the next generation of this potentially disruptive technology in a collaborative space. This new facility is a testament to Pratt & Whitney’s commitment to innovation. This novel material technology enables us to provide dependable engines with enhanced performance to our customers.Andy Lazur, general manager of the Pratt & Whitney Carlsbad facility

Compared to traditional materials in the hot section of a jet engine, Ceramic Matrix Composites or CMC’s for short are known to be lighter and have higher temperature capability, which can enable improved thermal efficiency for gas turbine engines. CMCs will enhance Pratt next-gen commercial and military engines to deliver increased range, increased fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.

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