Painting in the sky: freedom for manufacturing lightweight engineered structures

Lightweight materials are the next pit-stop in the challenge of reducing mass, and therefore curb reduce

emissions, to improve fuel economy in the vehicle industry. But it has to be done economically. This project

will develop a breakthrough cost-effective continuous extrusion process for composite beam manufacturing.

The innovative continuous extrusion process will move away from traditional high-waste composite

manufacturing methods. It will offer flexibility in the dimensions of the beam along its length, width and height,

supporting end-users’ needs. The tailored and bespoke structural beams will require minimal tooling. This

technology could also work for other sectors e.g. heavy goods vehicles and rail. The main project outputs are

the continuous low-waste and affordable extrusion process. The sonication process developed at

Loughborough University allows microscture development that gives the required properties. The underlying

materials science has been demonstrated but requires some development in the area of transport. This project

will take this and show that components can be manufactured, moving the technology from low to mid TRLs.