Advanced composite materials consist of reinforcement fibres, usually carbon or glass, embedded within a matrix, usually a polymer, providing a structural material. They are very attractive to a number of user sectors, in particular transportation due to their combination of low weight and excellent material properties which can be tailored to specific applications. Components are typically manufactured either by depositing fibres into a mould and then infusing with resin (liquid moulding) or by forming and consolidation of pre-impregnated fibres (prepreg processing). The current UK composites sector has a value of £1.5 billion and is projected to grow to over £4 billion by 2020, and to between £6 billion and £12 billion by 2030. This range depends on the ability of the industry to deliver structures at required volumes and quality levels demanded by its target applications. Much of this potential growth is associated with next generation single-aisle aircraft, light-weighting of vehicles to reduce fuel consumption, and large, lightweight and durable structures for renewable energy and civil infrastructure. The benefits of lightweight composites are clear, and growth in their use would have a significant impact on both the UK's climate change and infrastructure targets, in addition to a direct impact on the economy through jobs and exports. However the challenges that must be overcome to achieve this growth are significant. For example, BMW currently manufacture around 20,000 i3 vehicles per year with significant composites content. To replace mass produced vehicles this production volume would need to increase by up to 100-times. Airbus and Boeing each produce around 10 aircraft per month (A350 and 787 respectively) with high proportions of composite materials. The next generation single aisle aircraft are likely to require volumes of 60 per month. Production costs are high relative to those associated with other materials, and will need to reduce by an order of magnitude to enable such growth levels. The Future Composites Manufacturing Hub will enable a step change in manufacturing with advanced polymer composite materials. The Hub will be led by the University of Nottingham and University of Bristol; with initial research Spokes at Cranfield, Imperial College, Manchester and Southampton; Innovation Spokes at the National Composites Centre (NCC), Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG); and backed by 18 leading companies from the composites sector. Between the Hub, Spokes and industrial partners we will offer a minimum of £12.7 million in additional support to deliver our objectives. Building on the success of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Composites (CIMComp), the Hub will drive the development of automated manufacturing technologies that deliver components and structures for demanding applications, particularly in the aerospace, transportation, construction and energy sectors. Over a seven year period, the Hub will underpin the growth potential of the sector, by developing the underlying processing science and technology to enable Moore's law for composites: a doubling in production capability every two years. To achieve our vision we will address a number of research priorities, identified in collaboration with industry partners and the broader community, including: high rate deposition and rapid processing technologies; design for manufacture via validated simulation; manufacturing for multifunctional composites and integrated structures; inspection and in-process evaluation; recycling and re-use. Matching these priorities with UK capability, we have identified the following Grand Challenges, around which we will conduct a series of Feasibility Studies and Core Projects: -Enhance process robustness via understanding of process science -Develop high rate processing technologies for high quality structures

The theme area is manufacturing of engineering composites structures, specifically those which comprise continuous high performance fibres held together with a polymeric matrix. The relevant industry areas include aerospace, automotive, marine, wind energy and construction. The proposal demonstrates continuing and growing need in the UK polymer composites manufacturing sector for suitably technically qualified individuals, able to make positive and rapid impact on its international manufacturing competitiveness. Extension of a newly created Industrial Doctorate Centre in Composites Manufacture fills an existing gap in provision of industrially focussed higher level education in the UK, in the specialist discipline of polymer composites manufacturing. It has its centre of gravity in Bristol, with the rapidly expanding National Composites Centre (NCC) the natural home-base for the cohorts of composites manufacturing Research Engineers embedded in the composites manufacturing industry. This new hub of applied research activity focussed at TRL 3-5 is different from but highly complementary to the outputs of composites manufacturing PhD students within the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Composites (CIMComp), working on more fundamental research topics in composites manufacture at TRL 1-3. Achieving a clearer definition of the industrial composites manufacturing challenges and of new knowledge base requirements will provide direction for the industrially relevant accompanying fundamental research. The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Composites has established and maintains close management overview of this IDC , as well as fostering links with related CDTs within the wider High Value Manufacturing Catapult, initially specifically the AMRC Composites Centre IDC in Machining Science. Over time such connections will establish a critical mass of industrially focussed manufacturing research activity in the UK, raising the national and international status of the EngD brand in the composites industry, in academia and in professional institutions by targeted dissemination through CIMComp in conjunction with the NCC

The design of products to achieve acceptable levels of noise and vibration is a major concern across a range of industries. In many cases there is a large trade off between cost and performance, and this means that achieving an efficient design is crucial to commercial success. In principle design optimisation can be achieved through testing and improving physical prototypes, but the production of a prototype is time consuming and costly. For this reason there is a pressing need for virtual design methodologies, in which computational models are used to produce a near-final design before a physical prototype is built. Computational models used for noise and vibration analysis must be able to predict the performance of the system over a wide frequency range, potentially ranging from low frequency vibration problems at several hertz to high frequency noise problems at several kilohertz, and this presents severe difficulties. High frequency motions require a very detailed computer model, and this leads to long run times that are not ideal for iterative design. Furthermore, the high frequency performance of a system can be very sensitive to small manufacturing imperfections, and hence the predicted performance may not match the performance of the actual system. These difficulties can be largely overcome by employing recent advances in noise and vibration modelling in which a technique known as Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) is combined with more conventional analysis methods such as the finite element method (FEM) or the boundary element method (BEM); this approach is known as the Hybrid Method. The Hybrid Method leads to a very large reduction in the run time of the model, while also providing an estimate of the variance in the performance caused by manufacturing imperfections. However, this approach does not fully solve the prediction problem, as a further major difficulty remains: some components in a system can be so complex that it is not possible to produce a detailed computational model of the component, and hence some degree of physical testing is unavoidable. Frequently experimental measurements are used to validate a computational model, or to update the parameters in a computational model, but the requirement here is quite different: the measured data must be used to complete the computational model by coupling a representation of the missing complex component to the other parts of the model. This issue forms the core of the current research proposal. The aim of the present work is to add "experimental" components to the Hybrid Method, and one way to do this is to model a component as a grey or black box: a grey box model consists of mathematical equations with experimentally determined parameters, while a black box model is based purely on measured input-output properties. These models must be capable of being coupled to either FEM, BEM, or SEA component models, and the project will address this issue. A major challenge is to determine the appropriate experimental tests and machine learning algorithms that are required to produce such models in the context of complex vibro-acoustic components. A second major challenge is to quantify the uncertainty in such models, and to include this uncertainty in the combined system model. The model must predict outputs that are useful to the designer, and such outputs include noise and vibration levels, together with uncertainty bounds on the predictions. In some cases "sound quality" rather than the overall noise level is of concern, and the project will develop techniques for the "auralisation" of the output of the combined model. A number of case studies will be developed with industrial partners to explore the application of the proposed approach. The present research programme will produce an efficient and reliable vibro-acoustic "design by science" prediction tool that meets the needs of a wide range of industrial sectors.

The EPSRC Innovative Manufacturing Centre in Composites will conduct a programme of fundamental manufacturing research comprising two research themes aimed at developing efficient, high rate, low cost and sustainable manufacturing processes coupled to effective and validated design and process modelling tools. These processes will aim to deliver high yield, high performance and high quality components and structures. The themes are as follows:Theme 1: Composites Processing ScienceThe focus for this theme is to develop integrated modelling systems for predicting and minimising process induced defects and defining and optimising process capability. Topics include: Multi-scale process modelling framework for candidate processes (fibre deposition, resin infusion, consolidation and cure); Stochastic simulation of process and resulting material/structure variability, leading to prediction of process induced defects at the macro, meso and micro scales; Analysis of design/ manufacturing/ cost interactions, enabling process capability mapping, design and process optimisationTheme 2: Composites Processing TechnologyThe focus for this theme will be experimental investigation of next-generation, high rate processing technologies as essential elements within a flexible composites manufacturing cell with multi-process capability. Topics include: Development of rapid deposition technologies: automated robotic control for tow/tape placement, development of flexible/ hybrid systems, application to dry fibre and thermoplastic composites manufacture; High speed preforming processes: fibre placement, Discontinuous Carbon Fibre Preforming (DCFP), multiaxial and 3D textiles and their automated integration into multi-architecture, multi-functional composites; High rate & controlled thermal processing: rapid heating/curing and innovative tooling; Process and parts integration with novel joining technologies, tolerance reduction and on-line inspection In addition to the main research themes, the platform element within the Centre will support four generic research projects operating across the Centre to develop common technologies and underpin the main research priorities. These technology areas are: Multi-scale modelling; Cost modelling; Automation/robotics; and, Design and manufacturing quality integration.

Forming components from light alloys (aluminium, titanium and magnesium) is extremely important to sustainable transport because they can save over 40% weight, compared to steel, and are far cheaper and more recyclable than composites. This has led to rapid market growth, where light alloys are set to dominate the automotive sector. Remaining globally competitive in light metals technologies is also critical to the UK's, aerospace and defence industries, which are major exporters. For example, Jaguar Land Rover already produces fully aluminium car bodies and titanium is extensively used in aerospace products by Airbus and Rolls Royce. 85% of the market in light alloys is in wrought products, formed by pressing, or forging, to make components. Traditional manufacturing creates a conflict between increasing a material's properties, (to increase performance), and manufacturability; i.e. the stronger a material is, the more difficult and costly it is to form into a part. This is because the development of new materials by suppliers occurs largely independently of manufacturers, and ever more alloy compositions are developed to achieve higher performance, which creates problems with scrap separation preventing closed loop recycling. Thus, often manufacturability restricts performance. For example, in car bodies only medium strength aluminium grades are currently used because it is no good having a very strong alloy that can't be made into the required shape. In cases when high strength levels are needed, such as in aerospace, specialised forming processes are used which add huge cost. To solve this conundrum, LightForm will develop the science and modelling capability needed for a new holistic approach, whereby performance AND manufacturability can both be increased, through developing a step change in our ability to intelligently and precisely engineer the properties of a material during the forming of advanced components. This will be achieved by understanding how the manufacturing process itself can be used to manipulate the material structure at the microscopic scale, so we can start with a soft, formable, material and simultaneously improve and tailor its properties while we shape it into the final product. For example, alloys are already designed to 'bake harden' after being formed when the paint on a car is cured in an oven. However, we want to push this idea much further, both in terms of performance and property prediction. For example, we already have evidence we can double the strength of aluminium alloys currently used in car bodies by new synergistic hybrid deformation and heat treatment processing methods. To do this, we need to better understand how materials act as dynamic systems and design them to feed back to different forming conditions. We also aim to exploit exciting developments in powerful new techniques that will allow us to see how materials behave in industrial processes in real time, using facilities like the Diamond x-ray synchrotron, and modern modelling methods. By capturing these effects in physical models, and integrating them into engineering codes, we will be able to embed microstructure engineering in new flexible forming technologies, that don't use fixed tooling, and enable accurate prediction of properties at the design stage - thus accelerating time to market and the customisation of products. Our approach also offers the possibility to tailor a wide range of properties with one alloy - allowing us to make products that can be more easily closed-loop recycled. We will also use embedded microstructure engineering to extend the formability of high-performance aerospace materials to increase precision and decrease energy requirements in forming, reducing the current high cost to industry.