Exploiting new materials and processes for higher productivity: use of advanced composite technologies

Product performance and process versatility are key characteristics of composites but there is a trade off with productivity and consistency. The capability of composites technologies is highly dependent on the choice of materials and processes, which are considerable. Using the more demanding case of load bearing structural components, this paper investigates how different processes can be selectively utilised to meet desired design and manufacturing conditions. Although there are automated processes developed for specific product, the relative extremes of low and high performance applications are compared for generally available low and high productivity processes. This provides the basis of supporting a selection methodology, which has wider applications beyond the immediate technologies.