Composites UK is working jointly alongside the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) on its next Automotive Sector Showcase event.

The automotive industry has two very distinct parts: the large-volume sector and the specialist area producing modified or complete vehicles in small numbers. The challenges of each are different and this is reflected in the way car manufacturers approach the use of composites.

In the large-volume sector, a large percentage of the cost is in the capital plant needed for manufacture and so once the required equipment has been procured and commissioned it is very costly to change the design of a component. This naturally makes the industry very conservative, and encourages extensive prototype testing in both real and simulated environments of any new system before the investment is made.

In small-volume production, however, the manufacturing operations are much less capital intensive and so the resistance to change in material is somewhat less.

Speakers

08:30    Registration

09:15    Welcome to WMG - Tony McNally, WMG

09:25    Overview of Composites UK - Sue Halliwell, Operations Manager, Composites UK

09:30    Supporting the UK’s Automotive Composites Supply Chain - Henry Sarel-Cooke, Composites Leadership Forum / GKN Wheels & Structures

09:40    Composites in Large Scale Projects - Hannah Tew, Partnership Lead, AMRC

09:50    GKN and Large Scale Projects - Henry Sarel-Cooke, Business Development Manager, GKN Wheels & Structures

10:00    Pyramid V Web - Scaling up to High-Volume Automotive - Nuno Lourenço, Senior Manager Body Engineering, Jaguar Land Rover

10:20    Composite Lightweight Automotive Suspension System (CLASS) - Alan Banks, Suspension Manager, Ford Motor Company    

10:40    Panel Session

11:00    BREAK

11:45    The EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing Research Hub - Current Projects - Nick Warrior, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nottingham

12:05    Thermoplastic Overmoulding for Automotive Applications – A Case Study - Alasdair Ryder, Special Projects Engineer, Surface Generation

12:25    Moving the boundaries to Compression Moulding - John Lutton, Sales and Marketing Manager, Creative Composites

12:45    Panel Session

13:00    LUNCH

14:00    Automated Composite Assembly - Andrew Bools, R&D Programme Manager, Expert Tooling and Automation

14:20    Aston Martin’s Role in the InterCOMP Project - Roland Snell, Senior Manager for Body Structures Innovation and Technology, Aston Martin Lagonda

14:40    WMG’s Role in the InterCOMP Project - Rachel Weare, Lead Engineer - Structural Composite Manufacturing, Warwick Manufacturing Group

15:00    Panel Session

15:15    Conference Close

15:30    Optional Tour of the Materials Engineering Centre and demo (pre-booked delegates only)

Exhibition Space

Exhibition space is now full, see below for other sponsorship options.

Current Exhibitors

Sponsorship

Other sponsorship options are available. Click here for details.

Registration

Composites UK Members: £135.00 + VAT

Non-members: £270.00 + VAT

Students: £75 + VAT (Strictly limited places, contact us from your university email address for the coupon code)

Note that only one place can be booked at a time. Please repeat the process to book multiple places.

Tour

There will also be an opportunity to take a tour of the composites research and development facilities available at WMG at the end of the event. If interested please select the 'Conference + WMG Tour' option when booking below.