Chairman's Corner

Dr Cris Arnold

Composites form the theme of this issue of the Bulletin and this area has provided some encouraging news items across Wales recently. The most significant of these is the investment by the Welsh Assembly Government into facilities for the next generation of composite wing assembly at the Airbus plant in Broughton. This will guarantee the success of this plant for years to come and keep one of the Country’s major employers at the forefront of new technology. Associated with this are some exciting developments in training and related R&D, which are covered in detail later in this issue. I would however raise a small note of caution here. In a few years’ time, the Broughton site will be one of the major users of composites in Europe, and yet the majority of the supply chain, including the materials manufacture is likely to remain outside Wales. There is a need to encourage more composite developments across Wales, both within the large supply chains and also in the large number of smaller companies, where composite usage is growing rapidly. Two Knowledge Transfer Centres (KTC’s) have recently been funded byWAG to assist in this and these are described in an article below. There are also other mechanisms whereby the extensive R&D capabilities existing across Wales can be used to assist companies, and a good example of this interaction is described in the article from Cardiff University.

If you take a good look at composites technology, two of the major regions of composites activity in the UK are just outside our borders; the North-West of England and the South-West of England. In both regions, success has come from investment in high technology infrastructure and the forging of partnerships between Industry and the Universities (most notably Manchester and Bristol). Similar developments are now taking place within Wales although we certainly have some catching up to do. Given the rapid take-up of composites in a wide range of sectors, there will be plenty for us all to do, but within Wales we do need to continue working well together across Industry, Academia and Government to ensure we don’t get left behind.