INDUSTRY HISTORY In terms of capability, every link in the composites value chain


The UK’s ‘Motorsport Valley’ represents an important value chain for the country’s composite industry


is covered at some point in the UK, sometimes with some very good niche players. Because of the lack of high volume work, the one notable absence is an indigenous manufacturer of high specification carbon fibres. This was highlighted in a BIS study last year, published just prior to the Government’s UK composites strategy. The composites industry in the UK is valued at around


£1.5 billion, although quantification has proven difficult owing to the fragmented nature of the whole sector. The next decades of composite history look set to be written by the renewable energy and transport sectors, in much higher quantities and product volumes than have gone before. The challenge will be in maintaining the holistic capability necessary for high agility when new entrants, either individuals or companies, do not have the broad capabilities that the pioneers had to possess. On this final note, many of the pioneers from the early


developments of materials, processes and applications are still active. In the UK the landscape is predominantly either smaller companies or SME-sized business units of larger groups. The whole is still a little discordant, but we can look to the physical presence of institutions such as the new National Composites Centre, part of the UK composites strategy, to provide a bit more substance to the core of the industry sector.


Ó www.engineeredcapabilities.co.uk


16 | Composites in Manufacturing | Autumn 2010


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