Netcomposites is hosting Ecocomp 2019 on June 19-20 in Coventry, UK, and has welcomed Prodrive Composites to share its knowledge and experience on sustainability. The conference designed to reflect complete lifecycle of composite products will attract OEMs, end-users, composite material manufacturers, suppliers, designers, academics and researchers.

In addition to the ‘Environmental Imperative’ session, which will be hosted by the Composites UK Sustainability Subgroup and include representatives from Scott Bader and the National Composites Centre, the programme will include sessions covering each step in the cycle: Raw Materials , Intermediate Materials , Design, Manufacture, Recycling & End of Life, said a press release from Netcomposites.

The conference will welcome presentations from Fiat (CRF), Prodrive Composites, European Composite Recycling Technology, Jiva Materials, Fraunhofer, ELG Carbon Fibre, UPM, The Biofore Company, Bath University, Bristol University, Bangor University and support from INICOP and Ecobulk, RISE and Greenlight projects.

At the event, communications manager Siobhan Longhurst along with project engineer Rowan Carstensen will give the  Prodrive Composites presentation – ‘Using P2T and Natural Fibres as a Viable Solution for Performance Parts’.

“Participants will be able to understand the steps Prodrive have taken to meet the market challenges of end-of-life, recycling and sustainable manufacture, as well as materials which can be used. We would hope for other composites companies to take learnings from the work Prodrive has already done and we would like to empower them to take steps to meet the sustainability challenge,” explained Carstensen.

“We are generally interested to understand where the rest of the industry sits on this challenge and how they have approached it. We are curious to see how OEMs are approaching the challenge as well as new material developments and research and how they could be potentially integrated into mass production processes,” added Carstensen.

“Minimising our impact on the environment and discussing ways to do so is becoming ever more prevalent in today’s society. It is encouraging to see so many projects taking place, especially UK led, that focus on the composites industry desire to move forward with environmental impact taken into consideration. We are proud to provide a platform to bring together a group of industry experts and academics to share their experiences, specialist knowledge and expertise,” said Longhurst.

Composite materials and products need to play their part in addressing environmental concerns as environmental legislation and consumer demand is increasing the pressure on manufacturers and designers to consider the impact of their products at all stages of their life cycle. With environmental awareness stimulating interest in sustainable materials, issues such as recyclability and environmental responsibility are becoming ever more important. (PC)