The landmark agreement � the 3rd major international research collaboration to be announced by Quickstep in the past six months � is with the Northern Aerospace Technology Exploitation Centre (NATEC), a major UK Aerospace Manufacturer and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).

The 'Process Evaluation Agreement' will enable the Quickstep� Process to be trialed in one of the key world centres for the global aerospace industry. The Process enables the high-speed production of advanced composite components at a fraction of the cost of conventional processes by using fluid curing rather than air at high temperature and pressures.

Under the collaboration, a 12-month evaluation program will commence later this year at UMIST in Manchester, England � with Quickstep supplying a fully automated production facility to be assembled in Perth, Australia. The pilot facility will develop aerospace-grade production parts for civil aircraft.

Established in February 2002, NATEC's key aims include contributing to the competitiveness of the UK aerospace industry by providing world-class expertise, providing a hub to co-ordinate and manage projects and forming an 'exploitation' network working with academia, industry, regions and associations.

NATEC was formed by collaboration between the Universities of the North of England. The NATEC hub is based in Manchester and staffed by a team who understand the needs of both industry and the academic world. The organisation has more than 200 research experts and has some �100 million worth of research infrastructure.

The Quickstep pilot production facility to be delivered to UMIST will be the third fully automated machine to be deployed internationally by Quickstep, with one facility already operating in Geelong, Australia and another to be delivered shortly to one of the world's leading auto-makers in Japan.

The NATEC agreement comes just a week after the official launch of the Geelong venture in collaboration with the State Government-backed Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing (VCAMM), which has established a world centre for advanced materials manufacture.

Quickstep's CEO, Mr Nick Noble, said the NATEC agreement represented another important advance in the continuing development of the Quickstep Process, representing its first exposure to the European market and laying the foundations for the potential evolution of a major international research collaboration in the future.

"We are delighted to have secured this landmark agreement with representatives of the UK Aerospace Industry," Mr Noble said. "This collaboration program will open many doors for Quickstep and represents a very exciting development for the technology.

"We are very pleased that the potential of the Quickstep Process has been recognised by NATEC and by one of the world's leading aerospace companies, and we look forward to working closely with the evaluation team in Manchester as the development program gathers momentum in the coming months," he added.

The Quickstep Process enables the high-speed production of composite materials in volumes and cost structures not previously achievable using conventional autoclave processes.

The key advantage of the breakthrough Process � developed in Perth over the past 10 years � is its ability to produce composites much faster and more cost effectively than conventional autoclave manufacturing processes.

Quickstep's patented suite of technologies enable the high-speed production of advanced composite materials by using fluid curing rather than air at high temperatures and pressures as in conventional autoclave processes.

The high level of control over the curing process inherent in the Quickstep process overcomes the traditional barriers to the mass production of these materials, which have been used in highly specialised applications for decades � enabling them to be produced in much greater volumes and at a much lower cost.

Mr Noble said Quickstep was at an advanced stage of negotiations with a number of other international research & development organisations, automotive and aerospace groups and expected further pilot plant and development programs to be signed in the coming months.

"We are confident that we could have as many as a further 3-6 Quickstep pilot production facilities deployed over the next 12 months, as global recognition and take-up of the technology accelerates," he said.

Advanced Composites

Advanced polymer composites, made of non-metallic materials such as carbon fibre or Kevlar, are extremely strong and light � around 10 times the strength-to-weight ratio of most metals. While this has seen them used extensively in 'high end' applications such as stealth fighter aircraft or expensive racing cars for many years, the costly and time-consuming process required to make them (up to 16 hours for each part) has prevented their more widespread application.

By contrast, the Quickstep process � which has been likened to a 'new steel' or has having similar breakthrough potential to the Bessemer process in the iron and steel industry in the early 19th century � can produce large composite panels and components much faster and at a fraction of the cost.

Instead of using a large, capital intensive autoclave to cure the composites, Quickstep uses fluid curing through a lightweight rigid mould suspended in heat transfer fluids; by contrast, traditional autoclaves involve the use of compressed gases at high temperature and pressures in large, sealed pressurised ovens. Quickstep resolves the key issues of production volumes and cost which, until now, have prevented composites from penetrating the mainstream automobile market.

The technical achievements of the Quickstep team, following a decade of development, were recently recognised in the SAMPE Journal, the highly-respected industry authority in this area.

The Quickstep Process

The Quickstep Process, developed with the assistance of Australia's largest public sector research and development organisation, the CSIRO, is quite different to the traditional autoclave-based methods for the production of composites. In these systems, intense heat and pressure is applied to a pot-pourri of fibres and resins within a high-cost mould built to withstand the rigours of the process.

By contrast, the innovative Quickstep solution involves the use of a lightweight rigid mould suspended in heat transfer liquids. The liquid circulates in a low-pressure environment with a flexible membrane maintaining constant pressure and heat on the mould to compact the laminate and cure the part while vibration introduced into the circulating liquid forces out trapped air and gases, as can be seen in the diagram to the right.

The technique takes advantage of the thermal conductivity of fluids such as PAG to reduce the production time from 24 hours to production times of less than half an hour for AAA grade automotive and marine composites. The costs of the mould tools used are considerably cheaper than the moulds used in traditional autoclaves because of the relatively lower pressures (1 to 4 psi compared with 60 to 100 psi) exerted on the mould.

With its unique vibration system, the process removes air pockets in the lay-up and it is possible for many layers of laminate to be laid up at once, resulting in fewer 'de-bulking' steps to compress the laminate and remove the trapped air.

Because the composite cure reaction can be stopped at any point in the cure cycle, it is possible to recommence the curing cycle and co-cure, join and bond one composite to another to create larger parts � a process which Quickstep refers to as 'melding'.

These larger parts can then be joined to form components without secondary bonds such that one part melts into and becomes an integrated part of another part � with no physical different or separating surface between them.

The melding process requires no fasteners, adhesives or stacking tolerances, making this a very flexible and powerful process with enormous application in the automotive and aerospace industries, amongst others.

With reduced cure cycle times and product weight as well as increased strength and improved appearance for the products, Quickstep has a number of significant advantages over conventional processes.

The turnaround time for curing the laminate is expected to reduce from half and hour to as little as 10 minutes - compared to 6 to 8 hours with conventional autoclaves.

In the automotive industry, the use of high-tech composites in automobiles would provide improved vehicle safety, greater power-to-weight efficiency and much sought-after emissions reductions.

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