Annual report 2009

 

1. Introduction

This is the third annual report of the Polymer Society since the technical division title change under the federalisation approach within IOM3. The report format is based on the template required for the ITPB   (Industry and Technology Policy Board).

Over the three year period members expressing an interest in polymers in their member's profile have increased by almost 50% and monthly visitors to the microsite has settled at a respectable 850.

The Board now believes that the polymer identity has been re-established within the Institute.      

Externally there has also been an improvement but further penetration is required.

Educational initiatives still play a key part in the Board's on-going strategy.

 

2. Board membership

A long serving Board member, Dr Alicia Chrysostomou, resigned from the Board due to a change in her employment and location circumstances. Dr Chrysostomou was also the deputy microsite administrator.

In line with our continuing strategy of bringing Board membership more in line with the current polymer supply chain, during the year Mr Martyn Bennett from ARTIS, Dr Martin Rides from NPL, Mr Geoff Hollington from Hollington Design, Dr Marion Ingle from London Metropolitan University/SEPRG and Dr Alan Wood from Victrex Polymers were invited to join the Board.

Mr Tony Hesp continues as a corresponding member based in South Africa representing the IOM3 Polymer Division in that area.

Board membership increased from fourteen at the start of the year to eighteen at the end. No further changes or additional invitations are planned for 2010 excluding any resignations.

Dr Thornton continues to give excellent support in addition to his Materials KTN role.

 

3. Board meetings

The Board continues to meet three times in the year with increased participation compared to 2008: 

• 12 February 2009 at 1 CHT with 85% attendance
• 18 June 2009 at the Boiler House in Grantham with 67% attendance
• 22 October 2009 at 1 CHT with 82% attendance 

4. Opportunities for growth of Society Community or constraints

The Society has objectives based on a Rolling 12 Months Programme and Key Performance Indicators are based on the following          

Members showing an interest in Polymers (in their Member Profile)

Base level set at 1081 at 8 October 2008.

Latest figures are 1198 at 14 October 2009 and/or PVC 252, Rubber 270, Polymer Processing and Engineering 584

Microsite Visitors (see later)

Internal Objectives - with status

a) Maintain input into ITPB and ensure relevant feedback - Ongoing

b) Establish a dialogue with all regional polymer groups. Email contact made but limited response. - General interest in Evening Lecture Topics/Annual Meeting.

c) Ensure participation in cross Institute Groups, particularly SDG and Construction Materials - Ongoing

d) Review Board membership to better reflect current supply chain position, needs and individual board member's active participation - Ongoing

External Objectives - with status

a) Maintain and monitor new microsite - Generate News and Member Content - Some success

b) Maintain profile via MW articles and promotion of PRC: ME - Limited success

c) Membership initiative (SPE co-operation) - Ongoing

d) Develop strategic involvement with MatKTN PIN - Achieved

e) Establish Applied Polymer Science Group - New initiative in progress

f) Develop an Education Initiative around polymer education in schools - Awaiting action

 

5. Technical programme (see also Appendix)

 

a) 2009 Events

Polymer Process Engineering 09 (PPE09)

The biennial Polymer Process Engineering international meeting was held in the Norcroft Conference Centre, Bradford on 27 & 28 October 2009, organised in association with the Polymer Processing & Engineering Committee of the Polymer Society, and IOM3 and supported by the European Union FP7 programme (COTECH) and Nanofactory, a European Regional Development Fund initiative, both of which focus on polymer nanocomposites. PPE09 was hosted by the Polymer IRC laboratories, School of Engineering, Design & Technology at the University of Bradford.

The two day event was very well attended (ca. 100) with an international range of participants and covered process, particularly injection and extrusion technology, monitoring and simulation developments, as well as a major focus on polymer nanocomposites and micro & nano technology developments. The well received keynote presentation was given by Professor Ian Ward on the orientation processing of polymers. Medical applications of polymer process innovation were emphasised with the use of polyetheretherketone for long term implantable medical devices with better mechanical properties match to bone for structural use in areas such as spinal and orthopaedic applications, and the use of hot melt extrusion for enhancing the solubility of drugs. 

A significant range of polymer micro and nano technology presentations formed the major part of the conference and during the event the launch of the new Polymer Micro and Nano Technology Centre at Bradford (a £1.4m investment) was celebrated.  

The conference papers are available in a hardbound book - Polymer Process Engineering 09, Enhanced Polymer Processing, Edited by P D Coates (ISBN 13 978 85143 262 2).

The Rubber in Engineering Group (RIEG) continued to deliver on successful afternoon technical discussion meetings (ATDM) and details are available in the Appendix.

The PVC Committee assisted Loughborough University to organise their triennial two day Recent Trends in PVC Technology conference in November. Despite an excellent programme which included the recent developments in the phthalate plasticiser and PVC REACH regulations, the BRE Green Guide methodology, sustainability targets after Vinyl 2010, supercritical fluid assisted processing of PVC, the VinylSUM projects covering Vinyl Chloride polymerisation, the synthesis of Novel Hydrotalcites for PVC stabilisation, the assessment of PVC stabilisation using hydrotalcites and a current view of Smoke Suppressants for PVC the attendance was disappointing at 65% of target.

The format and scope of this conference for the future will be reviewed.

 

b) Events planned for 2010 are summarised in the Appendix.

It should also be noted that planning for PVC 2011 has started with two meetings of the organising committee already taken place with new committee members being drafted on to the committee.

 

6. Foresight / Innovation and Growth

This is covered later in section 8.

 

7. Professional membership developments

This is covered is sections 3 and 9.

 

8. National and international linkages with other Societies / Institutes

The Polymer Society and the UK & Ireland section of SPE (Society of Plastics Engineers) remain committed to a closer working relationship and discussions continue to sound out areas where this objective can be agreed.

 

9. Government interfaces

The main interface with the Technology Strategy Board continues through the Materials KTN - Polymer Sector (previously PIN). Some of the Polymer Society Board members also sit on the revised Advisory Board which is now chaired by Dr. Andrew Tinker, another Polymer Society Board member. A suitable scientific/technical role for the Society is now being defined in the new set-up to cover technical strategy, the work programmes and any replacement for SPARK awards.

There are no direct links with other Government organisations.

 

10. Publications

Website

The latest web stats for the Polymer Society microsite show the Polymer Society in third position of the technical communities home page views table. The monthly page views tagged with' ‘polymer' averages at ~ 850.

Two external news feeds have been introduced and there were approx 50 news articles in the year with a polymer tag on the home page generated through IOM3; however very few news items were initiated directly through Polymer Society Board contacts.

There were only five polymer tagged features and this related directly to MW content. This is an area for improvement.

A microsite for the RIEG has been introduced with member content significantly increased via the presentations at the ATDMs.

We are fortunate to have Matthew Thornton as the website editor but no deputy has come forward yet to replace Dr Chrysostomou. 

Materials World

The MW editorial team does a good job at generating polymer focused features within the demands of other materials and the Polymer Society Board assists in this area.

Plastics, Rubber and Composites

Ten issues published/planned for Volume 38, 2009. Issues to note include:  

Issue 2-4: Joint special issue featuring papers from the 13th European Conference on Composite Materials. Guest editors: Professor Leif Asp (Chair ECCM-13, Swerea SICOMP) and Associate Professor Kristofer Gamstedt, Vice Chair ECCM-13, KTH, Fibre and Polymer Technology.

Issue 8: Special issue featuring papers from the Rubber in Engineering Group meeting on Time Dependent Behaviour of Rubber. Guest editors; Dr. James Busfield (Queen Mary's, University of London) and Dr. Martin Burke (QinetiQ).

Forthcoming special issues:

SICOMP 2009 Selected papers from the recent Swerea SICOMP 20th Anniversary Conference on Manufacturing and Design of Composites, Pitea in Northern Sweden on 8-9 June, 2009. Guest editor: Professor A. G. Gibson, University of Newcastle, UK.

4th China-Europe Symposium on Processing and Properties of Reinforced Polymers             Selected papers from the 4th China-Europe Symposium on Processing and Properties of Reinforced Polymers, Guilin, China, June 2009. Guest editors: ProfessorY-W. Mai (FRS), School of Aerospace,    Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia, Professor M-. Zhang, Materials Science Institute, Zhongshan University, China and Professor C. Wei.

Antec 2009 Selected papers from the micro and nano-moulding symposium at Antec 2009, Chicago, USA on 22-24 June 2009 Guest editor: Professor P. D. Coates, University of Bradford, UK.

ICCM-17 2009 Selected papers from International Conference on Composite Materials, Edinburgh, UK sessions on ‘offshore applications' and 'composites in fire'. Guest editor: Professor A. G. Gibson, University of Newcastle, UK.

PPE09 Selected papers from Polymer Processing Engineering, University of Bradford, 27-28 October 2009 Guest editor: Professor P. D.Coates, University of Bradford, UK.

 

11. Awards/prizes

Colwyn Medal

Awarded to Dr James Busfield, Queen Mary University of London where he is head of the largest rubber research group in the UK. His research has been funded by major international organisations, including Super Aguri F1 and the Thai Government. His works focuses on the strength, fatigue and abrasion of elastomers, filler/foamed elastomers and smart elastomer systems.

With the approval of the Awards Committee it has also now been agreed to request future recipients of this award to deliver the Rubber Foundation lecture.

Alan Glanvill Award

Awarded to H Le, S Ilisch, H Radusch and H Steinberger, for their paper 'Macro- and microdispersion of carbon black in liquid silicone rubbers', Plastics, Rubber and Composites, October 2008, Vol 37, No 8, pp367-375.

James S Walker Award

Awarded to Jennifer Tilley, University of Oxford, for the project synopsis report ‘Creation of surfaces suitable for immobilising bioactive proteins: characteristics affecting immobilisation'. The research was conducted in an overseas environment using techniques new to Jennifer. Her conclusions were well drawn and useful for further work. The reports showed particularly high initiative and a good professional approach at such an early stage in her career.

Prince Philip Award (for polymers in the service of mankind) was not awarded.

Last awarded 2007 with the restriction that it should not be awarded more than once every two years, it should also not be awarded less than once every five years.

 

12. Other matters

Educational Initiative with RIBA

Following discussions over the year within and outwith IOM3, sponsorship of the RIBA Student Architecture President's Medal Awards has been agreed in conjunction with the BPF (British Plastics Federation), Corus and Pilkington to highlight the benefits of using PVC polymer, steel and glass for Building and Architectural Design.

Delivery of the prize is via a secure website to be accessed by shortlisted students / tutors and colleges plus an industry visit for the outright winners. The website has now gone live and can be accessed by members on the PVC Committee page.

 

Design Innovation In Plastics (DIP)

This award was established in 1985 and is now the longest running student plastics design award in Europe. It is co-organised by IOM3 and the Worshipful Company of Horners, a City Livery Company that has forged strong links with the plastics industry. The focus of the award is to encourage plastics design innovation and best practice in future product designers.

The theme of the 2009 competition was sustainable design and the six finalists were selected from 77 entries submitted by 27 universities in the UK.

The Polymer Society participates in the organising committee with continued IOM3 sponsorship being maintained for the next three years when the award moves to an annual basis. Significant industrial sponsorship has also been maintained.

Natural Materials Association

The Polymer Society will be represented on the new Natural Minerals Association to cover its Natural Rubber and Biopolymers interests.

Appendix

Available to view in the Word Document below.

 

Report prepared by S G Patrick 15 February 2010

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