As a technology, thermoforming now has a surprisingly green story to tell. As Paul Gander reports, this is about energy efficiency as well as weight reduction.

Work on thermoforming advanced composites and joining such parts form the core of a project at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, that investigates sustainable materials and manufacturing techniques in transport. Dr Saul Buchanan explains.

Perceptions that the UK is lagging behind or is non-existent in the field of space exploration could not be more wrong. Guy Richards is on a mission to find out more.

Transparent glass matrix composites for use in high resistance structures and security windows are being explored by a team at Imperial College London.

Wall coatings can be used to provide energy savings in refractories.

UK experts describe the future challenges for nuclear energy.

Composite flexible material developments for the aerospace and defence markets are presented. Including clothing for military use and a spacecrew emergency module.

The Intermetallic Materials Processing in Relation to Earth and Space Solidification Integrated project (IMPESS) project led by the European Space Agency is finding novel applications for intermetallic materials.

ExtreMat partners are working to generate new commercial materials, multi-material components and crosscutting processing technologies for use in fields such as nuclear fusion, space and aerospace.

In every year of the millennium so far, more steelplant has been commissioned than was put to work in the whole of the previous decade. The design and manufacturing techniques for steelplant engineering that were previously neglected are now being realised, leading to reenergised blast furnaces, slab casters, rolling mills and mechanical shearing.