Issue 2 of Plastics, Rubber and Composites: Macromolecular Engineering is a theme issue on the manufacturing and design of composites featuring a selection of invited papers from the 21st International SICOMP conference.

The conference was held on the 3 – 4 June 2010, in Pitea in the North of Sweden and was attended by over 100 delegates from Europe, USA and Canada. The guest editors, Lars Lijenfeldt, Swerea SICOMP AB and Geoff Gibson from the University of Newcastle, UK, invited contributions to form a representative cross-section of the excellent papers presented at the meeting.

Articles cover a range of topics including:
• Process-related contributions on computational fluid modelling of the motion of reinforcement particles by Staffan Lundström, Luleå University, Sweden
• Process development in aerospace composites manufacturing by Franziska Regel, University of Minho, Portugal
• Discussion of innovative thermoplastic processing technology by Alexander Bismarck from Imperial College London.

Lars Lijenfeldt and Geoff Gibson’s editorial is available to view online for free, which also gives a full list of contents for the issue. Visit the IOM3 journal access pages to log on as an IOM3 member and view the articles online.

Edited by Professor Phil Coates of Bradford University, UK, PRC:ME publishes original research on the macromolecular engineering of polymeric and related materials and polymer matrix composites, with a strong focus on the manipulation of structure at the molecular scale to control properties and fitness for purpose of the final component. For further information, including how to submit to the journal, visit the journal homepage. To view articles online, visit the journal on IngentaConnect. For the latest content, sign up for journal TOC alerts.

Maney Publishing is an independent publishing company specialising in academic journals in materials science and engineering, the humanities, and health science. Based in the UK and USA, Maney is the official publisher for the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3).

IOM3 members have free online access to the Institute’s refereed journals via Ingenta. See http://www.iom3.org/content/journal-access for further information. Please note that you must be logged in to this site in order to access journal content.