Ton Peijs

The winner of the 2010 Swinburne Award, Professor Ton Peijs from Queen Mary University of London, will deliver the prestigious Swinburne lecture at the International Conference on the Manufacturing of Advanced Composites (ICMAC) on Thursday 24 March 2011 in Belfast, UK.

The Swinburne Award recognises the achievement of a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and knowledge of any field related to the science, engineering or technology of plastics. The title of the lecture is "Making Composites without Matrix". 

Abstract
Over the last decennia self-reinforced polymer composites based on oriented polymer fibres or tapes bonded together by a polymer of similar origin have emerged as promising new materials for lightweight structures with added ecological benefits. This lecture will report on recent developments in the field of self-reinforced polymer composites including systems based on PP, PE, PET, PPTA and cellulose.

Next to environmental benefits as a result of their mono-material character which facilitates recyclability, and their lightness due to the replacement of (heavy) glass fibres by lightweight polymer fibres, these materials have also shown to exhibit competitive mechanical properties compared to their traditional counterparts. The main reason for their excellent mechanical properties is often the high reinforcement content in these types of composites. Since processing of these materials is based on non-traditional – non-impregnation based – processes their reinforcement content is not limited to the traditional 50-60 vol.%. Instead fibre volume fractions in these materials can often exceed 80-90 vol.%, giving them their advantageous mechanical characteristics.

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