Welcome to the April issue of Materials World
Amid rising employment and energy costs, as well as business rates, trade body Make UK reports a fall in output and orders in the manufacturing sector in the first quarter of this year.
This is highlighted as the first time in a decade that output has fallen in the first quarter of the year, as both domestic and export orders have slowed. As a result, British manufacturers have hit the brakes on recruitment and investment plans.
When IOM3 responded to the government’s green paper for the strategy, one of the key challenges and opportunities put forward focused on the decarbonisation and transition of the Foundation Industries (FIs) – in particular where this supports UK sovereign capability and resource security. Make UK also flags that more attention needs to be paid to the FIs i.e. cement, metals, glass, paper, ceramics and chemicals.
It makes sense then that our manufacturing-themed issue would explore the different initiatives, research centres and companies pulling together to transform the FIs, reducing their environmental impact and improving their competitiveness with many industry firsts. For example, researchers at the University of Leeds, UK, reveal how, for the first time, locally available raw materials in the UK are being used to manufacture belitic calcium sulphoaluminate cement as an alternative low-CO2 binder.
There is also much talk about ways the UK can up its ante outside of the traditional FIs, with routes explored to scale up production of high-entropy alloys, oxide-oxide ceramic matrix composites and polymer nanocomposites.
We hope you enjoy this issue.
