Thu, 24 September, 2020
TWI hosted an aerospace industry panel meeting on 23 September 2020. The meeting, which was held online due to the ongoing global COVID 19 pandemic, drew 56 attendees from some of the biggest names in the aerospace industry and included input from a number of TWI and industry experts.
The event was introduced by TWI’s Industrial Membership Group Manager, Richard Freeman. This was followed by the first talk of the day, as Simon Weeks of the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) provided details of the work of the institute. Simon discussed several of the ATI programmes including Fly Zero, which is looking at aerospace battery development, a hybrid-electric approach and hydrogen fuel cell developments towards the Net Zero Carbon by 2050 initiative.
Andy Norman of the European Space Agency was joined by TWI’s Joao Gandra to speak on the use of linear friction welding for external features on space tanks, before CAV Systems’ Martin Wood and TWI’s Chris Allen presented on the OLIVER Project, which focused on laser welding of titanium assemblies.
TWI’s R&D Product Manager, Marcus Warwick then gave an update on the TWI Core Research Programme before Richard Freeman returned to provide information on TWI’s activities during the COVID era and plans for the aerospace sector for 2021-22.