Polymer conferences

Nanostructured materials exhibit significantly different properties from their bulk equivalents. This opens the door for materials either for replacement of existing materials (e.g. magnetic material not relying on rare earth elements), or for materials with properties thus far inaccessible, and remarkable new devices.  Metamaterials created by controlling nanostructure can posses negative dielectric permittivity, negative magnetic permeability, or even negative refractive index. These properties can be used in unprecedented optical devices, among them cloaks that render objects invisible.

With the purpose to develop new metamaterials, four projects have been funded by the European Commission within the seventh framework program targeting the fabrication of functional nanostructured materials: NIM_NIL, NANOGOLD, MAGNONICS, and METACHEM.

To spread the latest results on how to model, fabricate, characterize, and use electromagnetic nanostructured materials to an audience that is blended from an interested industry as well as from passionate academia, we invite everybody to the International Conference on Metamaterial, which will be held July 3rd and 4th in Jena, Germany. At its heart this conference will have a dissemination workshop where these four EU-funded projects will present their main findings to an interested audience and discuss avenues towards their integration into products.

An exchange of ideas for future research and industrial exploitation and further collaboration will be facilitated

Subscription and details: http://www.phona.uni-jena.de/conference2012

We encourage the submission of contributed papers/posters for the workshop (submission deadline: June 1st 2012).The registration will close June 1st 2012

Further information regarding the four projects can be found in the Flyer.

On the 26th-29th August 2012 RAPRA are holding an inaugural international conference and trade event in the US – Global Polymer Innovation Expo.  A pre-event briefing is being held on Tuesday 24th April 2012, 10:30 – 14:30,  at RAPRA’s offices in Telford.

A funding application to support a mission of UK companies to the RAPRA Global Polymer Innovation Expo (GPIE) has already been submitted to UKTI.
RAPRA and the BPF, with the support of the Materials KTN, are offering the following support to UK mission delegates regardless of the UKTI bid:

Full details of the pre-event breifing can be found at:

Information regarding the Expo in August can be found at:

IMechE Aerospace Division has organised a unique one day event with prestigious invited speakers in the field of environmentally improved aerospace structures. The registration fee including catering is £45 + VAT per delegate, and is open to all. The meeting will be held on Tuesday 24th April at the Knowledge Transfer Centre, AMRC with Boeing, The University of Sheffield. Delegates should register at the IMechE.

The event will include a tour of the facilities at AMRC with Boeing.

The invited lectures include:

• ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES IN AEROSPACE Roger Gardner, Aviation Environmental Expert, Omega
• ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ADVANCED MATERIAL Professor Panos Tsakiropoulos, Professor of Metallurgy and POSCO Chair in Iron and Steel Technology, The University of Sheffield
• DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENT WITHIN AIRBUS Gael Sarrieu, Environment Health & Safety Materials Specialist, Airbus UK
• RECYCLING OF ADVANCED COMPOSITES Dr Thomas Turner, Principal Research Fellow, The University of Nottingham
• BIOFUELS Professor Chris Wilson, Director of Resources, Chair of Departmental Resources Committee, The University of Sheffield
• SELF-HEALING TECHNOLOGIES IN AEROSPACE Professor Sybrand van der Zwaag, Director of the Delft Centre for Materials, Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands
• ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES IN MANUFACTURING Richard Scaife, Director of Composite Centre, Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing
• AERO-ENGINE TECHNOLOGY – OUR PART IN SUSTAINABLE AVIATION GROWTH Jon Hart, Environmental Strategy Manager for Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace, Rolls-Royce
• LIFE-CYCLE ANALYSIS IN AEROSPACE STRUCTURES Professor Alma Hodzic, Research Director of Advanced Manufacturing Institute, AMRC with Boeing, The University of Sheffield
• UNDERSTANDING AVIATION EMISSIONS ON THE GLOBAL LEVEL Lynnette Dray, Senior Research Associate,  The University of Cambridge

To register, please visit the IMechE. Please contact Prof Alma Hodzic for more information.

IMechE

Prof Alma Hodzic

Around 50 delegates from industry and academia came together at the University of Bradford on April 2nd for the 2012 Spring Meeting of the Polymer IRC.

The Polymer Interdisciplinary Research Centre is based around the polymer science and engineering expertise at the universities of Bradford, Durham, Leeds and Sheffield. As the name suggests, it fosters the development of interdisciplinary collaborations in polymers and, in such a broadly applied field, the connections from underpinning science through engineering development to commercial processing are of fundamental importance.

Delegates heard overview presentations from each university, followed by a series of talks on work in progress. These included guest lectures by Dr Alan Wood, Composites Technical Leader at Victrex and Dr Zuowei Wang of Reading University. An unusual feature was that the meeting closed with an open discussion, feeding back on the day’s events and addressing the future form of the IRC, led by Prof Phil Coates of the University of Bradford.

It was agreed that the IRC will hold its next Spring Meeting in 2013 in Leeds.

Polymer IRC web pages

Announcement – the Polymer IRC Spring Meeting, Monday 2nd April 2012 at the University of Bradford.

This will be a showcase event represented by the four IRC Universities, the Directors of which will be giving an overview of their current research activity. The event will be sponsored by Nanofactory. There will be a presentation given by the Polymer Centre Director, Professor Steve Armes and giving an industry perspective, a presentation from Dr Alan Wood (Composites Technical Leader, Victrex Ltd).

Programme – IRC Spring Meeting 2012

Registration form

How to find us:

The specific location of the Polymer IRC laboratories, meeting room, and local hotels are shown in Google maps at:

Google Maps link

Travel directions to the University in Bradford are at:

University of Bradford travel directions

The Polymer Centre and Nanofactory are to attend the European Materials Research Society 2012 Spring Meeting in Strasbourg, France on 14-18 May.

The meeting offers an extensive programme of high-level research symposia, including contributions from some of Europe’s leading academic and industrial scientists. The Polymer Centre is proud to exhibit Sheffield’s capabilities and to showcase Yorkshire’s SME-based materials innovation alongside blue-chip companies and research organisations, and to participate in one the materials science community’s foremost events.

More information on the programme and how to register is available via the link below. We invite fellow participants to arrange 1-to-1 meetings with our team in advance; please contact Dr Joe Gaunt, our Business Development Consultant to do so.

E-MRS Strasbourg

Nanofactory

Dr Joe Gaunt

Thursday 6 October 2011
Hilton Hotel, Sheffield, UK

This one day meeting will focus on the industrial utilisation of biorenewable polymers. This will allow key business people from the plastics and packaging industry, and scientists involved in bioplastics research and applications development, to gain an overview of bioplastic processing and properties, focusing on commercially available bioplastics such as Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) and Poly Hydroxy Alkanoate (PHA).

REGISTER NOW!

Bioplastics conference details and registration form PDF (859kB)

Visit the conference site for more details:

Bioplastics Processing & Properties conference

The first international Project Sunshine conference, Shine, will take place from 13-14 September 2011.

This unique event will bring together academics, business people and policy makers in search of ideas, actions and products that will make a difference. A real difference.

A new kind of science conference. The global issues of food, energy and environmental change are complex and inter-connected. Integrated, flexible solutions, appropriate for different scenarios in different parts of the world, are needed. Solutions will involve individuals and organisations from across many areas of academia, business and the public sector: founded upon high quality science, interpreted by business and policy makers, translated into actions which make a difference.

• Cutting edge science from world-leading scientists and technologists
• The business and policy angle from major influencers across the world
• Brokering relationships which will move things forward

Please visit the Project Sunshine website for more information on the project and registration details for the Shine International Conference.

Nanofactory sponsorship enables delegates from Yorkshire and Humberside SMEs to receive a £100 discount off the registration fees of £199 before 1 July, £249 thereafter. Please contact the conference adminstrator, Shelagh Cowley, via the conference website to claim this discount.

Project Sunshine

Shine International Conference

Nanofactory

Nano4Energy 2011 is the Nanotechnology KTN’s highly successful annual showcase of new developments in nano-enabled energy. This year’s meeting will be held at Leeds University on 28 June.

Nano4Energy 2011, sponsored by Nanofactory, aims to raise awareness of materials challenges in renewable energy, explore technology developments in nano-enabled energy, and stimulate networking between technology providers, end-users and investors.

Target Audience

• Technology providers seeking business opportunities
• End users seeking technologies
• Investors and professional services seeking updates and new contacts.

Poster Presentations

There will be a poster session running throughout the day. If you would like to promote your research, an abstract should be sent to Sean Kelly at Leeds University. If your application is successful, you will need to register as a delegate at the discounted price of £35 +VAT.

Partnering

NanoKTN will be operating a partnering service at the event during the lunch break. Delegates can submit a brief overview of their technology offering and their technology/partnering requirements which will be published on the event website, and also circulated to all registered delegates 2 weeks prior to the event, to enable you to easily identify potential partnership opportunities and pre-book up to 5 meetings. Register by 10th June 2011 to be involved.

Registration and more information

Details are available in the downloadable flyer below. Nanofactory sponsorship enables delegates from Yorkshire & Humberside SMEs to attend for free; please contact Sean Kelly at Leeds to register on this basis.

Nano4Energy flyer (PDF, 154 kB)

Nanofactory

Sean Kelly

Discover the impact of the nanoscale in powders and surfaces for coating, lubrication, healthcare and welding.

There are currently many exciting new developments occurring in tribological materials, which depend on processes occurring at the nanoscale.

The invention of new nanostructured materials with designed tribological performance, and enhanced nanoscale understanding of ‘old’ tribological materials, are being facilitated by many new technologies becoming available to analyse friction, lubrication and wear.

This meeting, organised by the Sheffield NanoLAB and to be held at Mappin Hall at the University of Sheffield on Monday 20 June 2011, will address the advances occurring in nanoscale tribology, providing attendees the opportunity to network, and discuss trends and future developments.

Topics will include the synergistic areas of:

• Wear-resistant nanomaterials
• Nanostructured tribological coatings
• Nanoparticles for tribology and lubrication
• Surface texturing and patterning for tribology
• Low energy tribology
• Tribo-bio-nano for healthcare
• Tribology of functional devices
• Dynamical mechanisms of friction, lubrication and wear
• New methodologies/instrumentation for evaluating tribology at the micro/nano-scale

For more information and to register, please visit Sheffield NanoLAB via the link below. Nanofactory sponsorship permits a special offer for delegates from Yorkshire & Humberside SMEs – simply register at the student rate of £40 and complete an attendance form on the day.

Sheffield NanoLAB

Nanofactory