We are delighted to have hosted this in-person event at the National Composites Centre, Bristol, UK on 6-7 April 2022 which included keynote presentations, papers, poster sessions and a site visit.

Download Abstract Book

Abstracts download

Please do download the book containing extended abstracts from the ACM5 speakers.
Download Abstract Book
Download Programme

Programme download

The detailed programme features a full list of the presenters and their topics, as presented in April 2022.
Download Programme

Keynote Presentations

Every year the industry’s leading thinkers share their vision for the future of composites manufacturing in our keynote presentations. This year’s lineup was no exception and was a must-see for engineers, developers, investors and entrepreneurs looking for their edge in an increasingly competitive world.

Suong Van Hoa
Concordia University, Canada

Recent advances and challenges in automated composites manufacturing

Suong Van Hoa has been working on polymer composites since 1979. He has worked on analysis, testing, design, material development, and manufacturing, and has been working on Automated Composites Manufacturing since 2012.  He currently holds an industrial chair on Automated Composites Manufacturing supported by the NSE Research Council of Canada, and Bell Flight.

Malin Åkermo
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Composite manufacturing in future light weight designs

Malin Åkermo is Professor in Lightweight structures at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, with special interests in composite materials and its processing. For more than 15 years she has led a group performing research on manufacturing of structural composites in collaboration with industry. She studies material systems and applications span from aerospace to automotive.

Ed FindonGlobal Lead for Manufacturing Engineering, LM Wind Power

Challenges in the Manufacture of Large Wind Turbine Blades

Ed is the LM Global Lead for Manufacturing Engineering on our biggest offshore blades, where the majority of our automation is used. Ed has 25+ years of composites manufacturing experience to draw from and is an extremely experienced public speaker, and is therefore perfectly positioned to bring his knowledge and experience to this keynote.

Nick Warrior, University of Nottingham, UK

Automation Projects within the EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing Research Hub

Nick Warrior is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Composites Research Group at the University of Nottingham. He is the Director of the UKRI EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing Research Hub.  Nick received the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal Award (2009) for successful industrial exploitation of composite materials.

Philippa Glover,
CEO CNC Robotics

Applying Robotics Solutions to Meet the Challenges of Composites Manufacturing

ACM5 was jointly hosted by the University of Bristol – one of the world’s top 100 universities and the National Composites Centre, home to the UK’s world-leading capabilities in automated composites R&D. Bristol is host to some of the most exciting composite R&D programmes in the world and the ACM5 was supported by a range of well-known industrial partners.

Objective and Topics

The objective of the ACM conference is to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion on the latest development in automated composites manufacturing. The ACM5 2022 event included the following topics:

  • Automated fibre placement of preimpregnated and dry fibre reinforcements
  • Automated manufacturing of composite structures with very complex geometry

  • Thermo forming/stamping

  • Fibre steering and variable stiffness composite structures

  • Sustainable manufacture

  • Design for Automated Manufacture of composite structures

  • Advances in materials designed for automated manufacture

  • Process and equipment development and optimization

  • Automated NDE and Quality assurance

  • Virtual manufacturing environments and digital technologies

  • Workforce education and training in composites manufacture

Our Conference Sponsors

We are proud to be sponsored by:

CIMComp Future Composites Manufacturing Research Hub logo
Baker Hughes logo

Visit Bristol for ACM5 2022

The City of Bristol is a vibrant place to visit, the undisputed centre for composites research in the UK, with one of the strongest research clusters in the UK.  Bristol is one of the most easily accessible cities in the UK, with excellent road, rail, bus and coach and air links.

Images courtesy of Destination Bristol.  Image copyrights: Gary Newman, Dave Pratt, SS Great Britain, Paul Box, Plaster and Global Shots.