Biography
Anthony joined the Irish Composites Centre hosted by UL in 2009, to work on polymer composite materials,after previously working in the Structural Dynamics Group at the University of Oxford. The increasing demand for lightweight tailorable polymer composite materials in industry and the transport sector in particular requires significant improvements in the efficiency of industrial manufacturing techniques and the compatibility of materials with these processes. Since becoming a lecturer at the School of Engineering in 2014, Anthony has secured research funding of over 1 million for projects ranging from increasing the percentage of polymer composite materials used in large specialist marine vessels (FIBRESHIP Horizon 2020 project) to improving the compatibility of polymer composite materials with new automated industrial manufacturing processes. Anthony works closely with companies across Europe to achieve these aims.
Projects:
Anthony is currently the UL principal investigator for FIBRESHIP, THERMOCOM, a FUSION Intertrade Ireland project and UL co-principal investigator of a project funded by the European Space Agency.
FIBRESHIP is an 11M Horizon 2020 project with 18 partners from across Europe. FIBRESHIP targets a significant increase in the percentage of composite materials used in large specialist marine vessels. UL are leading tasks in relation to material selection, manufacturing and mechanical characterisation.
THERMOCOM is a 194k project funded by Enterprise Ireland through IComp with 3 industrial partners. THERMOCOM aims to improve the compatibility of polymer composite materials with new automated industrial manufacturing processes such as laser-assisted-automated-tape placement. UL has one of the few research-institute based laser-assisted-automated-placement machines in Europe.
DTC (Demonstration of Thermoplastic Composites) is funded by the European Space Agency with 4 European partners. The aim is to replace metallic satellite components with improved thermoplastic based designs. UL are involved in the manufacture of demonstrator components using laser-assisted-automated-tape-placement.