#155 A world where cutting-edge technology meets sustainability with Vincent Fawcett of PRF Composites
02.04.2025 12 min Staffel 5 Episode 113
Zusammenfassung & Show Notes
Imagine a world where cutting-edge technology meets sustainability— PRF Composite Materials is making it a reality. 🌍💡
Welcome to Composites Lounge's first stop at JEC World 2025!
On the first day of our #Composites360OnTour, we had an insightful conversation with Vincent Fawcett from PRF Composite Materials (UK) about their innovative approaches in the composites industry.
Innovation & Technology:
PRF, established in 1982, has evolved into a leading pre-preg manufacturer with a unique end-to-end solution. They have heavily invested (£7 million since 2018) in infrastructure, including two woven pre-preg lines, a unidirectional pre-preg line, and a pilot line for R&D. Their advanced capabilities in cutting, kitting, and preforming set them apart in the industry.
Sustainability:
Sustainability is at the heart of PRF's operations. They have partnered with Gen2 Carbon to develop a recycled fiber pre-preg, aiming for a low energy cost per part model.
PRF has also established a circularity model, collecting waste from their production and customers, processing it back into recycled mats, and turning it into pre-preg. This closed-loop system supports waste management and promotes sustainable practices.
Market Sectors:
PRF serves diverse sectors, including medical, aerospace, defense, automotive, and marine. Their innovative solutions, such as a recycled fiber pre-preg that quadruples cutting and preforming capability, address specific customer needs and enhance production efficiency.
Listen to the many usecases and applications Vincent relays to our community in this video.
Join us in celebrating these advancements and the commitment to a sustainable future.
Have you joined the reception drink at Composites UK - Trade Association, sponsored by PRF?
Cheers to innovation and sustainability! 🥂
Welcome to Composites Lounge's first stop at JEC World 2025!
On the first day of our #Composites360OnTour, we had an insightful conversation with Vincent Fawcett from PRF Composite Materials (UK) about their innovative approaches in the composites industry.
Innovation & Technology:
PRF, established in 1982, has evolved into a leading pre-preg manufacturer with a unique end-to-end solution. They have heavily invested (£7 million since 2018) in infrastructure, including two woven pre-preg lines, a unidirectional pre-preg line, and a pilot line for R&D. Their advanced capabilities in cutting, kitting, and preforming set them apart in the industry.
Sustainability:
Sustainability is at the heart of PRF's operations. They have partnered with Gen2 Carbon to develop a recycled fiber pre-preg, aiming for a low energy cost per part model.
PRF has also established a circularity model, collecting waste from their production and customers, processing it back into recycled mats, and turning it into pre-preg. This closed-loop system supports waste management and promotes sustainable practices.
Market Sectors:
PRF serves diverse sectors, including medical, aerospace, defense, automotive, and marine. Their innovative solutions, such as a recycled fiber pre-preg that quadruples cutting and preforming capability, address specific customer needs and enhance production efficiency.
Listen to the many usecases and applications Vincent relays to our community in this video.
Join us in celebrating these advancements and the commitment to a sustainable future.
Have you joined the reception drink at Composites UK - Trade Association, sponsored by PRF?
Cheers to innovation and sustainability! 🥂
Transkript
So welcome, dear LinkedIn community
Composites Lounge members,
composites experts out there.
So this is JEC World 2025 day one.
And after I've been to the Agora
and listened to the European Commission
with their new Clean Industrial Deal
(CID), I'm now together
with PRF Composite Material
(UK) and that is really
amazingly a good fit to our topic, because
we will be talking
about circularity, about sustainability,
and of course, speed of production.
So together with me,
welcome, Vincent Fawcett
from PRF Composite.
Thank you for the lovely introduction.
Hi and welcome to the PRF booth.
You're welcome.
So, Vincent, my first question is,
can you tell us in a nutshell
what PRF stands for?
Yes, PRF stands
for plastic reinforcement fabrics.
It's very, very simple.
-Makes totally sense.
Can you introduce us in a few words
what PRF is doing?
What is your mission
and what are your solutions?
So PRF pre-preg manufacturer
based on the south coast of England,
established in 1982.
So in our 43rd year now.
Initially set up as a fast response
supplier for the advanced composites
market in the UK,
where getting hold of carbon fibers
and aramid fibers
was very difficult, lead times were very,
very extended. PRF set up to hold stock
and resell carbon fibers very quickly
to help bolster the UK composites market,
which was in its infancy
back in the early 80s.
We started manufacturing pre-preg
in and around about 2010,
and now we are at two woven
pre-preg lines,
one unidirectional pre-preg-line.
We have a pilot line
that we can make very short quantities
of pre-preg for sampling
or for R&D purposes.
And we support all of this
with our in-house
cutting, kitting
and preforming capability.
I think we're fairly unique
in the composites industry
to have that full end to end solution.
-That sounds like big capital expenditure,
heavy machinery.
-Yes, we've invested heavily since 2018.
We've invested almost £7 million Pounds
(GBP) into our infrastructure.
But you know, we need to futureproof.
We need to make sure
that we are well equipped
and prepared for the challenges
that the composites industry
is setting for us.
Before we go into the concrete ideal
detailed solutions
that you are having, Vincent.
Let us explain the community.
What market sectors do you serve?
-A very diverse set of market sectors
served by PRF Composites.
Primarily our main customers
are in medical and aerospace.
We supply a lot of materials
for for aero interiors.
We're also very active
in the defence sectors
and automotive sectors.
Because we're based on the south coast
of the UK, of course,
we have a very strong
marine customer base as well.
Vincent, this is really intriguing
and interesting.
Do you have a specific example
where you helped out
a customer in your field?
-Yes, Ilkay, I have a customer
over the past couple of years
who we have provided a lot of material
for, supplied a lot of material
for in an aerospace interiors program.
They are press moulding.
So they have two heated presses
and a semi-automated tooling solution
for these presses,
with a five axis trimming machine
to trim all the parts they make.
It's a very dynamic production cell.
But their problem,
their pain point was at the point
of preforming and ply cutting,
they couldn't get enough parts
ready for the presses.
So we looked at solutions
from a couple of points.
We could either increase
their cutting capability.
We could increase
their preforming capability
by investing in infrastructure
within their business.
Or they could outsource these.
Again, a costly solution.
What we did was we came up
with a very unique product,
a recycled fiber pre-preg
that they could use
in their non-structural applications.
And this achieved a cure ply thickness
of one millimeter in just one ply,
whereas they were currently achieving
one millimeter in four plies of 245g.
This quadrupled their cutting
and preforming capability
and solve their bottleneck.
Vincent, one of the recurring questions
from our community,
of course, is sustainability.
Now, which processes
did you establish at PRF
and do these contribute to sustainability?
That's one of the key questions
I want to ask you during this JEC World.
It's a very good question
and a very important question,
and something
that's very close to our hearts at PRF.
Sustainability is extremely
important to us.
Over the past 2 or 3 years,
we've partnered with a company
called Gen2 Carbon
to develop a recycled fiber pre-preg.
We offer this in various aerial weights
and various resin systems,
but we do prefer to partner this product
with a very fast curing system.
Our RP570 snap cure.
What we're trying to achieve
is a low energy cost per part model,
which we managed to achieve
with this particular product.
-So one of the future tasks
will be circularity.
Now there is this notion
that maybe circularity
and fast production in composites
may be mutually exclusive.
Are they mutually exclusive
or do you see a link there?
-What we've done at PRF
is we've partnered with Gen2 Carbon
to create a circularity model
with our customer as well. So we place PRF
at the pivot point of waste management.
PRF are creating waste
on our ply cutting tables
on our preforming tables.
So we send that waste back to Gen2 carbon
to be processed back into a recycled mat.
But we also at point of delivery
with our customers,
collect their waste and end of life parts,
and we send that back
to our recycled processor,
which again is processed
into a recycled mat
that we turn into a pre-preg.
So it's a relatively small bubble
of circularity,
but it works very, very well.
It supports our customers
with their waste collection
and it supports our recycling
with their feedstock.
It also supports us with our stock
of recycled fibre
for manufacturing
into pre-preg or REEPREG,
as we like to brand it.
-So thank you, Vincent,
for all these insights into PRF
and the composites concepts
that you are driving.
Circularity very, very important.
Sustainability very, very important.
So I really applaud you guys
for investing into this future.
Now we are coming
to the end of our interview,
and I would like to thank you also
for the reception drink at Composites UK.
How did that come?
You are sponsoring that one?
And would you like
to invite the community?
-The UK composites industry
is very important to us.
We are a member of Composites UK.
So yes, we decided that we'd like to like
sponsor the drinks reception.
Please come and join us for a drink.
I suppose the only thing I would like
to say is a big thank you
to the JEC organizers for,
again hosting
and organizing what is a very,
very important event
for our entire industry.
And thank you to yourself also, Ilkay,
for interviewing me.
You're welcome.
Vincent, thanks for your insights
one more time.
And thank you.
Yes, JEC Group,
for this fantastic 60 years of existence,
60 years of informing the people
about composites,
connecting the people
and inspiring the people.
And we will see you at the reception drink
at Composites UK.