The advanced Resins and Coatings Technologies Innovation Centre

The advanced Resins and Coatings Technologies Innovation Centre operates as a long-term strategic partnership between London South Bank University (LSBU) and TWI with the aim of developing a financially sustainable research facility, drawing on LSBU's existing strengths, to complement and underpin the applied research and development activities of TWI. ARCTIC is based in the premises of TWI in Cambridge and began operating in June 2016. ARCTIC's mission is to establish a world class research centre offering a high quality research with an industry focus in an innovative environment. We aim to attract outstanding researchers and focus on resins and coatings technologies covering a range of sectors such as Aerospace, Construction, and Energy. Extreme weather and severe conditions have proven to be a significant challenge in many industrial sectors such as aerospace, energy or construction. Surface related phenomenon such as icing and erosion are key challenges in harsh environments that coatings technology has not been able to successfully address. The Centre’s research will be focusing on developing durable functional hybrid materials (Coatings and resins) to respond to the long-term research needs of the TWI 700 industrial members as a whole ensuring the industrial focus of the research. ARCTIC is focusing on the following topics: - Durable highly Functional coatings (Anti-Icing, Anti-fouling, Liquid repellency, easy clean, Antimicrobial, Anti- corrosion …) - Functional resin reinforcement (Fire retardency, Anti-erosion, Anti-reflective, Anti-abrasion, self-healing…) - Green chemistry Bio-sourced feedstocks and recycling technology (polymer recycling, rare earth element extraction, solvent technology, ionic liquids…) More fundamental research in coatings, nanomaterials and hybrid resins is being performed by PhD students funded by NSIRC, the European commission and London South Bank University.