Morgan recognised at Composites UK Innovation of the Year Awards
Morgan’s Composites & Defence Systems business received the ‘Innovation in Composite Design’ award at the Composites UK Innovation of the Year Awards at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.
Established in 2009 and recognised as the premier awards in the sector, the annual event sees Composites UK, the official trade association for the UK composites industry, recognise the key advances made by UK companies. Awards are made to organisations which have found innovative composites solutions that have or will contribute significantly to the future of the company itself and the industry as a whole.
A world leader in global materials engineering, Morgan was selected by the judges for its design and development of a new survivability solution for customised composite crew compartments for armoured reconnaissance and tactical vehicles.
Morgan engineered the armoured composite crew compartment for Tata Motors’ Light Armoured Multipurpose Vehicle (LAMV) programme for the Indian Ministry of Defence. Taking responsibility for the entire system from computer modelling and Finite Element Analysis through to production. Morgan created a detachable, blast and ballistic-resistant crew department, which was easily integrated onto a Tata-produced chassis and can be modified to provide higher levels of protection if required.
The Morgan composite and ceramic ‘pod’ provides the same levels of protection while being more than 1,000 kg lighter than a similarly protected steel structure. This makes the vehicle more mobile and fuel-efficient, creates a higher payload and provides inherent spall protection as it does not contain metal.
Duncan Eldridge of Morgan Advanced Materials – Composites & Defence Systems, commented: “The Morgan team is extremely proud of this award and it is clearly an encouragement to carry on working the way we do. We have many years of experience in the design of armoured systems for military vehicles and replacing metal with lighter, more effective composite solutions, putting us at the leading edge of composite armour technology. This project demonstrated our capability in designing and manufacturing outstanding composite components and complete systems – a capability that we use for customers in both military and civil applications. We see this award as a great achievement for the entire Morgan team.”
