Team behind Project AMICABLE wins the ‘Innovation in Materials’ award!

I would like to thank everyone who has helped with this project over the last 12 months and continue to do so as we close off in a few weeks’ time. We not only met the brief for a sustainable, permanently antimicrobial grab poll for various transport applications, we surpassed all expectations.

– David Hall, Managing Director of BioCote®

On 3rd November 2021, the Composites UK Trade Association Industry Awards made a spectacular return to The National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, coinciding with the Advanced Engineering Show!

With 300 people in attendance, BioCote® attended the Composites UK Industry Awards dinner for our contribution to the high-profile UK innovation project AMICABLE, a collaboration of six companies within the UK Composites industry.

We are very pleased to say that with extensive contribution from BioCote® and the remaining involved partners, the project team won the “Innovation in Materials” award!

Project AMICABLE is a 12-month Innovate UK funded project which set out to produce a lightweight, permanently antimicrobial grab pole for use in public transport. This innovation addresses two widely recognised issues: the need to improve customer confidence, post-Covid, in the safety of mass transport systems, and the need to decarbonise transport.

The lightweight antimicrobial grab poles will be used in a wide range of public transport applications, such as bus, rail, underground and tram, including in the new prototype vehicles of the Coventry Light Rail system.

The poles themselves will be retrofittable, which means they can be fitted into new vehicles, and they can also replace existing steel poles in buses and the Underground.

Whilst the project initially focuses on public transport applications for improved hygiene and a reduced risk of cross-contamination, there is the potential for the materials to be used on cruise ships, medical furniture or wherever there are public-facing surfaces.

The project is led by Derby based manufacturers Composite Braiding and funded by a £480,000 Innovate UK Smart Grant scheme. The project team also includes researchers from WMG, University of Warwick, product designers Transport Design International Limited, Promethean Particles and the Health and Safety Executive.

Congratulations to all winners at the awards ceremony for their outstanding achievements in the composites industry!