A UNIVERSITY of Limerick research project that aims to make structures safer and stronger has been awarded €1.35 million in funding through the Science Foundation Ireland Investigators Programme.
The research could make nuts and bolts a thing of the past as it aims to develop new ways to join components
Principal investigator Dr Conor McCarthy explained: “Nuts and bolts have been used for centuries to join safety-critical structures together. However, bolts require holes to be drilled in the assembled parts and this leads to a drastic reduction in their ability to withstand the forces of nature and impacts from everyday use.”
He continued: “The component-joining industry in Europe is estimated to be worth over €100 billion annually, and it underpins a vast number of industries from aircraft manufacture to medical implants. Our research is developing an innovative solution to join components together by blending the best elements from bolting and gluing technologies. This novel solution will be reliable, reversible, cheap and efficient and we expect it will underpin the development of virtually every future component composed of different parts and materials.”
The University of Limerick is considered one of the world’s leading academic institutions on the subject of mechanical fastening of composites.
The project entitled ‘Fastener-less Joining Technologies for High Performance Hybrid Composites-Metal Structures’ has a number of collaborators such as the adhesives manufacturer Henkel; Dr Kevin Ryan, UL and Dr Gerard O’Connor, Director of the National Centre for Laser Applications at NUI Galway.
