Nylacast and Partners Win Prestigious Rushlight Award

Nylacast and collaboration partners TTI, Brunel University and EMEC (European Marine Energy Centre) received the ‘Rushlight Responsible Product or Service Award’ at a ceremony which took place at the Royal Geographical Society in London, UK. Now in their 11th year, the Rushlight Awards are a celebration and a promotion of new technology, innovation and best practice across the whole environment spectrum for organisations throughout UK, Ireland and internationally. Designed to highlight innovation, initiatives and the holistic environmental benefit of technologies that are most likely to or are already creating a real impact in the market, they are a means of disseminating the successes to support further development. The 2018 Rushlight Awards were attended by national and international guests and contributors to the energy industry and included Republic of Korea Ambassador to London, Joonkook Hwang and Claire Perry, Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth. The judging of the Rushlight Awards was performed by an independent panel of recognized experts covering all the clean technology sectors drawn from academia, trade associations and institutes, independent experts and government departments. Nylacast and partners were presented with the award in recognition of the work carried out on the development of innovative mooring connectors designed under the STORM (Specialised Thimbles for Offshore Renewable Marine Energy) project, funded by Innovate UK. The STORM project focuses on developing a lightweight connector using advanced materials technology, specifically a hybrid material. Developed by Brunel’s Experimental Techniques Centre and the Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology, the material called Basaltium, forms the core of the innovative connector which is made from aluminium which has been recycled and strengthened through the use of tiny basalt fibres. This core is coated with a custom formulated cast nylon material designed and manufactured by Nylacast. The outer material adds a range of advantages including low friction, lightweight and corrosion resistance. The innovate UK funded project – STORM – organised a Marine Moorings Masterclass the following day which was held at Brunel University, London. Through discussing existing industry challenges and solutions, the Marine Moorings Masterclass aimed to identify the existing gaps and needs of the industry, in addition to encouraging new partnerships to form and develop further R&D projects around moorings in order to tack this vital component within the offshore energy industry. Damien Mccormack, Managing Director of Nylacast Engineered Products who was present at the Rushlight Awards also delivered a practical session during the Marine Moorings Mastercalss on Material Testing and Integration.