Exhibitor Spotlight: Cranfield University

Friday, 3 July 2026

An Associate Partner of the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials. Together with industry, Cranfield’s Centre for Materials pioneers real-world, sustainable, materials innovation; from self-healing polymers (vitrimers) that reduce waste, to breakthroughs in hydrogen, robotics, AI, and aerospace.

Please sum up in a short paragraph what your company’s products and services entail?

Cranfield’s Centre for Material’s expertise in surface science, advanced materials, precision engineering and composites advance material design, characterisation, manufacture to performance evaluation. With 40 materials laboratories, Cranfield develops new technologies and tailor-makes solutions with industry, saving costly capital investment. For funded access to our facilities find out about equipment access schemes.

Which industries benefit most from your materials or solutions?

We help solve R&D material challenges in aviation and space, energy and the hydrogen economy, automotive, defence, the circular economy, AI and robotics, and materials for extreme environments.

What trends in advanced materials excite you the most right now?

You would get a different answer from each person on our stand; our technicians, academics and students investigate novel materials science and applications each day in their respective fields. But for each of us, it is the impact that research has in real world applications. And, if we have to pick two: with our unique new Henry Royce Institute-funded gaseous and liquid hydrogen materials testing suite, the team is excited to be involved in setting the standards for materials testing to be used across the value chain in the growing hydrogen economy. And we’re working on new self-healing polymer formulations (vitrimers) and where the potential impact for aerospace, electronics, automotive and energy sectors is game-changing.

What products, services, technologies or materials are you showcasing at The Advanced Materials Show this year?

This year we’re showcasing our state-of-the-art materials discovery and innovation, assisted by characterisation and testing equipment and expertise. Spanning metals, ceramics, polymers, composites and nanomaterials, these facilities are available for commercial contract research and development; to Master’s and PhD students solving industry and society’s materials challenges; and they inform the latest continued professional development short course material. Some of the highlights are:

• a combined atomic layer deposition and physical vapour deposition (ALD/PVD/ALD) machine*,

• a continuous carbon nanotube fibre and wire manufacturing facility,

• graphitisation furnace that operates at 2,200°C,

• a multi-element large-area plasma deposition facility and,

• our new hydrogen testing suite*.

*funded through the Henry Royce Institute Equipment Access scheme.

What types of partners or customers are you hoping to connect with at the show?

Research and development managers, technical officers, chief engineers, and early career researchers working in large OEMs, RTOs and SMEs, who’re looking to upskill their workforce, and/or invest in developing sustainable materials to improve product efficiency and component longevity.

What’s the one message you hope attendees take away after meeting your team?

If you need help with a materials challenge, contact Cranfield University’s Centre for Materials k.koziol@cranfield.ac.uk

What are you most looking forward to about The Advanced Materials Show?

The volume and seniority of industry professionals attending, who are operating from small to big scales and have real challenges, its the ideal opportunity for us to discuss solutions to their material problems. It’s at these events where you meet people face-to-face that things really start to happen.

Visit Cranfield University on stand 409 at The Advanced Materials Show 2026.