Dr Quentin Fontana
Telephone: |
07969 784 804 |
E-mail: |
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I am a freelance
consultant having set up my own business in March 2014; I specialize in
composite materials and collaborative research programmes.
I have over twenty five
years of industrial experience working on composite materials research mainly
related to the development of materials and processes with British Aerospace
(now BAE SYSTEMS) and then
Advanced Composites Group (ACG), which subsequently became Umeco and later
Cytec Industrial Materials. I was a
Senior Project Manager, Collaborative Research and Technology, therefore I am
ideally suited to provide the
following services:
Drawing-up of research proposals for funding
Formation of collaborative research consortia
Advice on composite materials and tooling
Scientific and technical support
I also worked for Haydale Composite Solutions
as a Collaborative Research Manager looking at enhancing composite materials
through the use of functionalized nano-particulate additions including carbon
nano tubes and graphene.
I am a materials scientist
by background with a first degree in Metallurgy and Materials from Imperial
College and a PhD in composite materials from the University of Cambridge.
á Established and respected member of the advanced composite materials community.
á Extensive knowledge of advanced composite materials.
á Broad network within industry and academia.
á Strong industrial research background.
á Experience of UK and European-based collaborative research programmes.
á Excellent record in project management with 100% project completion rate.
á Proven record in financial management of projects with annual budgets exceeding £1.3M.
á Good record of successful bids for funding.
á Good problem-solving and analytical skills.
á Good communication skills including presentation skills.
á Ability to work individually or as part of a team.
á High level of professional integrity.
á High degree of computer literacy.
BSc (Eng) Metallurgy
and Materials, with Second Class Honours (Upper Division) and Associate of the
Royal School of Mines; Imperial
College, University of London, 1985.
Doctor of Philosophy:
University of Cambridge; October 1990; thesis title: Speed
and Temperature Effects in the Energy Absorption of Axially Crushed Composite
Tubes.
I am Secretary to the
Board of the British
Composites Society, a Technical Division of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining
(IoM3); my work with the BCS has also included organizing
international conferences.
I am on the Editorial
Board of the journal Advanced
Manufacturing: Polymer & Composites Science.
I have authored or
co-authored a number of publications
reflecting some of the technical work that I have covered.
I have given a number
of presentations at international conferences.
I also hold a patent: Shahidi
Ebrahim Gharvam, Fontana Quentin: A sealing device, and corresponding method of
sealing, for providing a seal on a collapsible mould tool. Advanced Composites
Group January 2006: GB2415754.
Whilst with Advanced
Composites Group I gained considerable experience in managing collaborative
research. The majority of my work was in the aerospace industry but I also
worked on a wide range of projects aligned to a number of other industrial
sectors such as infrastructure, marine, automotive and renewable energy. I
worked closely with a number of top UK and European universities, many UK and
European companies including SMEs, as well as all of the major European
airframe manufacturers. I gained a reputation for successful project management
leading to 100% completion of the projects for which I was responsible.
Proposals that I was involved in preparing had a very good rate of success in
gaining funding.
I have had significant
technical input into the projects that I have covered in a range of areas
including: tooling design and manufacture, process development, process
modelling, material property database generation, finite element modelling,
material development, nano particulates, thermal control, multifunctional
materials, ceramic matrix composites and multi-functional materials.
The projects with which I have been involved have been either UK-based with funding through the Technology Strategy Board (or its predecessors) or pan-European projects with European Commission support funding through the Framework Programmes.
UK Projects
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This project
aimed at developing a capability for designing tooling to account for
processing distortions to allow for a right-first-time component. This
project won a JEC
innovation award for software in 2008. |
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A follow-on
from Precimould Plus with an emphasis on warpage predictions during
processing. |
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PhysViz |
Innovative use of
computer gaming techniques to predict real-time draping of fabrics over
composite moulds. |
New Materials
for Energy Efficient Tidal Turbines, this aimed to improve materials and
design for tidal turbine blades with an emphasis on improving the fatigue
behaviour. |
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A follow-on
from NEW-MMEETT which aimed to improve the resistance to moisture ingress
during long-term immersion of tidal turbine blades in seawater. |
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CMC |
Development of
prepreg-based production for an oxide-oxide ceramic matrix composite material
for power generation gas turbine engines. |
This was to design
and build a demonstrator of deep-sea recovery buoyancy caissons with
highly-controllable buoyancy through the use of cryogenic gases. The project
was very successful with a capability of controlling the depth of the
buoyancy caisson to within half a metre while giving a lifting capacity of
five tonnes. |
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A NATEP project
which used functionalized nanoparticles in an epoxy resin to enhance
electrical conductivity and greatly improve the performance of carbon
fibre-based composites during a lightning-strike event. |
European
Projects
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A cooperative programme for SMEs with
the emphasis on safety enhancement in composites. |
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An aerospace-sector project which designed
and manufactured and tested a fully-wound fuselage section from a business
jet. |
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Development of multifunctional capabilities for
composite materials to enable structural components to store electrical
energy. |
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An infrastructure project aimed at developing
technology to produce motorway bridges via off-site manufacture of parts
selected from a catalogue, these parts, including the structural beams,
barriers and decking. |
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A broad project looking at
multi-functionality in composite laminates through selective properties in
the different layers; for instance, tailoring thermal conductivity to allow
for more effective de-icing of aircraft wings and enhancing the outer layers
whilst tailoring thermal conductivity to improve fire resistance. |
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Concentrating on lightning-strike protection
in commercial aircraft, this project aimed to improve the electrical conductivity
of composite components in the through-thickness direction through the
addition of nano-particulates, such as multi-walled carbon nano tubes and
grapheme, to the matrix resin. |
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A project based on improving smart tooling
for composite materials; my work was looking into the effectiveness of
thermal control systems for non oven-based processing of prepregs and liquid
infusion processing. |
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A space-sector project looking to develop
technology for a Martian rover. My work involved the improvement of
through-the-thickness thermal conductivity of high-performance cyanate
ester-based composites through the addition of grapheme and other nano
particulates into the resin. |