Rising numbers for BINDT Aerospace events
13/08/2015
In April 2015 at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield, the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) Aerospace Committee held its most successful Aerospace Event (formerly the Aerospace Forum) to date. With over 122 delegates at the event itself, plus additional visitors to the one-day exhibition, the event organisers, participants and Institute as a whole were extremely pleased with the success of the event, particularly as it has progressed so rapidly over such a small period of time.Having been inactive for several years, the Aerospace Committee was reformed in 2009 after 27 members of BINDT responded to an email sent by the Institute requesting expressions of interest in reviving the Committee.
In 2010, the Aerospace Committee held a one-day Aerospace Workshop the day before the BINDT West of England Branch’s Aerospace Symposium. The aim was to bring together composites structural designers, stress experts, production managers, quality managers and NDT experts, to debate and decide on relevant NDT techniques for inspecting wrinkling in composites. It was also a way of testing the waters for a much larger event they had planned for the following year.
In 2011, the Aerospace Committee introduced its first stand-alone two-day Aerospace Forum in Bristol, designed to be quite different from the biennial Aerospace Symposium. On each of the two days was a workshop, Level 3 forum, new technology session and a session on new materials, covering topics such as ultrasonic phased array inspection, fibre-metal laminates and NDT of aerospace composites, to name a few. The event attracted an impressive 65 delegates.
In 2012, the Committee planned and delivered another one-day Aerospace Workshop to run alongside the West of England Branch’s Aerospace Symposium. The number of attendees for the workshop increased by over 80% compared to the 2010 event.
The second BINDT Aerospace Forum took place in 2013, this time at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. This was another two-day event, which included an exhibition on the first day that was host to 12 exhibitors, with the forum itself attracting 44 attendees.
In early 2015, both the Aerospace Committee and the West of England Branch decided to change the name of their individual events. Although both events are still biennial and treated as separate events, from 2015 onwards they will each be known as BINDT Aerospace Events. The Aerospace Committee will continue to hold its one-day workshop alongside the West of England Branch’s BINDT Aerospace Event.
The 2016 Aerospace Event, due to take place from 12-14 April in Bristol, will be the previously known Aerospace Symposium and after the success of the 2014 event, which saw 143 delegates and 35 exhibitors, a further increase in numbers is expected.
For more information about BINDT Aerospace Events contact the Aerospace Committee or the West of England Branch via the BINDT website: www.bindt.org, or alternatively contact the BINDT Conference and Events Department at: conf@bindt.org
