Contact Andrew Mills
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 750111 x2405
- Email: A.R.Mills@cranfield.ac.uk
Background
After studying Materials Science at Nottingham University, he has 28 years’ experience developing advanced composite structures and enabling manufacturing technology. Initially joining British Aerospace, for the development of ailerons for the Airbus A320; the first UK designed commercial aircraft carbon fibre structures. At Courtaulds Structural Composites, he was responsible for new applications development for a resin transfer moulding manufacturing facility; including X ray machine components, radar equipment and aircraft interiors. He joined Cranfield in 1991 to lead the Airbus UK composite wing research project AMCAPS which developed novel materials and process technology for large carbon fibre wing manufacture; now certified and flying on the Airbus A380. Since then he has worked on applications research projects with many UK design and manufacturing companies.
Recent Awards
The Engineer 2011 Aerospace Innovation Award
BAE SYSTEMS 2011 Chairman's Silver Award
Current activities
Andrew Mills leads the Composites Manufacturing Research Group within the Enhanced Structures and Composites Centre. This is focused on the investigation and development of cost effective manufacturing technology for lightweight composite structures in partnership with industry. His current applications research projects are for unmanned aircraft structures with BAE SYSTEMS and sports car bodies with McLaren Automotive and with the launch of the EPSRC CIMComp Innovative Composites Manufacturing Centre he is leading the research on CFRP to metallic structures joining and software tools for materials and process selection and design for manufacture of CFRP applications. Within the new Composites Industry Cluster (CiC) supply chain initiative AMSCI programme, he is leading the development of software tools for design using carbon fibre composites, involving materials and process selection and component detailing to enable low cost manufacturing.
Clients
EPSRC, DTI, TSB, Energy Technologies Institute, Airbus UK, BAE SYSTEMS, Bombardier, GKN, MBDA, BAE SYSTEMS, Lotus Cars, Reynard Engineering, McLaren Automotive and Racing, Bentley Motors, FORD, Nissan, Caterham Cars, Cranfield Aerospace, Hexcel Composites and CYTEC.
Publications
Articles In Journals
- Hernandez TPA, Mills AR & Yazdani Nezhad H (2021) Shear driven deformation and damage mechanisms in high-performance carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastic and toughened thermoset composites subjected to high strain loading, Composite Structures, 261 (April) Article No. 113289. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.12302153
- Jiang Q, Chen G, Kumar A, Mills A, Jani K, Rajamohan V, Venugopal B & Rahetekar S (2021) Sustainable sandwich composites manufactured from recycled carbon fibers, flax fibers/PP skins, and recycled PET core, Journal of Composites Science, 5 (1) Article No. 2.
- Fielding JP, Mills A & Smith H (2010) Design and manufacture of the DEMON unmanned air vehicle demonstrator vehicle, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 224 (G4) 365-372.
- Mills AR & Jones J (2010) Investigation, manufacture, and testing of damage-resistant airframe structures using low-cost carbon fibre composite materials and manufacturing technology, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 224 (G4) 489-497.
- Guo S, Morishima R, Zhang X & Mills A (2009) Cutout shape and reinforcement design for composite C-section beams under shear load, Composite Structures, 88 (2) 179-187.
- Mills A, Patel Z, Dell'Anno G & Frost M (2007) Resin transfer moulding: Novel fabrics and tow placement techniques in highly loaded carbon fibre composite aircraft spars, Sampe Journal, 43 (3) 67-72.
- Mills AR (2006) Development of an automated preforming technology for resin infusion processing of aircraft components, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 220 (G5) 499-505.
- Frost M, Solanki D & Mills AR (2003) Resin Film Infusion Processing of Carbon Fibre Composite Automotive Body Panels, SAMPE journal, 39 (4) 44-49.
- Potter KD, Davies R, Barrett M, Godbehere A, Bateup L, Wisnom M & Mills AR (2001) Heavily Loaded Bonded Composite Structure: Design, Manufacture and Test of 'I' Beam Specimens, Composite Structures, 51 (4) 389-399.
- Mills AR (2001) Automation of carbon fibre preform manufacture for affordable aerospace applications, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 32 (7) 955-962.
Conference Papers
- Hernandez TPA, Mills AR & Yazdani Nezhad H (2018) Comparative study of strain energy storage mechanisms between carbon fibre-reinforced peek and epoxy composites subjected to static and cyclic loading. In: 18th European Conference on Composite Materials (ECCM18), 2018, Athens, 24-28 June 2018.
- He H, Zhu Z, Tiwari A & Mills A (2015) A cascade of linguistic CMAC neural networks for decision making. In: 2015 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), Killarney, 12-17 July 2015.
- Weiland F, Weimer C, Katsiropoulos C, Pantelakis S, Asareh M, Cartié DDR, Mills AR, Skordos AA, Dufort L, De Luca P & Pickett AK (2009) Manufacture of a rotor blade pitch horn using binder yarn fabrics. In: 17th International Conference on Composite Materials, Edinburgh, 27-31 July 2009.
- Mills AR, Hurley JMS & Jones JA (2009) Carbon fibre materials, design and processing for low cost damage resistant wing structures for unmanned aircraft. In: High Performance Composites for a Changing World SETEC 09 SAMPE Europe Technical Conference, Wotton-under-Edge, 17 September 2009.
- Asareh M, Mills AR & Cartié DDR (2008) Investigation of preform manufacturing techniques using novel binder coated carbon fibre tows. In: 13th European Conference on Composite Materials, Stockholm, 2-5 June 2008.
- Guo S, Morishima R, Zhang X & Mills A (2008) Cutout and flange reinforcement of a composite c-section beam against stress concentration and buckling. In: 49th AIAA Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Schaumburg, IL, 7 April 2008.
- Mills AR (2005) Novel Performance and Moulding Technology for Affordable Composite Aircraft Component Manufacturing. In: 35th International SAMPE Conference, Dayton, Ohio, USA., 15 February 2005.
- Mills AR (2004) Novel preforming and moulding technology for affordable composite aircraft component manufacturing. In: 25th Jubilee International SAMPE Europe, Paris, 30 March 2004.
- Frost M, Commin L, De Blic A, Lazarus SD & Mills AR (2004) Braided Carbon Fibre Composite Tubes for Energy Absorption using Low Cost Manufacturing Methods. In: 25th Jubilee International SAMPE Conference, Paris, 30 March 2004.
- Mills AR, Hogg P & Leong A (2003) Novel Preforming and Moulding Technology for Affordable Composite Aircraft Component Manufacturing. In: 35th International SAMPE Conference, Dayton Ohio USA, 28 September 2003.
- Castanos A & Mills AR (2002) Analysis of Multicell Braided Composite Joints. In: Future Car Congress, Hyatt Crystal City, USA, 3 June 2002.
- Mills AR, Frost M & Castanos A (2002) Development of a carbon fibre composite ultra lightweight vehicle structure for the aero-stable carbon car - fastframes. In: SAE 2002 World Congress and Exhibition, Detroit, MI, 4-7 March 2002.
- Mills AR, Frost M, Castanos A & Cousins SH (2001) Development of a carbon fibre composite ultra lightweight vehicle structure. In: Lean weight Vehicles 4, Gaydon, Warwick, 1 January 2001.
- Guo S, Morishima R, Dhande R & Mills A Design improvement and experiment of a sandwich T-joint structure. In: 51st AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Orlando, Florida, 12 April 2010.
Books
- Mills A (eds), (2001) Composites Manufacturing Processes, ASM Handbook.
