News

This year, we have been celebrating highlights from the year and also bringing some news for 2025! All 12 days of our countdown are listed below with our bespoke animation. We hope you enjoy them:

12 Working days to go

From the number 12, today we are recapping Stop and Reflect by our Marketing Director Hannah Khusainova, reflecting on 2024 as her 12th year working at PRF:

“Founded in 1982 (before I was born), PRF has always been a part of my life. It is part of our family, and working in the business has both increased my passion for the brand, and also my awe and respect to my parents for 40 years of building a brand that still honours the principles it was founded on: highest quality materials, advanced and innovative products, exceptional customer service and doing business based on integrity.”

You can read the full article at: https://www.composites.media/stop-and-reflect

11 working days to go

Today we are celebrating the experiences of 11 year old Edward, who came to work with us in summer this year to gain some valuable experience in our amazing industry:

“Composite Engineering is now one of the career paths I am considering for my future. I think we should be doing lessons on it in school. We should start learning about it much earlier on.”

PRF are a proud signatory of the Composites UK Skills Pledge, and are fully committed to working together towards engaging and inspiring the future generations of composite engineers.

10 working days to go

Continuing our countdown, today is dedicated to our fantastic team into which we have welcomed 10 new members this year! At its heart, PRF is a family business and we care deeply about our team. It is wonderful seeing our team grow and also supporting flourishing new and developing careers in the composites industry. 

We have also said goodbye to our dearly missed colleague Andrea, who passed away in November this year. We take with us her shining example of bravery and living every day to the fullest into 2025 and onwards.

9 working days to go

Today is brought to you by the number 9! We successfully completed our ISO 9001 audit this year and are in the process of completing our first full audit for ISO 14001 Environmental. Watch this space for news once we have completed our certification in this important environmental standard!

Quality has always been at the forefront of product development and service at PRF. Since the foundation of the company, we have sought to work with products of the highest quality, knowing that improving quality improves not only the components produced, but also contributes to efficient manufacturing - saving our customers time and money. 

We are also deeply committed to minimising our environmental impact; we are investing in product development, manufacturing innovation and operational improvements to lower not only our impact at every stage – but to help our customers to do the same. 

You can read more about our Quality Assurance commitment and Sustainability philosophy and activities here on our website.

8 working days to go

Supplying kits into 8 industries, spread across 12 countries, we are incredibly proud of our dedicated kitting team – who are on average converting approx. 100,000sqm of material each year into kits, stored ready for just-in-time delivery to our customers.

You can find out more about our kitting service, supplying prepreg and dry reinforcement kits to our customers’ requirements, on our website (link in comments below) or connect with our team for more information.

7 working days to go

From the number 7: We are taking a moment today to shine a deserving light on our class-leading RP570 series. Ok, it’s a stretch, but we can’t really leave out this remarkable, innovative series of products that have been spotlighted this year!

Launched in 2014, our original RP570 eXpress cure epoxy prepreg system was ahead of its time. With a complete processing of 4 minutes at 140C by heated press (with no heating of the mould tool), this prepreg system had to wait a moment for the industry to catch up with it. Now, with the advent of high volume manufacturing (HVM) in the manufacture of composite components, we have seen a significant drive this year for RP570 and also the fire-retardant version RP570 FR, launched in 2023. We also launched RFA570 eXpress cure adhesive film for core bonding to accompany this family of prepregs – which was shortlisted for a Composites UK Industry award this year for Innovation in Materials, and have recently launched RP570 FR REEPREG – our new fire-retardant eXpress cure prepreg material made with recycled carbon nonwoven mat.

For more information and a fantastic article and video made with our friends at Pentaxia Limited, see below:

For our eXpress cure video: https://www.prfcomposites.com/videos/prf-composite-materials-showcase-express-cure-prepreg-systems-and-hvm-capabilities-pentaxia
For our Need for Speed article in Composites in Manufacturing: https://www.composites.media/the-need-for-speed

6 working days to go

For 3 years now, we have been material sponsors to the ThrustWSH project, supplying prepreg materials for their exhibition model and also the C3.2B running model. We are excited to now announce that we are signed up as material sponsors of the C6 ThrustWSH boat! This will be the manned vessel that will attempt the world water speed record, for which PRF will proudly supply prepreg materials!

For more information on ThrustWSH and our involvement, please follow the links in the comments and look out for our video early next year highlighting construction of the C3.2B model with our prepreg materials.

5 working days to go

Today we are highlighting our +5°C prepreg storage project. 

At PRF, we are challenging industry norms on prepreg storage, having conducted a two-year trial to determine optimal prepreg storage conditions. Against an industry standard storage temperature of -18°C, our study concluded that our standard component prepregs have a life of about 1 year at +5°C. On this basis, we have changed the storage information on our the majority of our prepreg systems: giving 2 years’ storage at -18°C and 9 months storage at +5°C (on average with some safety built in), and 6 months at +5°C for RP549. These adjusted storage guidelines offer significant sustainability benefits and also cost savings for our customers.

We are looking at sustainability from all angles, including processing energy consumption, plastic consumables, packaging and storage - with the aim to help our customers lower energy-per-part. 

You can read more on our website.

4 working days to go

Coming in at number 4 are our 4 manufacturing sites! 

We opened our fourth manufacturing site in 2021, and during 2024 we have been behind the scenes working on repurposing our original kit cutting facility into a brand new Product Development and Innovation Centre!

This new centre will be focussed on innovative product development, with a fully equipped process laboratory, an additional prepreg line and pilot line – which will allow us to push the boundaries further with our prepreg innovation. This will also create a situation where we are able to manufacture prepreg on 3 separated sites, mitigating risk in our supply of materials.

We expect this new centre to be fully operational by the end of Q1 next year – watch this space for news and make sure you follow us on LinkedIn to be the first to know!

3 working days to go

Our Christmas countdown continues... and at number 3 we are reviewing the 3 fantastic composite tradeshows we enjoyed exhibiting at this year, including JEC World 2024, the International Composites Summit and Advanced Engineering UK.

JEC World is always a highlight in the composites calendar, and this year was no exception. We were excited to launch new resin film products at JEC show this year, and then debut a new stand at the International Composites Summit, where we also sponsored the Networking area. Finally, we had a fantastic show at Advanced Engineering, where we headline sponsored the Composites Zone and presented twice on the Composites Forum. We also hosted Richard Noble OBE and the ThrustWSH project on the Composite Networking area and for a Q&A about the project.

When the UK and European composites industry comes together, it is impossible to escape the feeling of being at a big family reunion, and it is wonderful to have tradeshows like these to celebrate our vibrant and innovative industry! And you can join us for our next show in March: JEC World 2025!

2 working days to go

With only 2 working days to go now, we are celebrating our 2nd year of shortlisting for the Composites UK Industry Awards, in the category of Innovation in Materials.

We’ve been honoured to be shortlisted in this category for the second year running particularly as innovation is one of the areas we strive to remain at the forefront of. For over 40 years now, we have worked with the philosophy of doing things differently: not just producing alternatives of the same, but of looking at the market and working with our customers to:

- develop improved materials
- offer improved processing
- help create improved products

This is how, as an industry, we advance.

This thinking informs everything we do at PRF, from our product development to our sustainability activities, to our manufacturing & operations. 

We look forward to sharing our new innovations with you all in the coming year!