TISICS :: Technology Overview

Pioneering a new class of materials for a circular economy

Innovation in high-performance metals

Our advanced composite components are the product of three core technical capabilities:
High perfomance ceramic fibre and net-shape fabrication (an additive manufacturing process), combining to produce high-performance metal composites which enable greater resource efficiency through lightweighting.

Ceramic
Fibre

Metal
Composite

Net
Shape

Our aluminium composites exceed the strength and stiffness of titanium, at 40% lower density, whilst our titanium composites are stronger and stiffer than high-strength steel.

This world-leading capability enables us to deliver to upto 70% weight reduction for high performance systems where strength, mass, corrosion resistance and temperature properties can be exploited.

Why Metal Composites?

Light Weight

Mass comparable to that of the Titanium or Aluminium base metal matrix but with up to double the performance per kilogram.

Stronger than Steel

Titanium composites have comparable tensile performance to 300M landing gear steel but up to 50% greater compression strength.

Robust Metallic Interfaces

Metal-to-metal interfaces maximise properties of the composite whilst enabling rapid system integration through standard joining methods.

Highly Durable

TISICS metal matrix composites have good fatigue life with very high compressive failure strength compared to CRFP & high damage tolerance through fibre reinforcement.

Corrosion Resistant

TISICS composites offer significant through-life benefits through corrosion resistance, enabling operation in harsh environments.

High Thermal Stability

Greater temperature stability compared to standard titanium and aluminium alloys achieved through ceramic reinforcement.

Ceramic Fibre

TISICS manufactures continuous silicon carbide (SiC) mono-filaments at our plant in Farnborough, UK. The high performance SiC fibre is produced by chemical vapour deposition, in 100µm and 140µm diameter variants.

Our team has been part of Europe's core expertise in SiC mono-filament development since the 1980s, providing an unrivalled knowledge base, from fundamental technology to finished components.

Net-Shape Manufacture

TISICS utilises net-shape, an additive manufacture process to form complex metal shapes with fully bonded joints, which typically cannot be achieved with conventional manufacturing processes.

TISICS' net-shape fabrication can vastly improve production time, cost, and sustainability by reducing processing time and material waste, compared with conventional approaches such as forgings and castings. Components achieve full densification, with minimal secondary machining as required.

Metal Matrix Composites

TISICS incorporates silicon carbide fibre into a metal matrix to form components. Like all composites, these fibre reinforced metals benefit from the properties of both the fibre and the matrix. The ceramic fibre provides extremely high strength and stiffness with little or no variation in performance over the full operating temperature of the component.

Metal composites are designed to provide load transfer through the composite in the final part. TISICS engineers work with customers to optimise component design and are experienced in delivering fibre architecture derived through finite element modelling.