Meet the TWI Team at Farnborough Airshow

Dr Charlotte Blake is the Senior Defence Sector Manager for Aerospace clients at TWI as well as the Equipment, Consumables and Materials sector. With a technical background in Additive Manufacturing, Charlotte has worked across Powder Bed Fusion, Powder Directed Energy Deposition, and EHLA technologies. After leading management of the Manufacturing Metrology Team at the University of Nottingham and the Midlands Centre for Data-Driven Metrology, Charlotte returned to TWI in 2022 to join the Membership team and focus on ensuring maximum benefit for new and existing members of TWI in her sectors. Charlotte is passionate about STEM outreach and has contributed to many programs in the past, including Pint of Science, Soapbox Science and People Like Me. 

Vito Di Pietro is an engineer in the manufacturing industry, working on bridging the gap between market and research. He has a master degree in Electronic Engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy. He coordinated several international research projects on innovative technical solutions, and helped companies developing and implementing digital manufacturing processes.

Vito started working at TWI Ltd. in 2020 as Senior Project Leader, working on friction welding and electron beam welding and their implementation in production. Today, he works as Growth Manager, Space, in Business Development at TWI.

Chris Wiseman is Corporate Sector Manager at TWI Ltd, for both the Aerospace and Equipment, Consumables & Materials sectors. He also has a specific geographic responsibility for TWI Industrial Members in India and in supporting TWI’s exciting growth there.

As a Materials Scientist, over many years, he has contributed to a number of technologies, including, corrosion prevention, thermo-mechanical forming, novel testing, process optimisation, joining and surface treatments.

Today his role is focused on developing technical and commercial opportunities for TWI and its Industrial Members around the World.  

Abbasi is material scientist (PhD) with engineering background (BEng and MEng) and 15 years of R&D experience in highly regulated industries, such as medical device, automotive, pharmaceutical, aerospace, novel testing instruments, data storage, power generation and materials safety. As well as having written 35 peer-reviewed journal papers, 3 granted patents and 3 book chapters, Abbasi has presented his work in 53 national/international conferences. He is a reviewer for material science related international journals.

Abbasi is leading projects investigating EV battery joining processes, diffusion bonding, powder sintering, micro joining, low thermal mass heater devices, electroless plating, wire bonding, brazing of biomedical implants and developing electrical/mechanical testing capabilities for EV battery joints at TWI. 

Rory recently joined TWI as the Associate Director of Key Accounts & Sectors. He will serve as the focal point for business development across the group and identify opportunities for TWI’s technology experts to meet its members’ technical challenges.

Rory is an accomplished business leader and strategist with over 30 years of industry experience in capital equipment in-service support and asset management. In the last 20 years, Rory has been at a senior level, holding directorial positions in operations and sales and as a managing director. During his career, Rory has worked with most of the major UK defence companies, gained awards for achieving operational excellence, and helped companies grow organically.

Dr Melissa Riley has a B.Med.Sc degree in Biomaterials, and PhD in Metallurgy and Materials from the University of Birmingham, in magnetic materials for medical and dental applications. Melissa is a Consultant within TWI’s Surfacing, Corrosion and Interface Engineering team. She has worked at TWI for over 21 years on a wide range of projects for TWI’s Industrial Members relating to the development and application of thermal spray coatings, and other coating technologies.

Her work has included application and performance evaluation of wear and corrosion resistant coatings, ceramic coatings, bearing materials and more novel coatings and applications, including leading TWI’s work on the development of coatings on composites, where she has led development of coatings for lightning strike protection, EM shielding and functional coatings such as metasurfaces for aerospace and defence applications. She has also been instrumental in setting up a number of new facilities to support TWI Members in the upscaling and manufacturing development of surface engineering technologies for industrial applications and assess coating performance.

Melissa is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Kate Franklin is the Team Manager of the Friction and Forge Processes team. Kate has a degree in Materials Science and a Ph.D. in Structural Metallic Systems for Gas Turbine Applications from the University of Birmingham. Kate’s research was undertaken in collaboration with Rolls-Royce Plc and focused on friction welding of nickel super alloys for aero engine applications.

Kate joined TWI as a Senior project Leader, in this role she was responsible for leading numerous friction welding projects employing a variety of materials for a range of industrial applications. Kate has been responsible for numerous projects in the aerospace and space industry, from Friction Stir Welding tanks for hydrogen storage to Linear Friction Welding aero and space structural components. As well as working with clients to research and develop friction welding processes for novel applications, she also considers design for manufacture and joint integrity. As the Team Manager Kate oversees Rotary, Linear, and Friction Stir Welding technologies at TWI as well as the revolutionary CoreFlow™ technology.

James Redman joined TWI in September 2012 and is a Principal Project Leader in the Thermal Processing Technologies (TPT) section. James has 9 years of working experience as a materials engineer, as well as a MEng (Hons) from The University of Sheffield in this field.

James has been carrying out diffusion bonding projects and research for the last 3 years, and led the research programme for the development and patenting of the surface preparation technology that enables aluminium diffusion bonding. James leads TWI’s diffusion bonding technology offering (of which TWI has over 60 years experience) and has investigated a multitude of different alloys and joining techniques. In addition, James works heavily in the field of vacuum brazing, ranging from the manufacture of complex components, to research into dissimilar materials joining, including ceramics.

Richard joined TWI Technology Centre Wales in February 2010 as a Senior Project Leader after a career in both commercial and university based research and development. Richard is currently responsible for the management of a team of research engineers delivering a portfolio of direct industry and collaborative research council funded projects covering the broad subject of non-destructive testing and evaluation. This role covers the technical development and delivery of NDT solutions for railway, military and aerospace applications. Richard currently holds CSWIP Level 2 UT, CSWIP Level 2 PAUT, and CSWIP Level 1 ACFM qualifications.