History of the WCPC
The Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating was founded in 1994 by Professor Tim Claypole MBE and Professor David Gethin, who were both lecturers in the then ‘Department of Mechanical Engineering’ who came to Swansea University from industry.
In the early 1990s they were approached by a large magazine printer from the East of England who wanted to investigate recurring quality issues. This led to a large project which resulted in a successful resolution for the company. It was at this stage that both Tim and David realised that the department contained the specialist knowledge to support the printing industry.
To make industry aware of the capabilities of the department at Swansea University a specific research group was created called the ‘Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating’. The original objective of the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating was to provide Postgraduate research projects which would also benefit the printing industry.
Award Winning
During the last few years the WCPC has been involved in a range of successful TSB, FP7, EPSRC, Welsh Government and company funded projects, a number of which have been recognised for the following awards:
- 2008 Michael Bruno award by Technical Association of the Graphic Arts
- 2009 A special award for outstanding contribution to flexographic printing by the European
Flexographic Technical Association
- 2010 saw Professor Tim Claypole awarded an MBE for services to the printing research in the New Year’s honours list
WCPC
- In 2009 The DIPLE project won a major European “Regio Stars” award for the best project in the category of Research, Technological Development and Innovation.