Innovating for global solutions

Chemring Energetics UK

Chemring’s purpose is to help make the world a safer place. Across physical and digital environments, our exceptional teams deliver innovative protective technologies to detect and defeat ever-changing threats.
For Chemring, innovation is about creating world-class solutions and developing world-class thinking. Chemring Energetics UK’s (CEUK) Explosives Chemist, Dr Alistair MacCuish, explains some of the industry challenges he and his team are helping to solve. 


“Here at CEUK, we develop pyrotechnic actuators for the fire suppressant systems in factories and restaurants. And our devices are found in civil aircraft around the world, for example, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, where they play an integral role in emergency oxygen systems.”

“My role as an Explosives Chemist is to work with the engineering team to understand their requirements for a particular product. My team and I then work to formulate a powder that would create the right kind of explosion for the device. We recommend a mixture and then go through extensive experiments and trials before approving the final product. It’s a long but fascinating process.”


Finding solutions to global problems

And it’s not only customers and engineers who present Alistair with new challenges to solve. Potential changes to Government legislation provide the explosives industry with global challenges. Continues Alistair, “We’ve recently collaborated with DOSG, QinetiQ and Edinburgh University to present a paper on lead-free devices such as igniters, electrical fuses and detonators. This was shared at the International Conference on Special Topics in Chemical Propulsion & Energetics. And here at CEUK, we’ve just taken on three bright, young chemists who are also tasked with helping to tackle this issue. It’s a huge concern for the industry and can only be addressed collectively with our combined skills and knowledge.”