Evaluation of issues for small and medium-sized enterprises in the use of advanced and green engineering materials

The aim of the research is to identify and evaluate the issues for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise's (SMEs) with the use of Advanced and Green Engineering Materials (AGEMs); determine if the issues are linked to the previous use of an AGEM, or restricting the uptake of AGEMS; and investigate the issues with 5 individual AGEMs. The research identified trends by surveying firms from the construction industry. An online survey tool, Survey Monkey, was used to distribute and collect the survey. From the survey results, the leading issues for: AGEMs in general; AGEMS previously used by SMEs; and AGEMs not previously used by SMEs, was found to be a made up of seven common issues, with the leading issues changing depending on the category examined. The leading seven issues were: 'Experience', 'Cost of Materials', 'Standards or Codes', 'Availability', 'Material Properties', 'Evaluation Methods' and 'Perception'. The assortment of issues tended to depend on whether SMEs had used an AGEM before or not; with intangible issues decreasing and tangible issues increasing with use. Experience appears to be the leading issue to restrict the uptake of AGEMs and should be the first issue Manufacturers consider correcting. Which could reduce the length of awareness time prior to use of AGEMs and decrease a number of other intangible issues. The examination of individual AGEMs agreed with the cumulative picture of issues with AGEMs and would require further research for more in depth analysis