Over the last forty years I have been lucky enough to have experienced a unique career researching and developing composite materials, in both industry and academia, during a time of unprecedented expansion in the global composites business. Over that time, I have been involved in areas as diverse as the development of new and novel fibre and composite products through to fundamental materials research. My research efforts have been focussed in three main areas; the fibre-matrix interface region, fibre reinforcements and in particular glass fibres, and the structure-(re)processing-performance relationships of reinforced thermoplastics. The published output of that work is collected together in this series of volumes.

The challenges faced by the experimental scientist in composite materials ranges across many scales from nanoscale to macroscale and across many disciplines from glass science, physical and organic chemistry, polymer science through to mechanics. Generating new knowledge and understanding across this spectrum of subjects often requires the development of new, or modification of existing, testing and characterisation methods. Along the way it is often necessary to re-examine the accepted understanding of existing test methods and the in-depth researching of new materials can often lead to new and improved understanding of the analysis methods themselves. The 26 papers collected in this volume summarise a forty year journey through the analysis and characterisation of fibres, sizings, interfaces and composite materials.