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 23 papers collected in this volume summarise my more than thirty year journey through the research and development of fibre reinforced polypropylene. Of all the materials that I have worked on, PP based composites have been my favourite where all three areas of my research expertise had to be brought into play. The story starts with fundamental research to better understand the phenomenon of the transcrystallised interphase in fibre reinforced PP. It then moves on to structure-processing-performance of PP composites with emphasis on the development of long fibre technology. This includes the influence of fibre length, concentration, and diameter, and the use of glass and natural fibre as a PP reinforcement. Finally, throughout most of this collection, there is a continual focus on the characterisation and nature of adhesion of PP to fibres.