WHAT WE DO

Bright Lite Structures has developed a unique patent pending carbon fiber composite technology that is lighter, more versatile, less expensive, and faster to manufacture than conventional composite fibers. The unique structure of the patent pending BLS composites makes them stiffer, more flexible and lighter weight than conventional composite fiber materials, providing our customers with an attractive value proposition.

Bright Lite Structures offers a unique combination of design, development and manufacturing services to producers of durable goods and consumer products with a primary focus on autos. We assist our customers in designing components utilizing the propriety BLS technology that will meet desired performance characteristics. We fabricate prototypes and manufacture finished components at our production facilities in Peterborough, England. As an example, we designed, developed and are commercially producing the chassis for the Zenos E10 sports car. For other auto OEM’s, we have designed, developed and made prototypes of chasses and other components.

THE TECHNOLOGY

The BLS composite fiber technology is based on proprietary structures, which blend carbon fiber and other materials of varying densities. The resulting mixed structure produces the benefits of conventional carbon fiber materials, but is 15-20% lighter and demonstrates substantially greater versatility. The BLS structure requires less resin and less carbon fiber than conventional composite fiber, which combine to cut total material costs. There is often significantly less material waste in the BLS component production.

The BLS fabrication cycle is substantially shorter than with conventional composite materials and is suitable for higher volumes than traditionally associated with carbon fiber. Our proprietary composite materials do not require some of the costly equipment required for some conventional composite production, such as autoclaves. Our manufacturing cells can be quickly set up adjacent to the assembly facilities of our customers such auto OEM’s.

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LEADERSHIP

 

Rick Holman, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director

Mr. Holman was president and CEO of Industrial Origami from 2003 to 2009. Mr. Holman has extensive experience as a COO and CFO including as a founder of Pictos Technologies, Zing, Photoloft, Northwest Broadcasting and Stainless Steel. Mr. Holman earned a B.A. from Haverford College, an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of “Do Capital Intensive, High Volume, Continuous Production Manufacturing Methods Inhibit and Deter Product and Process Innovation?”

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Antony Dodworth, Chief Technology & Manufacturing Officer and Managing Director

Antony Dodworth, Chief Technology & Manufacturing Officer and Managing Director.  Mr. Dodworth co-founded Bright Lite Structures. His career in the automotive industry began in 1985 at March Engineering working on Indy 500 chassis engineering. 

 

He moved to Leyton House where he continued to develop his expertise in advanced materials for F1, and then moved to McLaren in 1990 as Composite Engineer to develop chasses for F1 sports cars.  This led to work on the acclaimed McLaren Cars F1 road car. Mr.  Dodworth then became Chief Designer for International Automotive Design (IAD) in Barcelona where he designed and built multiple concept cars.  He joined Hyundai’s European design office and was head of concept engineering. 

 

In 2000, Mr. Dodworth joined Rolls Royce and Bentley Motor Cars, and worked on the original Bentley GT.  He also worked as a Studio Engineer for Futura Design and became Bentley Principle Research Manager where he remained until 2011.  Mr. Dodworth lectures extensively on composite fibers, including Manchester University, Nottingham University and Madrid University.  He also serves on the boards of composite fiber industry associations and has been Co-Chair of the ACE Conference. 

Mr. Dodworth has designed, worked on and built chasses including the March Indy 500 car, Leyton House F1, McLaren F1, the first McLaren F1 road car, the Hyundai Coupe Concept, the Cadillac Cien, the Jaguar F Type concept, the Bentley GT concept, the Bentley GT, the Bentley GT convertible, the Bentley Supersport, the Bentley Mulsanne and the Bentley T35 as well as a number of confidential concept chasses. 

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Chris Gaffney, Advisor

Chris is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Great Hill Partners. His investment experience covers a broad group of industries including logistics, software, business services, IT and online services, financial services, consumer services, media, cable, telecommunications, education and insurance. Chris serves on the Board of Directors of IntApp, Inc., Credibility Corp., All Web Leads, Inc., and Recruiting.com. He has served on the Boards of Vitacost.com, Inc., SmartMail, LLC, BuscaPé, Inc., Central Security Group, Inc., Ziff Davis, Inc. and IGN Entertainment, Inc., among others

As an advisor to Bright Lite Structures, Chris brings a curiosity about new technologies and next generation manufacturing processes, in particular the faster and more cost-efficient manufacturing processes that Bright Lite has developed. Chris has worked with more than 50 companies lending advice and help on scaling businesses to meet the demands of enterprise-class customers.

 

Our Staff

Much of our success in designing and fabricating composite carbon components is dependent upon the collective process-knowledge and knowhow of our leadership and engineering personnel. As a group we have almost 100 years’ experience in working with carbon composite materials and 125 years in manufacturing of durable goods, particularly in our focus area of automobiles. All members of our current management and engineering team have worked together in automotive design and manufacturing capacities for at least 8 years and some for more than 30 years.