Rapid Prototyping

The Faculty has:

• a 100 watt laser cutter/engraver with a 1 metre square bed.
• Creality Ender 3 Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) printers:
  - 220 x 220 x 250 mm print bed, ±0.1 mm tolerance using PLA, non-soluble support material (4 machines).
• Markforged Mark 2 professional Continuous Carbon Fiber 3D polyamide printer:
  - 320 x 132 x 154 mm print bed, 100-200 μm print resolution, non-soluble support material.
• Stratasys Dimension 1200es: advanced industrial-standard FDM machine compatible with STL for ABSplus
  - build area of 254 x 254 x 305 mm and 1200es BST (breakable support) or 1200es SST (soluble support).
• NextEngine laser 3D desktop scanner.

The Advanced Digital Manufacturing And Innovation (ADMI) Centre has a range of first phase facilities located on the Plymouth Science Park.

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business has complementary facilities in their Digital Fabrication Laboratory.

Thermal Analysis suite

• Mettler-Toledo STARe System DSC3+
  (differential scanning calorimetry) -150°C - +700°C
• Mettler-Toledo STARe System TGA/DSC3+
  (simultaneous thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetry) +30°C - +1,600°C
• Mettler-Toledo Thermal Analysis System DMA1
  (dynamic mechanical analysis) -190°C to +600°C
• Mettler Toledo Thermal Analysis System TMA/SDTA 2+
  (thermomechanical analysis/simultaneous differential thermal analysis) -150°C to +1600°C

Composites Manufacture

Our laboratories are equipped with a range of manufacturing and test equipment:

• Aeroform/Roaches autoclave (200°C, 6 bar).
• Composite Integration Ciject^® One resin injection machine for polyester or epoxy.
• Composite Integration one-metre square glass fronted heated/cooled mould tool.
• JRD Bipel 50 tonne 400°C hydraulic press.
• Sharp and Tappin Compcut^® ACS300 advanced composite plate saw.
• Vacuum and conventional ovens.
• PhoCheck Tiger PID Datalogging Monitor Standard.
• SNOL 9/1100 vented muffle furnace for burn-off.
• Brookfield R/S-CPS rheometer with Peltier temperature controller.
• Flow Mach2 water and abrasive jet cutting system (1.3 x 1.3 m work envelope).
• UltrapierceTM assembly for composites.

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business has a Formech 686 vacuum forming machine.

Mechanical testing

We can test materials and components on a range of accredited laboratory machines.

Test programmes can be either quick stand-alone evaluations, composites 'forensic' work, or form part of a wider programme of work involving design or optimisation.

Our Structural Integrity Laboratory has a range of machines for tension/compression, torsion, fatigue and creep including:

• Instron 68FM screw-driven 300 kN universal testing machine
• Instron 5582 screw-driven 100 kN universal test machine
• Instron 3345 screw-driven 5 kN universal test machine
• Instron ElectroPuls E10000 10kN dynamic electromagnetic fatigue machine with torsion
• Instron ElectroPuls 3000 3 kN dynamic electromagnetic fatigue machine
• Instron MDS 666C high temperature chamber
• Instron high temperature 4-point bend rig
• Zwick/Roell Amsler HIT600F drop weight impact tester
• Dantec Q-400 digital image correlation system
• Barcoll, Rockwell, Shore, superficial and Vickers hardness

Materials characterisation and non-destructive testing

• Physical Acoustics Limited UltraPAC Mistra system tablet UT ultrasound C-scan
• NEC Avio Infrared Technologies Thermo Tracer TH7102WX
• Olympus Delta Professional (Alloy) DPO-2000-CC hand-held X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) with precious metal upgrade
• Olympus Panametrics Epoch LT ultrasonic flaw detector
• Sovereign Quantum survey meter
• Olympus eddy current flaw detector
• Tramex Skipper Plus moisture meter (user guide)

The moisture meters are held in the Faculty Project Store (SMB310)
and can be booked out via the Smarthub booking system.

Microscopy and surface quality assessment

The School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (SECaM) has a suite of microscopy and surface analysis equipment including:

• Bruker SkyScan 1174 x-ray micro-computer-tomography (located in the Electron Microscopy Centre)
• Zeiss EVO-15 electron microscope
• Olympus LEXT OLS3000 confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) with Table Stable TS-150 anti-vibration mounting
• Olympus BX60M and BX61 optical microscope with ColorView Soft Imaging System
• Wave Scan Dual surface quality measurement

Polymer recycling

• Plastell by Matoha portable plastic identification NIR (near infrared) scanner
• 3devo AIRID polymer dryer
• 3devo Composer 450 filament maker
• Ray Ran MFR300 Microprocessor Melt Flow System

Complementary facilities in the Faculty of Science and Engineering

• Digital Fabrication and Immersive Media Laboratories (DFIML)
• Lovelace System high-performance computing
• Nanomaterials and devices Laboratory
• Plymouth Electron Microscopy Centre

Complementary facilities on the South West peninsula include:

• Mistal 600V hexapod 500 kg payload (ORE Supergen)
• Composite Test & Evaluation (Honiton)
• Product Assessment and Reliability Centre (Bideford)
• Scymaris (Brixham)
• Toshiba EMC Laboratory (Plymouth Science Park).

Created by John Summerscales on 26-May-2026 and updated on 11-Aug-2026 12:53.