Research facilities
Continuous investment in new research facilities
In the last year the department has made a number of important investments in research laboratory facilities including:
- A new Surface Engineering Lab housing materials degradation, corrosion, adhesion, abhesion and related facilities
- A new furnace room containing a collection of 26 high temperature (1300-1700°C) furnaces, including tube and box conventional type as well as microwave and hybrid examples
- A new advanced lightweight carbon ceramic composites lab
- A new sample cutting, polishing and preparation room
In addition the department has another 26 dedicated research laboratories, each with their own special purpose and equipment.
Find out more about our research, processing and test facilities »
Advanced materials characterisation
Loughborough Materials Characterisation Centre (LMCC) is located within the Materials Department of Loughborough University. The purpose of the centre is to provide a high quality materials characterisation facility to support research within Loughborough University, the wider academic community and for industrial clients.
It has a wide range of analytical techniques, some of which have capabilities unique within the UK. The main areas of expertise are Electron and Optical Microscopy, Surface Analysis, X-Ray Diffraction and Thermal Analysis. The facilities are supported by a team of specialists who enable researchers to gain the maximum benefits from the instrumentation.
The LMCC not only makes use of sophisticated analytical techniques but continues to develop new methods and capabilities. It has worked with leading instrument manufacturers to help them improve their products and shift the boundaries in materials analysis.
Find out more about the LMCC »
Kit Catalogue
"For the first time in one place, a convenient, searchable data resource, listing all the materials related research equipment across the entire university"
Kit Catalogue builds on the success of the Materials Research School Equipment Database, which has catalogued materials research equipment across the whole of Loughborough University. A wide range of equipment is featured from the majority of schools and departments. There are currently over 850 pieces of equipment listed with new items being added constantly. This is now in daily use providing materials researchers with a short cut to finding the equipment they need, saving money and time as well as gaining extra information and knowledge from other users and articles linked from within the database.
Recognising the potential for both optimising the use of equipment and environmental benefits of the database, Loughborough University’s Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (engCETL) successfully bid for project funding, under JISC’s Greening ICT programme, to build upon the existing equipment database. This new project, named Kit-Catalogue, aims to further reduce potentially costly duplication of equipment within HE institutions, instead maximising the use of equipment across the organisation, and will facilitate the sharing of resources across institutions. Furthermore, the system can also be opened up externally, allowing companies and other third parties to utilise equipment.
The Kit-Catalogue software will be released under an open source license, so other HE institutions will be free to install and deploy their own equipment databases.
Read more about Kit Catalogue »