Babcock launches £2.4 million composite test facility with Edinburgh university
19 Mar 2019
Babcock international is partnering the University of Edinburgh to launch a £2.4 million engineering composite test centre.
The Fastblade facility will be hosted at the company’s Rosyth dockyard and form a cornerstone of the company’s strategy for innovation and product development.
The company said It will be the first test facility of its kind in the world designed to carry out large-scale accelerated testing of tidal blades. Testing will employ complex forces to simulate environments in order to limit the risks for product developers, while pioneering measurement systems will create test datasets to understand damage accumulation and optimise blade structures.
Neil Young, a technology director at Babcock, commented: “For us, this really is a great industrial partnership. Our engineers, working alongside the university’s renowned academics, have shown what the art of the possible is, in engineering and in working together.
“Whilst we are still at the early stages of development, we are creating something that will have real benefits for all the companies using the facility in years to come.”
The site is funded in part by contributions from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the university itself.
Edinburgh university’s School of Engineering head and leader of the research activity, Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh, said: “This collaboration is an opportunity to develop a world-class engineering facility to accelerate and support the development of new efficient technologies, and will be a great benefit to the tidal energy sector.”
This is Babcock’s third university industrial partnership. The company also collaborates with Cranfield and Strathclyde on industrial projects.
