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Manufacturing Futures Lab

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Research Facilities and Equipment

The MFL laboratories and workshops are equipped with start-of-the-art equipment supporting multi-disciplinary manufacturing-focused research. This underpins a wide range of academic and industrial collaborations and consultancy activities.

Three UCL East MFL Lab images in a row
Drawing on a rich range of fundamental engineering skills, MFL researchers work across the biological, chemical and physical sciences in a series of specialist research pods. Each of the research pods is equipped with state-of-the-art research and analytical equipment shared between the MFL academic staff. The equipment is also available to support collaborative activities with academic and industrial colleagues.

Research and teaching activities within MFL are supported by a specialist Precision Fabrication Workshop (PFW) staffed by four, highly-skilled, Workshop Manufacturing Engineers. The workshop offers a complete design, development and manufacturing service for novel scientific equipment that cannot be obtained commercially. The focus is on computer-aided design and manufacturing systems (CAD/CAM) for rapid progression from prototype to final device. The PFW is located on the ground floor of the Marshgate building and is equipped with a wide range of precision fabrication equipment including a range of 3 and 5-axis milling machines, lathes, 3D printers and laser cutters.’

 A summary of the specialist research and analytical equipment in the various research pods is provided below: 

  •  Microfabrication and analysis equipment 
  • Additive manufacturing (high resolution 3D-printing) 
  • Automated continuous flow reactors and liquid-handling robots 
  • Fermentation (to 30L scale) and associated downstream processing equipment 
  • On-line process analytical technologies (e.g. UV-Vis, Raman and mIR spectroscopy, etc) 
  • Chemical analysis instrumentation (e.g. GC, HPLC, GC/LC-MS, AES, NMR etc) 
  • Materials characterization instrumentation (e.g. AFM, BET, DSC, TGA, DLS, XRD, rheometer, contact angle measurement etc) 
  • Fluid flow and visualization (high speed cameras, PIV, micro-PIV) 
  • Glove boxes (controlled atmosphere experimentation) 

Further information