The Polymer IRC Laboratories at Bradford provide a coherent, internationally leading Polymer Research grouping; genuinely interdisciplinary, with major academic collaborations worldwide, and major industrial involvement in our research.
Our research addresses significant global and local societal and commercial needs particularly in the areas of:
- medical technology -
- materials and devices for tissue and joint repair,
- biomedical materials, including bioresorbable and shape memory materials,
- drug eluting implants and fixations,
- drug delivery technologies,
- minimally invasive surgery technologies
- prosthetics and gait;
- precision manufacturing (micromoulding and conventional moulding) for
- control of surface features and properties, including antimicrobial surfaces and drug delivery techniques such as micro needles,
- telecommunications, optics and anti-counterfeiting,
- automotive and structural parts in polymer composites;
- solid phase orientation polymer technologies for property enhancements for
- medical devices, such as tissue fixations and arterial stents,
- building products (see Eovations LLC) ranging from decking to hurricane-resistant building products;
- 3-d printing for novel manufacturing using multiple streams of polymers
- resource efficient materials including upcycling for food containers, thermal/acoustic barriers and enhanced properties for high added value;
- modelling of novel processing and product performance in all of the above sectors.
We are a world leading research laboratory for process structuring of polymers, polymer composites/nanocomposites, biomaterials and pharmaceuticals, with novel and conventional materials processing. Our 4500 sq m area laboratories (see plan here) include: 40 advanced manufacturing computer monitored lines for melt phase, solid phase and reactive processing and 3-d printing; a clean room for nanomaterials and pharmaceuticals processing; cell culture and extensive physical and chemical characterisation over the length scales, and computer modelling of polymer melts and solids. We have wide-ranging academic collaborations and currently work with over 150 companies (see our Bradford Industry Group). We also have major International presence, with particularly strong presence in China - see our International pages. We are also very concerned to develop a Circular Economy for Plastics - see our web pages here.
In Bradford, we cross the engineering, physics, chemistry and life sciences boundaries, hosting focussed but overlapping research centres as shown in the diagram below:
