Polymer CIC Facilities
The CIC is hosted in substantial (>2000m2) world-class polymer engineering laboratories. These contain a wide selection of modern, high technology state of the art and novel processing and characterisation facilities, with a unique range of capabilities worldwide. These include:

8 injection moulding facilities
13 extrusion lines
micromoulding; in line micromoulding compounding;
computer monitoring (melt temperatures, pressures, ultrasound, energy)
process spectroscopy for material assessment (IR, Raman, UV fluorescence)
flow visualisation/ process imaging
computer modelling of processes and products
material and product characterisation (rheology, tensometry, imaging, laser scanning, AFM, surfaces, fibre orientation)·
extensive digital video facilities

Examples of benefits:
A major regional company in the biomedical area has benefited recently from our advanced materials and processing expertise, running trials which related to novel material formulation and successful micromoulding of products; in association with this programme, we have also involved a UK SME with process technology skills to partner in building a novel processing facility which is highly suited to handling small amounts of novel or difficult to process materials.