Case Studies

Even relatively small passenger planes have wingspans and fuselages exceeding 35 m in length, and larger, more modern aircraft can exceed 50 m or more. Due to the size of components in aviation, and many other industries, these must be correctly assembled, tracked and error mapped or ‘calibrated’ in situ. To do this requires th...

Nanoparticles are becoming increasingly used in a wide range of areas, and thus are expected to soon have a significant economic and environmental impact. In health they are used for targeted drug delivery, and in the energy sector they are used in photovoltaic technologies to improve solar cell efficiency compared to conventio...

Many industrial sectors involve processes that undergo dynamic changes in temperature and pressure. One key area is the automotive sector where around 99.8% of all global transport is powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs). It has been estimated that improvements in engine designs have the potential to reduce fuel consum...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a diagnostic, mainly qualitative, technique used to visualise the soft tissues of a patient. The application of a strong magnetic field causes the protons in a patient’s hydrogen atoms to align with it. Radiofrequency pulses are then used to force the protons to move out of and back into alig...

Measurements underpin almost all areas of modern life, including trade, industrial manufacture, environment and health. However, no measurement is perfect — factors such as the instrument type, operator, measurement method or the environment can affect the returned results. All these factors combine to produce a ‘measurement un...

Around 12% of electricity consumption in the world is used for lighting. More efficient systems have the potential of allowing Europe to save up to 34 TWh of electricity by 2030, reducing CO2 emissions by 7 million tonnes per year. Incandescent lights – where electricity flowing through a thin metal filament, such as tungsten, ...