Industrial innovation department launched
23 Dec 2016 by Evoluted New Media
The National Physical Laboratory, the UK’s measurement institute, has launched a new engineering and manufacturing division to accelerate industrial innovation.
The National Physical Laboratory, the UK’s measurement institute, has launched a new engineering and manufacturing division to accelerate industrial innovation.
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Instruments Division will use its world-class instrumentation and expertise to improve quality, productivity and efficiency. It will also receive £1.5m to develop a new machining centre and state-of-the-art laboratories.Dr Peter Thompson, CEO of the National Physical Laboratory said: “NPL supplies instruments to industry to give organisations confidence through traceability: from vibration facilities at the ESA which will help test and improve satellite performance, to environmental mobile labs which give confident measurements of greenhouse gases. The launch of our Instruments Division gives industry access to our unrivalled measurement capabilities, underpinning prosperity and productivity.”
The NPL has more than 600 measurement scientists and work with both public and private organisations – such as NASA, the Ministry of Defence, DEFRA and the ESA.
It has also helped DEFRA create tools to monitor methane. Professor Ian Boyd, chief scientific advisor at Defra said: “Accurate monitoring of atmospheric gas emissions is a key input to sound policy decisions. NPL’s sophisticated remote sensing lab-on-wheels, DIAL, is an example of a unique instrument which has been used by DEFRA as a tool to provide reliable methane monitoring at landfill sites across the UK.”
The NPL is based in Teddington, Middlesex and has been home to scientists such as Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, Robert Watson-Watt, the inventor of radar and Louis Essen who developed the world’s first atomic clock.
