Research & Development

Research in various aspects of polymers, including their processing, has been carried out in the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s for over 25 years.  During this time substantial investment has been made in establishing and maintaining state of the art processing and analytical facilities. 

Building on the long established processing expertise at QUB in rotational moulding and polymer extrusion and extends into the complementary processing technologies of injection moulding, blow moulding and thermoforming, the Polymer Processing Research Centre, PPRC, was established in 1996 with assistance from the local development agency Invest NI (formerly IRTU) to carry out and support leading edge, industrially exploitable, fundamental and applied R&D to demonstrably improve industrial competitiveness. 

In 2002 there followed the establishment of the Medical Polymers Research Institute MPRI which provides a forum for collaborative work between Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and colleagues from Pharmacy concentrating on research in the field of new polymeric materials, products and processes for the medical devices and drug delivery industries. 

In addition to working directly with industry in carrying out R&D as well as knowledge and technology transfer programmes and the provision of training courses, staff in the Centre work closely with academic colleagues in the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering on a wide range of research programmes. 

For a complete list of processing and analytical facilities and equipment housed in the Centre, as well as the services offered, please select appropriate heading from drop down menu.