Cranfield University

Cranfield Manufacturing and Materials is following an ambitious strategy by developing a roadmap for a Sustainable Manufacturing Sector for 2050.

Home / Our Partners / Cranfield University

We provide world-class and specialist research, education, training and consultancy, and play a key role in ensuring that the UK remains at the cutting edge of manufacturing and materials research.

Our aim is to apply fundamental science and thought leadership to solutions, expressing the philosophy of “Smart, Clean and Green” across all manufacturing and materials sectors. We work closely with industries from aerospace to automotive, pharmaceutical to bio-engineering, and construction to railways, supporting all tiers of the supply chain with SMEs and OEMs.

We are unique in our multi-disciplinary approach by bringing together design, technology and management insights. We are a driving force for both the rapid growth of established areas of manufacturing expertise and the development of new research areas.

Royce at Cranfield University offers a complete package of expertise on coating systems from conceptual design and manufacture to performance evaluation in extreme environments.

The work we do has a multitude of benefits, including reducing inspection times, increasing component life, better selection of materials/coatings and informing designers for improved design. All of these contribute positively to reducing environmental damage through reduced wastage (increased component life), increasing engine efficiency (burning less fuel) and using more sustainable alloy and coating systems.

Royce at Cranfield Website

Core Facilities

NHTSEC

The National High Temperature Surface Engineering Centre (NHTSEC) at Cranfield University is a world-leading centre of excellence in design and manufacture of high temperature coatings and assessment of materials performance. The core competencies of NHTSEC include high temperature coatings design and manufacture (PVD, EB-PVD, CVD, Thermal spray and electroplating), materials performance assessment (oxidation, corrosion, stress-corrosion, corrosion fatigue and erosion) in tailored environments (including hydrogen) and oxidation and corrosion life modelling.

Learn More

Technology Platforms

Royce Technology Platforms, which sit within our Research Framework, are groupings of cutting-edge facilities and expertise.

Materials and Coatings for Extreme Environments

The Royce Deposition System is a multi-chamber, multi-technique facility for thin film growth. Comprised of four deposition chambers connected via ultra-high vacuum transfer chambers, the System allows for different deposition techniques to be combined. This platform can create multi-layered thin film exploiting interfaces between different types of materials. These interfaces open up new physics and the possibility of new functions for devices.

Learn More

Material Systems for Demanding Environments

The vision for this research area is to provide material system solutions to address the needs of energy and transport sectors.

Material Systems for Demanding Environments focuses on developing novel coating solutions, including coated light materials solutions for electrification, coating against hydrogen pick-up, and coating for extending temperature capabilities. This development brings new understanding of material ageing through environmentally relevant testing and characterisation, and the integration of mechanistic modelling contributing to Materials 4.0.

Progress in this area will enable new power generation concepts, dramatic improvements in efficiencies and reduction in waste leading to an overall reduction in emissions.

Learn more