The New Engineering Building on the NUI Galway campus is a dedicated 14,000 m2 facility for engineering teaching and research. This includes state‐of‐the‐art engineering laboratories with a wide range of equipment for testing, imaging and processing. The facilities include custom designed and built facilities such as a dynamic wind turbine test rig and a wiffletree frame for large blade testing. Researchers at NUI Galway also have direct access to the Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC) large scale computer (7680 core), for advanced computational modelling and simulation of material behaviour, manufacturing processes and in-service component performance.  A more detailed catalogue of equipment is given below:

  • A range (10N to 100kN load capacity) of static and dynamic axial test machines (Zwick, Dartec, Instron)
  • Axial-torsion testing machine (Instron)
  • Biaxial tensile tester
  • High-frequency fatigue machine (Enduratec)
  • Strain‐controlled high temperature (100oC) low cycle fatigue test rig (Instron)
  • Nanoindentation tester with Atomic Force Microscopy
  • Modern dedicated sample preparation and imaging lab
  • Advanced microscopy suite, including 3D micro-CT (5 μm resolution )with an in-situ tensile test rig
  • Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy machines (located in the Orbsen Building)
  • Large structures test cell (250 & 750 KN hydraulic actuators, see image)
  • Stereo Digital Image Correlation (full field strain measurement up to 1m2)
  • Video and contact extensometers
  • Differential Scanning Colorimeter
  • Universal stress rheometer
  • Coordinate Measurement Machine
  • Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analyser
  • Pin-on-Disc Tribometer
  • Sinterstation 2500plus powder bed fusion 3D printer
  • Suite of desktop material jetting 3D printers (e.g. Robox)
  • Drop-weight impact tower (3.5m)
  • Conditioning tanks with water temperatures (up to 65° C)
  • Environmental chambers for use during tensile testing.