Facilities

STS has established its own luminescence laboratory and enjoyed access to additional laboratory space at Imperial College London through studentship programmes. The STS laboratories include a mobile high-power class-4 laser, a high temperature furnace (up to 1700°C) and a photo-multiplier-based measurement system. Further, STS has a unique thermal gradient burner test rig for 24/7 testing of advanced coating designs under realistic gas turbine conditions.

Most importantly STS owns two Rolls-Royce Viper 201 engines located in a dedicated testing facility outside Central London at Cranfield University. One of these engines is operational and is equipped with six optical access ports while one engine acts as spare parts. This unique engine test bed facility is employed to perform instrumentation testing and can be used as a test vehicle for the development of various other engine relevant components.