Engineering technical facilities

Discover the technical facilities for Manufacturing, Electrical, Mechanical and Civil Engineering students at UWE Bristol.

Our technical spaces will help you develop essential skills for your future career, and to familiarise yourself with industry-leading equipment and tools.

Find all the essential information you need on accessing and booking the technical resources, best practice guides for project work as well as contact details for our technical staff who can offer advice and support.

Engineering students being shown how to use technical equipment in a lab.

Manufacturing engineering

CNC machining

In Z block, we have a enclosed CNC machine capable of machining metals and some other materials. The machine is computer numerically controlled, working with our partner post processor, FeatureCam, to create and run machining programs. Areas covered include:

  • computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools
  • Solidworks
  • computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE)
  • CNC software.

Access and booking

  • Location: 1Z032, Z Block
  • Booking: Contact the related technician
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Related technicians

Composites

The Composites Lab is a purpose-built space where you can make high-quality composite parts. There is a selection of glass, kevlar, flax and carbon fibres available. We also have a limited selection of pre-preg fabrics.

Access and booking

  • Location: 1Z030, Z Block
  • Booking: Contact the related technician 
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Related technicians

Engineering Workshop

This space has an array of machines, tools, and experience available to help you achieve most general engineering tasks.

Access and booking

  • Location: Z block
  • Booking: Fitting Shop and The Atrium no booking needed. Manual Machine Shop contact the related technician.
  • Opening hours: Fitting Shop and The Atrium are open 24 hours a day. Manual Machine Shop is open Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00.

Locations

  • Manual Machine shop: 1Z032
  • Fitting shop: 1Z027
  • Atrium ground floor: 1Z001

Related technicians

Metrology

With our coordinate measuring machine (CMM) you can ensure the parts you are making meet any tight tolerance you might have, accurately measure tooling, and even quantify the surface finish.

Access and booking

  • Location: 1Z032, Z Block
  • Booking: Contact the related technician
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Related technicians

Rapid prototyping

This space has open-access 3D printers, available to all students who might need access to one during a project. You'll find the classic set-up of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers that use the material PLA for printing models.

In the Advanced Rapid Prototyping Lab you'll able to find an array of printers using a range of processes and materials.

Open access space

  • Location: 2Z005/2R026, Z Block
  • Booking: None required (instructions are in the room but you can also contact the technician, Drew Williams-Hicks, if you need support)
  • Opening hours: 24 hours a day

Advance Rapid Prototyping Lab

  • Location: 4Z004, Z Block
  • Booking: Contact the technician (Lucy Corfield)
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Welding

This is a fabrication space for welding metals together, involving Tig and Mig welding.

Access and booking

  • Location: 1Z033, Z Block
  • Booking: Contact the related technician 
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Related technicians

Electrical engineering

Digital gallery

You can use this simulation facility to explore digital models and engineering simulations within an immersive 3D environment. Areas covered include:

  • Industrial robots
  • Driving simulator
  • Virtual reality (VR)/Augmented reality (AR) cave
  • Flight simulator
  • VR headsets.

Access and booking

  • Location: 1Z005, Z Block
  • Booking: Contact technician Andy Hill
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Electronic software

This laboratory and maker space is there to support teaching in the electrical, electronics and robotics areas, including project work in hardware and software. Areas covered include:

  • Quartus
  • MPLAB/MPLAB X
  • MultiSim
  • ModelSim.

Access and booking

  • Location: The spaces are located in 0T135, T block and 3Z031, 3Z032, 3Z033, 4Z015, (Maker space) 3ZC006, Z block.
  • Booking/Opening hours: The laboratories are usually controlled by timetabling, but you can access workstations by contacting the technical staff. 

Related technicians

Electronics

This laboratory and maker space supports teaching in electrical, electronics and robotics areas, including project work in hardware and software. Areas covered include:

  • electronics hardware
  • PCB design
  • PCB routing.

Access and booking

  • Location: 3Z029, Z Block.
  • Booking: The laboratories are usually controlled by timetabling, but you can access workstations by contacting the related technicians.
  • Please email PCB routing design files to FET.Electores@ac.uk.

Related technicians

Engineering coding

Support for coding such as C#, C++, Java and Python. Areas covered include:

  • simulation coding
  • coding (advanced)
  • coding (basic).

Access and booking 

  • Location: 3Z029
  • Booking: Contact a related technician
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Related techinicians

Mechatronics

This lab is there to support teaching in Mechatronics, including project work in hardware and software.

Access and booking 

  • Location: 3Z013 and 3Z014, Z Block
  • Booking/Opening hours: The laboratories are usually controlled by timetabling, but you can access workstations by contacting the technicians (Nigel Cliff or Luke Bedford).

Mechanical and civil engineering

Material sciences

For technical support and testing of construction items made.

Areas covered include:

  • dynamics
  • Structures lab
  • Concrete lab
  • impressions
  • material science
  • DolphiTech
  • Leica Application Suite
  • Bluehill (Instron).

Access and booking

  • Booking: Contact the related technician
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00. Apart from the concrete lab which is Tuesdays to Friday 09:00-17:00
  • Location: Z block

Locations

  • dynamics: 3Z025 
  • Structures lab: 1Z015
  • Concrete lab: 1Z014
  • material science: 3Z019

Related technicians

Motorsports

This space supports testing of all components on engines and vehicles such as EV, hybrid, ICE and Automotive as well as testing of motorsport components including performance, dynamics and aerodynamics. Areas covered include:

  • engine test cells
  • motorsports.

Access and booking

  • Locations: Z block, N block
  • Booking: Contact the related technician
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Locations

  • engine test cells: 1Z006, 1Z007, 1Z008
  • motorsports: 1Z006, 1Z007, 1Z008, 3Z025, 1N59(a) 

Related technicians

Thermofluids

This area supports testing fluid dynamics and the use of Labview software. Areas covered include:

  • wind tunnel
  • thermofluids
  • Labview.

Access and booking

  • Location: Z block, N block 
  • Booking: Contact the related technician
  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00

Locations

  • wind tunnel: 1N59(a) 
  • thermofluids: 2Z003
  • Labview: 27003, 3Z020

Related technicians

 

Engineering facilities

A room full of engineering machines

Machine room

Concrete lab in Z Block

Concrete lab

A student testing electronic circuit board

Electrical engineering research

An electronic circuit board

Electronic engineering

Formula student racing team

Formula student racing team

Engineering room with lots of students

Gallery

Rapid prototyping examples

Rapid prototyping examples

Two pupils playing with prototype drone

School outreach

Student electronics work station

Student electronics work station

Five students and an instructor in a fabrication workshop

Student fabrication engineering

Students testing wind tunnel

Student wind tunnel testing

Warehouse

Warehouse

A room full of engineering machines
Concrete lab in Z Block
A student testing electronic circuit board
An electronic circuit board
Formula student racing team
Engineering room with lots of students
Rapid prototyping examples
Two pupils playing with prototype drone
Student electronics work station
Five students and an instructor in a fabrication workshop
Students testing wind tunnel
Warehouse

Getting started

If you’re not 100% sure how or where to begin with your project, we’ve got you covered with our quick-start guide.

Getting started

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Engineering facilities at UWE Bristol

Engineering facilities

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