The Research Council UK together with PraxisUnico gave ASDEC (The University of Leicester’s Advanced Structural Dynamics Evaluation Centre) the “Overall Winner 2015” prize at their annual Impact Awards having earlier recognised that ASDEC had also made the best “Contribution to Business” in 2015.
ASDEC is a business built on the expertise of the University of Leicester in 3D laser vibrometry and modal analysis. The facility consists of a laser vibrometry testing rig which is unique in the UK and one of only three in the world that are commercially available. ASDEC employs the newest and most effective way of measuring vibration, laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV). This depends on very accurate measurement of the deflection of laser beams as they strike a vibrating object. The reflected laser reveals the deflection of the target. Reducing vibration is the aim of design engineers across multiple industries, a goal often obstructed by the difficulty of obtaining good measures of vibration as it happens.
ASDEC is based on the MIRA Technology Park near Nuneaton in the West Midlands. MIRA is an cluster of automotive research businesses so it is no surprise that a healthy pipeline of business from the companies around it has been developed. However the ASDEC facilities and expertise can be applied well beyond the automotive sector, with power generation, aerospace, precision engineering and many others sectors all benefiting from the ASDEC expertise.
General Manager at ASDEC Tim Stubbs says, “Winning the Overall Impact Award makes a very clear statement that we have well and truly arrived. It recognises the excellent work which has been done in marrying the expertise of the University with the needs of engineering industry and developing a facility and associated consultancy expertise which is now making a major impact at a very important frontier of engineering. Our task now is to maximise the use of this facility by all UK engineering sectors to allow them the competitive advantages of being able to use modern structural dynamics testing to develop market dominating products.”
Research wins in the real world
The University of Leicester's ASDEC has been recognised as making the most important contribution to UK Business of any research commercialisation or knowledge exchange activity in 2015.
