Electronic & electrical engineering Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering

The Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering (CUE) has over 30 years of expertise in the design and implementation of ultrasonic transducers and transducer systems across a broad range of industrial sectors. Our multi-disciplinary research team combines work on engineering, materials and biology into innovative transducer system solutions. As a result, CUE is well placed to meet the increasingly stringent demands for future ultrasonic technology development and is an important contributor towards Scottish and UK economic development.

The Centre addresses markets in non-destructive testing, industrial process ultrasound, condition monitoring, automation, underwater sonar and biomedical applications. We have expertise in ultrasonic transducer manufacture, system prototyping, instrumentation hardware, system simulation, robotics, metrology, data processing software and image analysis.

We are a founding member of the UK Research Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE) which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and industry.

The Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering also founded the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Ultrasonic Engineering (FUSE) with partner Centre for Medical and Industrial Ultrasonics at the University of Glasgow. FUSE offers a number of fully-funded PhD and EngD studentships to train the leading ultrasonic experts of tomorrow.

Research themes

Non Destructive Evaluation & Condition Monitoring

Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and Condition Monitoring are crucial to the ongoing security and safety measures across all industrial sectors. CUE has a broad range of research and knowledge exchange activities underpinning technological advances in these important thematic areas related to ultrasonic transduction and autonomous systems.

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Bioacoustics

We investigate the mechanisms of biological acoustic systems in order to inspire new developments in our acoustic and ultrasonic engineering work. Our aim is to achieve the levels of sophistication, sensitivity and functionality found in animal acoustics in engineered systems. Such bio-inspired systems have the potential to improve the industrial use of acoustic sensors and actuators. Uses range from miniature microphones, non-destructive testing of materials to robot guidance.

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Transducer Design, Manufacture & Characterisation

We have an international reputation for our pioneering work in ultrasonic transducer technologies for use across many industrial sectors. We have expertise in the design, materials, manufacture and application of ultrasonic transducers, transducer arrays and transducer systems for underwater, high power, contact and non-contact applications spanning the frequency range 30kHz-10MHz. Moreover, we are now developing MEMS devices through our world-leading bioacoustics research activities.

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Industrial Process Control

We engage with industry and academic partners to design, characterise and implement bespoke ultrasonic reactor systems for application in the monitoring, classification and enhancement of many industrial processes.

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Robotics, NDE Automation & Metrology

We develop novel robotic solutions to solve real industrial problems across the aerospace, energy, nuclear and oil and gas sectors. Our research encompasses manufacturing robotics and fixed asset inspection and covers the entire system implementation, from path planning, metrology during operation, instrumentation, data processing and complex data set visualisation. Our aim is to provide engineers with the latest tools for product quality assurance through the integration of traditional NDE technologies with the latest advances in automation.

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Health

We are translating our core research expertise in ultrasonic transduction, signal and image processing and automated systems into the health services domain. We are working with local NHS and international partners on a range of new and exciting health applications.