Swansea University

Swansea University recently moved their engineering departments from their long term home at Singleton Park to a new purpose built campus based on the Swansea Bay.

Swansea University’s Bay Campus is situated on a 65 acre former BP Transit site in Neath Port Talbot on the eastern approach into Swansea and has the distinction of being one of the few global universities with direct access onto a beach and its own seafront promenade. The Campus provides academic, student accommodation and research space

Colleges based at the Bay Campus include the College of Engineering and the School of Management. Facilities include the Tower Information Centre, home to central support services for students, a state of the art Bay Library, the Students’ Union, facilities and meeting rooms and an impressive Great Hall will house an auditorium for 700, lecture theatres and a cafe offering magnificent views across the Swansea Bay towards Gower and Baglan Bay. There is an extensive catering provision throughout the campus including cafes, bars and a restaurant, retail units include a mini market, laundrette and cash points. All of this is in addition to recreational sporting facilities and a beach, for all to enjoy.

GUNT Technology Limited (GTL) worked with the academics, technicians and support services over a period of time leading up to the opening of the Bay campus to ensure that all their engineering equipment requirements were addressed in the best possible way. This included providing standard equipment but also where becessary providing bespoke and newly designed and nuilt equipment required by the University.

Once the orders were placed the GTL team ensured that all deliveries were handled professionally and assisted with locating the equipment in the correct laboratories and that they were set up and working correctly. Initial familiarisation of the equipment was done at the time followed by full and complete training on each kit to ensure proper usage of all the equipment.

Ongoing support of the equipment and discussions on current and future requirements continue.

To that end the college of engineering laboratories can be found to have a plethora of G.U.N.T. equipment for the students to use in order to get a better understanding of the fundamentals of engineering in many disciplines.

The following provide an idea of what GTL have supplied to the new campus:

Swansea University
CE 610 Comparison of Distillation Columns equipment as seen set up in the chemical engineering laboratory in the new Swansea Bay campus

Fluids Laboratory

  • Open and closed channel flow
  • Specially adapted small flumes
  • Hydraulic benches and associated modules:
    • Vortex formations
    • Osborne Reynolds
    • Weirs
    • Bernouilli’s Principal
  • Aerodynamics Trainer

Structural Laboratories

  • Mounting frames with modules:
    • Deformation of frames
    • Parabolic Arches
    • Three hinged arches
    • Forces on a suspension bridge
    • Forces in an overdeterminate truss
  • Static and Dynamic balancing apparatus
  • Buckling behaviour of bars
  • Deformation of straight beams

Mechanical Laboratories

  • Gas Turbine Jet Engine
  • 2 kw power output engine test beds

Chemical Laboratories – Small Pilot Plant Equipment

  • Bespoke comparison of distillation columns
  • Gas absorption
  • Water treatment Plant
  • Fault finding in control systems
  • Wet cooling tower
  • Heat pump trainer
  • Axial steam turbine with steam generator
  • Domestic water heating system
  • Oil burner demonstrator

Chemical Laboratories – Table top and analytical equipment

  • Convection drying
  • Determination of the settling velocity apparatus
  • Heat exchanger equipment
  • Diffusion in liquids and gases
  • Flow meter trainer
  • Hydraulic benches and associated modules:
    • Centrifugal pumps
    • Losses in a pipe system
  • Boiling process
  • Precipitation and flocculation
  • Cake and depth filtration
  • Ion exchange unit
  • Biofilm process