engineering

National Engineering Laboratory

National Engineering Laboratory is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand National Engineering Laboratory rather than just read about it. In short: The National Engineering Laboratory (NEL) was originally one of several large government-funded public research laboratories in the UK, staffed by scientists and engineers of the Scientific Civil Service. Other such laboratories include the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC), the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the Transport Research Establishment (TRL).

Key takeaways

National Engineering Laboratory belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect National Engineering Laboratory to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of National Engineering Laboratory from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The National Engineering Laboratory (NEL) was originally one of several large government-funded public research laboratories in the UK, staffed by scientists and engineers of the Scientific Civil Service. Other such laboratories include the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC), the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the Transport Research Establishment (TRL). NEL was established in 1948 at Thorntonhall under the name Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory (MERL), in the village of the same name near East Kilbride, Glasgow, Scotland.

History The location was partly dictated by politics, since it was realised that Scotland did not have a UK public research establishment (in contrast to its defence establishments). There was also debate on whether the new laboratory would be an outpost of the prestigious NPL (which now has its main base in Teddington, just west of London), or have a separate identity. Eventually the latter course was taken with the new laboratory focussing on mechanical engineering research, complementing the work of the then CEGB laboratories in electrical engineering when the name was changed to NEL. As NEL expanded, it moved to a large, purpose-built site in East Kilbride itself. Under the control of the Director, it was then part of the DTI. The 'lab' was organised into a number of subject-based divisions, including Creep Division, an important part of the UK effort to catalogue wear characteristics of materials, a Control Systems Division, Manufacturing Services Division, Fluid Power Division and Design Analysis Division. The last of these was in the forefront in the use of the emerging technology of Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Indeed, the growing need for quality-assurance in FEA led to the foundation of the National Agency for Finite Element Methods and Standards, now operating simply as NAFEMS. Each building at NEL was named after a prominent engineer whose field was related to the focus of that division, so there was Maudsley Building, named after Henry Maudslay, famous for his invention of the slide-rest lathe amongst many other achievements, Bramah Building so called after Joseph Bramah owing to his contribution to hydraulic engineering, Rankine Building named after William John Macquorn Rankine which specialised in thermodynamics, Whitworth Building named after Joseph Whitworth immortalised after his work to unify standards for screw threads, one of the key stepping stones that paved the way for mass production. The policy of the Thatcher Government was originally for the full privatisation of all of the government laboratories and the dismantling of NEL was undertaken by Lord Young. In practice, re-organisation has in some cases stopped short of a straight sale of these internationally important facilities, but NEL became part of the German-owned TÜV SÜD group in 1995. Along with the other national laboratories, some of which are still owned or controlled by the UK government, NEL now has a mixed portfolio of work from both government and private sectors. NEL holds the national standard for flow measurement, one of the most important roles it undertakes as part of the overall UK government science strategy. This is now in the remit of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, working in part through the new National Measurement Office, which is itself an Executive Agency created in April 2009.

Engineering apprenticeships NEL operated an indentured apprentice training scheme and offered a wide range of skills for young engineers before being privatised ranging between light machining, heavy machining, fitting, electro-discharge-machining, jig and horizontal boring and in later years CNC machining, programming and introductions to FMS (flexible manufacturing system) and CAD/CAM facilities running KCurve on DEC/VAX mini computers. This work commenced around 1982-6 using raster scan, (green) monitors to visualise the programming, each known as workstations, (since the 'intelligence' was built into the desk, not the monitor) and the CAD CAM programs were still printed out on punched paper to be transferred in some cases into onboard RAM and in others read and implemented sequentially. Machines in use in the CAD / CAM department were Matchmaker 7000M vertical mill, Norton Variant with Fanuc control, Cincinnati horizontal mill that had (then) been recently retrofitted with Gould drives.

Notable Directors Douglas George Sopwith FRSE from 1951 to 1967.

Engineering sections operated in Maudsley Building between 1979 and 1989 Main workshop: Horizontal Boring (x3) Jig Boring (x3 De-Vleig) Floor mounted plane Pillar drill Small lathes Large lathes Lapping Sub workshops: Precision jig boring was carried out under temperature controlled conditions next to the metrology room. Heat treatment Grinding Sheet Metal Fitting Work scheduling was carried out (innovatively for the time) using Work Analysis & Scheduling Program: W.A.S.P.

References

Cabinet Office archive Scottish Screen Archive. Why Scotland, Why East Kilbride? (dramatised account of a tour by two businessmen (one English, the other American) of the New Town of East Kilbride containing descriptor of NEL and some footage of James Watt building with 'floating chair')

External links TUV NEL site TRL LGC BRE NAFEMS NMO (National Measurement Office) website DIUS (Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills) website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with National Engineering Laboratory

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what National Engineering Laboratory claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to National Engineering Laboratory before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about National Engineering Laboratory ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of National Engineering Laboratory

In research: National Engineering Laboratory appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses National Engineering Laboratory in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: National Engineering Laboratory is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 establishments in Scotland, Buildings and structures in East Kilbride, Engineering research institutes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for National Engineering Laboratory outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study National Engineering Laboratory in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what National Engineering Laboratory means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain National Engineering Laboratory out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is National Engineering Laboratory in simple terms?

Why does National Engineering Laboratory matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study National Engineering Laboratory?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on National Engineering Laboratory.