Laser Optical Engineering Ltd (LOE), which is a spin off company from the University of Loughborough, was formed in 1996 as a manufacturer of specialist electro-optical instrumentation. It currently has four main areas of interest: laser speckle and safety instrumentation, computer generated holographic optical elements, and high power laser marking equipment. The company has 10 employees (7 full time staff) and has a turn over of between 0.5 and 1 million GBP. Dr John Tyrer who is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough University heads the company. Other engineers working on the project include John Jones who is also currently completing the final stages of his Mechanical engineering PhD and who is heavily involved with the building of interferometers. Dr Leon Lobo has a major role in the development of the control and image processing software on the device. Graham Sewter works in the capacity of composite test engineer. He has eighteen years experience in the composite and aerospace industries working with his hands, as an inspector and as a Quality Manager.

Previous clients include Aerospace and Marine Manufacturing and Maintenance Companies, Petrochemical and Pharmaceutical companies, Ordnance Establishment; Government research bodies and hospitals. The project develops LOE's products with respect to determining real world structural analysis data. As it is only from this data set that precise data on component life spans and failure mechanism be realised. The remote nature of this optical technology and its quantitative results makes reliable testing of inaccessible structures feasible.

Reason for participating
LOE are looking to build upon their database and aid the validation of their models that predict residual life from the results of data sets collected non-destructively. Dr John Tyrer, the Director of Laser Optical Engineering is a prime candidate for and has accepted the key role in the project as the Exploitation Manager.

Role in the project
WP-C Manager: PSC: LOE will provide a laser based optical non-destructive testing technique to analyse structures for imperfections in design, construction or in use. This technique has been used on composite materials in boats and in aircraft for structure integrity determination. Developments by LOE have meant that data can be taken directly from the structure and implemented into finite element analysis packages. This will provide an invaluable quantitative element to the results.