Actuation Lab - Engineering Actuators for the World's Most Extreme Environments

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Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£1,113,845

March 1, 2021

Aug. 31, 2022

Actuation Lab is engineering the world's most powerful actuators for extreme environments. Actuators are engineered devices that make machines move. Actuation Lab has developed a revolutionary fluid powered actuator technology, the Callimorph, designed from the ground up to best exploit the unique properties of modern composite materials. The ultra-lightweight Callimorph is composed of a single part, eliminating the sliding seals that cause so many issues in traditional piston actuators, while also exhibiting the excellent specific strength and corrosion resistance inherent to composite materials. The result is a high-performance maintenance free actuator, able to survive in the world's dirtiest, dustiest and saltiest environments. The Callimorphs survivability in extreme environments is of great interest to the marine, Oil and Gas and offshore renewable energy industries, where this technology has the potential to reduce costly failures and maintenance while extending product life and reducing hazards and costs associated with handling bulky traditional actuators.

This project entails taking the Callimorph from a TRL 4 demonstrator to a TRL 7 product, ready for in-service testing. This project is a collaboration between Actuation Lab Ltd and the National Composites Centre.