Teddington's National Physical Laboratory which is acknowledged as a world-leading measurement science and engineering authority is playing a key role in helping to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NPL is offering its support, at no cost, to companies developing and manufacturing ventilators and COVID-19 response equipment and products.

NPL has a broad team of experts, including over 1000 scientists and engineers, with a vast knowledge in many of the key parameters of ventilator control and operation.

These include temperature, humidity, gas mixtures, dimensional measurement and materials testing. The experts are on hand to offer advice, guidance and consultancy in the verification, testing and, where applicable, the design and prototyping of parts.

NPL are supporting the national and global effort to rapidly manufacture ventilators in the following ways:

• Test and validation services (for example, testing of materials, components and sensors)
• Online training courses in measurement skills
• Guidance on compliance to quality standards
• Parts inspection (first and last article inspection reports)
• Access to world leading measurement experts