High Tech Lab

Materials Expertise

Metals – Ceramics – Polymers – Composites
Steel (structural, HSLA, creep-resistant, stainless, etc)
Light alloys (Al, Ti, Mg)
Refractories
Polymer and paint films
“Intelligent” polymers
Superconducting materials
Metal matrix composites (wear resistance and tooling)
Hard coatings (thin films, laser and thermal spray cladding)
Welding materials

Materials Characterisation

Modern metallography laboratory with auto preparation machines
Optical microscopes with digital image capture and analysis
Stereomicroscopes
SEM with EDS and EBSD
TEM 200kV with EDS
Atomic Force Microscope / Nanomanipulator System
Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope
XRD (powder, thin film and texture crystallography) systems
XRD 4 circles goniometer system
DTA/TGA to 1750°C
DSC -170°C to 600°C
Particle size analyser 0.05-900 µm
Hardness and microhardness test machines
UMIS microhardness test machine (min. 1mg load)
Vista MPX axial simultaneous ICP-AE Spectrometer
Dilatometers (high quench rate and deformation systems)
Gleeble thermomechanical processing machine
NDT equipment (ultrasonic, acoustic emission, magnetic particle and
dye penetrant tests)

Materials Processing

Freeze drier, spray drier (powder manufacture)
Reactive ball mills
Spark discharge mechanical milling
Rolling mills
Wire drawing machine
Box furnace 1700°C ±1°C
Various heat treatment furnaces
Uniaxial cold pressing to 100 t
Induction hot press
Gleeble thermomechanical processing machine (tension and compression)

Coating Processes

Filtered Arc PVD
Plasma NitridingMulti-target pulsed laser ablation system

3.0 kW high power portable diode laser
access to industrial CO2 and Nd:YAG laser
access to industrial HVOF and plasma
spray systems

Welding Systems

Various welding power sources for SMAW, GMAW, FCAW and SAW
3.0 kW portable diode laser (new)
Various robots and automated welding rigs
Fume measurement chamber
Advanced waveform monitoring and design capabilities
Laser backlighting for arc imagery
Mechanised pipe girth welding

Mechanical Testing

Hardness testing (macro to 1mg)
Mechanical testing (tensile and compression)
Charpy impact testing
Access to fatigue and creep testing facilities
Wear testing ( abrasive, rolling contact fatigue and sliding to 600°C)