Characterisation

The carbon and sulphur analyser is designed for wide-range measurement of carbon and sulphur content of metals, ores, ceramics, and other inorganic materials using the Inert Gas Fusion (IGF) technique.

The Granutools GranuDrum is used to measure the dynamic flow properties of powder.

It operates by rotating a drum filled with a powder sample and taking snapshots at varying rotating speeds. Software then analyses the images to determine properties such as flowability, cohesion, thixotropy (agglomeration, segregation, and attrition), caking, and aeration.

The Hysitron TI 900 TriboIndenter is used for high- throughput testing and collecting of nanoindentation, scratch, and wear data.

It features in situ Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) imaging.

The LPW POWDERFLOW Kit is a comprehensive powder flow measurement kit, allowing users to quickly and fully characterise powder flow to known ASTM standards.

It is used to determine Hall Flow (ASTM B213) and Carney Flow (ASTM B964), and to derive Carr Index and Hausner Ratio.

The Olympus LEXT OLS5000 is a 3D Confocal Laser
Scanning Microscope (CLSM) used for fast, non- contact, non- destructive imaging and measuring without sample preparation.

It can be used for the visualisation of nanometre micro surface contours using Differential Interference Contrast (DIC), as well as profile and surface roughness measurements.

Designed for wide-range measurement of oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen content of inorganic materials, ferrous and nonferrous alloys, and refractory materials using the Inert Gas Fusion (IGF) technique.

Particle size analysis provides information on particle sizes to optimise their distribution for specific processes. By combining Dynamic Image Analysis (DIA) with Laser Diffraction (LD), a wide range of particle sizes can be measured while simultaneously capturing particle shape data. With FLOWSYNC and TURBOSYNC enabling wet and dry dispersion, respectively, a broad variety of powder materials can be analysed.

The Plastometrex Profilometry- based Indentation Plastometry (PIP) tester with automated stage feature is used for obtaining an isotropic material's stress- strain curve from an indent profile by using accelerated inverse Finite Element Analysis (FEA).

Compared with conventional tensile testing, PIP testing can be conducted with up to 99% less material and at up to 80 times faster, substantially reducing the cost and time to develop new alloys.

The PIP tester has a hot stage allowing testing at up to 800°C, a process that would be much more expensive and complicated to perform with conventional tensile testing.

The Struers Duramin- 40 AC2 is a versatile micro / macro hardness tester with load cell technology for the automatic testing of Vickers and Knoop methods. It can also be used for measuring material toughness (KC).

It features a high- resolution evaluation camera, automatic illumination, automatic focus, automatic image evaluation, motorised Z- axis, motorised XY- stage, motorised 6 + 1 position turret, and software for a fully automatic evaluation.

The LaboPol- 30 is a robust grinder and polisher for fast, reliable specimen preparation, and is equipped with the LaboForce-100 semi- automatic specimen mover.

It is Ø300 mm in size with interchangeable grinding discs and polishing cloths. The specimen mover plate allows the preparation of up to six specimens and the flexible specimen holder can hold irregular shaped specimens.

The ZEISS ATOS Q is a blue structured-light 3D scanner used to measure the surface geometry of complex parts, it is highly versatile and can be used in reverse engineering and conformity inspection operations. It captures 8 million points per scan at 40 µm resolution and single-digit µm accuracy, and has interchangeable optics for 170 mm and 350 mm measuring volumes. It is attached to a 6-axis cobot and orbits a 7th axis rotation table, and can be configured for fully autonomous scanning and measuring.