| Capability |
Specifications |
Metal-casting laboratory
For melting and casting of non-ferrous (Al, Mg, Cu, Zn, Ti, Ni and Co) and ferrous (cast irons, steels and stainless steels) alloys using die, sand or permanent mould casting through a variety of melt processing techniques (degassing, alloy additions, composition verification) |
- 150 kW and 250 kW Ajax TOCCO air induction melting furnace (10 kg to 200 kg capacity)
- Dual-chamber Ajax TOCCO vacuum induction furnace (chamber 1: quad ingot, 190 kg steel, 25-50 microbar vacuum; chamber 2: centrifugal casting of 12 kg titanium (with skull casting capability) or 20 kg steel at 1 microbar vacuum)
- 250 mm-wide twin-roll caster for production of 4 to 8 mm magnesium and aluminum strip
- 1200-ton Buhler dual platen high-pressure die caster with super vacuum for magnesium and aluminum alloys
- High-vacuum arc melter of inner diameter 250 mm, 18 L capacity with extremely pure Cu crucibles
|
| Hot/cold rolling mill |
- Quad single-stand reversing mill, 600 hp, 500-ton frame capacity, 275 mm maximum roll gap, 350 mm maximum strip width, for processing of hot-rolled plates
- Online accelerated cooling system with 240°C/s/mm cooling rate capability
- Cold rolling under variable tension up to 50 kN for slow-speed cold rolling of thinner material down to 0.3 mm
|
| Metal-forming laboratory |
- 1800-ton Macrodyne stamping (900-ton punch, 600-ton blank holder and 300-ton kick pin) and vertical extrusion press
- 1200-ton Macrodyne drop forge and squeeze casting press with advanced control system
- 500-ton Interlaken press with hydro/gas forming capability up to 350°C (sheet bulge and tube expansion tests)
- 400-ton FCT hot press with 2300°C capability for metals/ceramics up to 300 mm M
- 75-ton forming press for Marciniak/Nakajima testing with Digital Image Correlation with 3D real-time strain mapping
|
| Corrosion facilities |
- Autoclave lab (to 600°C, 35 MPa)
- H2S corrosion laboratory
- Super Critical Water (SCW) test system (to 650°C, 655 MPa)
- Microbial Induced Corrosion (MIC) lab
- Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) full-scale pipe testing frame
- Scanning electrochemical microscope
|
| Thermo-mechanical simulation |
- Gleeble 3800 thermo-mechanical simulator for welding, forging, strip annealing, heat treatment)with Hydrawedge®
- BÄHR DIL 805 quenching, deformation dilatometer for thermal expansion, TTT, CCT and DCCT test
- BÄHR STD 811 hot torsion plastometer for simulating and optimizing hot rolling schedules
- Netzsch STA 449 high-temperature DSC, TGA calorimeter
- UMSA solidification simulator and analyzer
|
| Specialized physical testing and processing |
- Netzsch LFA 457 thermal flash diffusivity
- ULVAC ZEM-3 Siebeck coefficient
- Engel Canada ES80 35-ton injection molding press
- Union Process 9 L, 4 kg capacity, inert-atmosphere attrition mill with cryo attachment to ‑600°C
|
| Mechanical testing and characterization |
- 15-tensile, fatigue, thermo-mechanical fatigue and creep frames with a variety of load (to 1000 kN), temperature (to 1200°C) and atmosphere (air, vacuum and gas) capabilities
- Three high-energy instrumented drop towers (up to 15 kJ) and 750 J Charpy impact tester
- High-resolution 3D real-time digital image correlation strain mapping, crack length monitoring, and automatic video extensometry, x-ray diffractometer for retained austenite and residual stress
|
| Welding laboratory |
- Six-axis robotic welding cell equipped with pulsed gas-metal arc and gas-tungsten arc welding processes
- 3 kW fibre laser with powder nozzle on six-axis robot
|
| Electron microscopes |
- FEI NanoSEM 650 field emission SEM with EDS, WDS and EBSD
- FEI Helios NanoLab 650 dual-beam FIB microscope with EDS, EBSD, in-situ lift out, gas injectors, charge neutralization and STEM detector
- FEI Tecnai Osiris 200 kV field emission TEM with EDS and EELS
|
Integrated computational materials engineering
Using methods such as molecular dynamics, mesoscale microstructural modelling, phase field simulations and multi-physics finite element analysis with focus on structure-process-property relations and constitutive law development |
- Cray XE6 (2112 processors): Cluster with 144 processes
- LAMPES – molecular dynamics: Phase field modelling: Abaqus®, Dyna3D, WARP3D, Thermo-Calc®, DICTRA®, FactSage®
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