Services and equipment

Services

  •  Failure analysis
  •  Research- and development projects
  •  Macro- and microstructure analysis
  •  Quasi-static and cyclic material-, component testing
  •  Tribological and corrosive testing

Equipment

The labortatories of the institute of material science dispose of a device equipment which allows to examine the quasi-static and cyclic properties of different materials and material states. For quasi-static loads universal test machines, for cyclic loads mechanical and servo-hydraulic machines are used. A superposition with chemical and tribological loads is possible.

Regarding the investigation of chemical and tribological properties of materials suitable corrosion, sliding wear and cavition test stands are available.

A microscopic analysis of materials, material states and fracture surfaces is carried out through light microscopes, which are connected to a modern image processing system. The presentation at higher magnifications is done by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). For further metallurgical investigations the institute of material science owns a transmission electron microscope with suitable chemical (electrolytic etching) and physical (ion beam etching) specimen preparation.

Fatigue crack in austenitic steel Quasi-static and cyclic materials and component testing

Servo-hydraulic testing machines

  • axial
  • torsional
  • bending

NiAl-bronze surface damaged by cavitation erosion Tribological materials testing

  • reciprocating sliding wear
  • cavitation

Cyclic polarization plot and corrosion microstructure Chemical materials testing, corrosions tests

  • cyclic polarization
  • impedance-spectroscopy
  • immersion testing

Surface topography of tool steel after sliding wear test White-light confocal microscopy

  • 3D surface topography
  • roughness measurements according to standard ISO 4287

Light-microscopic image of CuAl10Fe5Ni5 after color etching Metallography, light microscopy and hardness measurements

Sample preparation

  • cutting machines
  • embedding methods
  • grinding machines
  • polishing machines
  • chemical etching and electolytical etching / polishing
     

Light microscopy and digital image processing

  • microstructure imaging
  • grain size evaluation
  • fraction surface of phases
     

Hardness measurements according to Vickers

EBSD mapping of X30CrMoN-15-1 containing martensite and retained austenite Electron microscopy

Scanning electron microscope

  • scanning electron microscopy (field emission gun)
  • energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
  • electron backscatter diffraction

Transmission electron microscopy (200kV)

  • microstructure analysis within nanometer scale
  • phase analysis by using diffraction