ÃÛÌÒTV

Ìý Tribological measurements

nCATS facility has a wide variety of equipment that can tribological measurements for friction and wear assessment.Ìý These range from nano-scale measurements on the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) using Lateral Force Microscopy and nano-impact on the MicroMaterial Vantage systems to multi-station wear simulator.Ìý Classic tribological measurements can be undertaken for pin on plate/disc to varying sliding/rolling contacts.

nCATS has shown innovation in the use of equipment, working with equipment manufacturers and independently, examples include the adaption of the reciprocating sliding tribometer to perform rolling for a ‘leaves on the line’ project; adaption of the twin disc machine, conventionally used for lubricated testing, to perform abrasive testing in rolling contacts and adaption of various tribometers to performed electrochemical measurements to assess corrosion elements in wear-corrosion testing.Ìý Additionally, we have worked with local manufacturers in the development of new rigs.

Ìý Research Areas

nCATS has an excellent range of equipment and facilities for assessing corrosion and wear-corrosion.Ìý This includes access to seawater immersion site at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) to laboratory-based Cyclic Corrosion Test (CCT) Chamber.Ìý Backing this up is an extensive range of electrochemical measuring equipment and polymer coating assessment tools.

Additional a number of tribological equipment can perform corrosion and wear-corrosion experiments.

Ìý Characterisation Equipment

nCATS Facility has range of equipment centred around measuring tribological and corrosion affects from profilometric techniques for measuring form and roughness to electron microscopes for determining wear and corrosion mechanisms.Ìý Nano-mechanical properties can be evaluated with nano-indentation.

This equipment has also many other applications areas including biomaterials, materials, fracture mechanics, coatings and polymers to name a few.

Ìý Themes

The nCATS equipment can be characterised into various ‘themes’ of what they can measure or can be associated with, so if you are looking for a particular area then follow the links below for a brief description and list of equipment within each theme. The equipment links will then direct you to the appropriate section of equipment pages.

nCATS facility equipment is heavily used in consultancy work, particularly by nC ² Engineering Consultancy.Ìý If you are interested in conducting consultancy work this can either be by directly through an academic or nC ² Engineering Consultancy or by a combination of the two.

Link to nC ² Engineering Consultancy