Laboratories and equipment on Engineering Materials
Engineering Materials has a very well-equipped laboratory and very good expertise to be able to utilize the experimental resources. Here you will find equipment for material characterization, thermal analysis, mechanical and thermomechanical testing. In addition, we have a chemistry lab and equipment for sample preparation and several furnaces.
Microscopy and material characterization
X-ray diffraction (XRD)
High-temperature furnace (<1600°C). In-situ crystallographic characterization, phase transformation studies, thermal expansion coefficients, chemical reactions, fast cooling. Available in the XRD (Siemens D5000).
Computational thermodynamic software
Thermo-Calc, Dictra, TC-Prisma. Available thermodynamic databases: Steels and Fe-alloys, Titanium alloys and Titanium Aluminide-based alloys, High entropy alloys. Available mobility databases: Steels and Fe-alloys, Titanium alloys
Analyze station
Computor equipped with the following software: High score plus with PDF4+ (XRD software + database), Dragonfly (XCT software), MIPAR Image Analysis, CES Edupack (Material selection software), ARPGE, Origin, Matlab, NX-works, Simufact, Image J, Photoshop etc.hotoshop etc.
Scanning electron microscopes (SEM)
Environmental SEM (Low- and high vacuum), Oxford Instruments (Aztec). Equipped with EDS and EBSD:

Table-Top SEM, Low- and high vacuum, EDS.

Low vacuum coater, producing homogenous and conductive metal or carbon coatings for SEM and TEM analysis. Configured as a sputter coater or carbon thread evaporation coater. Available coatings: Platina or Carbon.

Light optical microscopy
Equipped with MW Tango (motorized table), Nikon Intensilight C-HGFI (fluorescence illuminator).

Stereomicroscopy
Equipped with apochromat lenses and NIS Elements BR.

Thermal analysis
TGA-DSC system to perform thermal analysis on materials up to 1600 ° C. The lab contains dilatometer to measure the coefficient of thermal expansion and sintering of materials. The thermal analysis lab contains a mass spectrometer to connect to TGA-DSC platform and dilatometer to in-situ study the evolution of various gaseous components during thermal analysis, phase transformations:
Mass spectrometer (TGA/STA-QMS 403 D Aëolos®) for gas analysis and volatile degradation products.
TGA-DSC and TGA-DTA sample holders for true simultaneous operation.
Thermal expansion, sintering, phase changes. Equipped with: Tube furnace Al2O3: Temperature 20-1500°C, Ar, N2, Synthetic air. Graphite furnace: Temperature 20-2000°C. Ar, N2, water cooling.

Measurement of thermal expansion, sintering and phase changes. Equipped with: Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) tube veneer: Temperature range 20-1500°C, atmospheres with argon (Ar), nitrogen (N2), synthetic air. Graphite veneer: Temperature range 20-2000°C. Atmospheres with argon (Ar), nitrogen (N2), water cooling.

Up to 1500°C, equipped with an autosampler that can handle 30 samples. It can be used in corrosive gases.

Up to 500°C and 150 bar gas pressure. It can use corrosive gases and handle large masses (up to 30 grams).

Thermomechanical testing
HT Tribometer (RTEC) used for high temperature tribological tests up to 1000°C with furnaces capable of controlling the atmosphere.
High temperature processing, evaluation of physics, mechanical performance, RT to 2000 ° C. Heating rate> 10,000 ° C / s, or steady state equilibrium temperatures within ± 1 ° C. Capability of high cooling rates. Thermocouple (120 ° C / s), atmospheric control, 20 tons compressive and 10 tons tensile load. Pyrometer (500-1800 ° C), Low force load cell 0.2-2.2 kN, Scanning non-contact optical dilatometer & extensometer system, Hot zone L-Strain Fixture extensometer, Melting accessories to perform in-situ melting experiments.
Process equipment
Furnaces
The lab at Engineering Materials has several furnaces, including:
Nabertherm RHTC 230/15 (tube furnace): with a maximum temperature of 1500°C and a heating/cooling rate of 300°C/h.
Nabertherm N11/HR: With a maximum temperature of 1280°C.
Salt bath furnace: Used for specific applications involving salt baths.
High vacuum sintering furnace: Used for sintering processes under high vacuum conditions.
Hot Isostatic Press (HIP)
ABB, Autoclave, RT-2000C: Ar, graphite furnace, max. 2070 bar.
Cold Isostatic Press (CIP)
Max. 4500 bar.
Other
The PSA-300LC is a "low capacity" test instrument for gas separation studies, used to evaluate small sample volumes of adsorbed material. It has test protocols for both two-bed and one-bed R&D applications.
The ScanVac Freeze Dryer is a low temperature freeze dryer, capable of providing rapid freeze drying at temperatures below -110°C.
Capable of most electrochemical investigations for corrosion and energy applications. Methods such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic / potentiostatic investigations and zero resistance ammeter (ZRA) are some of the examples of techniques that can be used to investigate the materials.

Mechanical testing
Microhardness (HV, Knoop)
Macro-hardness (HB, HV)
Charpy-V
Sample preparation
Cutting


Casting, grinding & polishing
Cold and hot casting equipment: Buehler SimpliMet 1000, epoxy and other.
Grinding and polishing equipment: Buehler MetaServ 250, Struers LaboPol-5.
Struers Lavamin automatic sample cleaning equipment.
Semi-automatic grinding and polishing equipment.

Electolytic polishing
LectroPol - 5
TenuPol (for TEM sample preparation, thin samples)
Contact
Lars Frisk
- Forskningsingenjör
- 0920-491792
- lars.frisk@ltu.se
- Lars Frisk
Erik Nilsson
- Forskningsing 1:e
- 0920-491798
- erik.1.nilsson@ltu.se
- Erik Nilsson
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