The nCATS Facility is a collection of equipment centred around the activity of the nCATS research group and as such consists of a range of tribological rigs; corrosion and wear-corrosion measurement equipment. This is backed up by a range of characterisation equipment. The nCATS facility website has a set of ‘themes’ that covers the various areas and types of measurements that performed.
Head of Group: Professor Ling Wang
Tribology is the essential science of all interacting surfaces in relative motion. It is immensely important to the successful operation of engineered machines and natural mechanisms of all scales, and demands multifunctional surfaces. It is core to future transport and energy-efficient machines, the control of emissions and low-maintenance renewable energy systems, and to biotechnology.
nCATS is a multidisciplinary tribology centre. We aspire to research and solve next-generation tribological design issues and enable surface interactions to occur with minimal energy loss and impact on the environment. We link world-class research groups in key disciplines at the University of Southampton to develop enhanced capabilities in advanced computational and experimental tribology. We have also established strategic research partnerships with top groups worldwide.
We provide the next generation of underpinning technology in mechanical engineering, microsystems, and biomedical engineering by developing strategic research partnerships with industry. We increase the understanding of tribological processes at all scales and apply this to improve surface life.
Our research includes developing sensors and novel probes for tribological processes, the tribology of renewable energy systems, manipulating complex microbial communities at interfaces linked to tribological issues of fouling, friction and corrosion, and the use of advanced techniques to understand biotribological performance at the interface of artificial material and live tissue. We develop novel self-repairing, adaptive, regenerative multifunctional surfaces for smart applications.
Mechanical Engineering Unit | Engineering and the Environment
Building 5 (Eustice) | University of Southampton
Highfield Campus | Southampton | SO17 1BJ
Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 2871
Email: mecheng@soton.ac.uk
For any consultancy related enquiries of a tribological nature, please contact the dedicated consultancy team: https://nc2consulting.co.uk/contact-us/
nCATS has access to the surface engineering and tribology facilities for measurement and analysis at both the University of Southampton and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), in the areas of:
For more information please click on the appropriate tab, if you are unsure please explore the themes tab.
If you require any information about the facility equipment, its capabilities and usage charges using please contact the facility manager:
Dr. Terry Harvey
Room 3003, Building 7
Highfield Campus
Telephone: 02380593761 (internally 23761)
Email: harveyt@soton.ac.uk
nCATS facility has a wide variety of equipment that can tribological measurements for friction and wear assessment. 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. 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. Additionally, we have worked with local manufacturers in the development of new rigs.
Although not tribological equipment the use of equipment for pre-test sample preparation and post-test sample mounting is important to mention. nCATS facility has a lapping machine specific for lapping and polishing multiple samples prior to any testing, this is important for some testing as sample need to be flat to ensure a conformal contact and correct contact pressures are applied even over the whole of the contacting surface and this process is usually referred as planarization. The samples are then lapping and polished to the desired surface finish.
nCATS has an excellent range of equipment and facilities for assessing corrosion and wear-corrosion. This includes access to seawater immersion site at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) to laboratory-based Cyclic Corrosion Test (CCT) Chamber. 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.
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.
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| Staff Member | Primary Position |
|---|---|
| Neil Grabham | Senior Research Fellow |