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Engineering➞Our research

nCATS Facility

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 can be performed.

For more information please click on the appropriate tab, if you are unsure please explore the themes tab.

Note to there are several health and safety aspects (induction procedures and forms; accessing various laboratories; equipment training) for internal users and information can be found at the following link.

If you require any information about the facility equipment, its capabilities and usage charges please contact the facility manager:

Dr. Terry Harvey
Room 2001, Building 5
Highfield Campus
Telephone: 02380593761 (internally 23761)
Email: harveyt@soton.ac.uk

Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) - Agilent 5500
Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) - Agilent 5500
Alicona G4 InfiniteFocus - 3D non-contact, optical profilometry system
Alicona G4 InfiniteFocus - 3D non-contact, optical profilometry system
Ascott CC450XP cyclic corrosion tester (CCT)
Ascott CC450XP cyclic corrosion tester (CCT) - is a test chamber with controlled temperature, humidity and chloride content to study corrosion behaviour of metals and paint systems
One of the many electrochemical workstations in the facility
One of the many electrochemical workstations in the facility
PCS Instruments EHD (elastohydrodyamic) rig
PCS Instruments EHD (elastohydrodyamic) rig - measurement the film and tribofilm thickness in rolling and sliding contacts
Dockside immersion site at the National Oceanography Centre
This is a seawater, dockside immersion site at the National Oceanography Centre, where antifouling and corrosion experiments are undertaken
Kemet lapping machine
This is a Kemet lapping machine used to prepared tribological samples prior to testing, to produce flat samples with a known roughness
Multistation wear rig
This is a multistation wear rig: designed and manufactured by Phoenix Tribology Ltd.
The Surtronic S100 portable roughness tester
The Surtronic S100 is a portable roughness tester
Twin disc machine (TE74S)
This is a twin-roller or twin disc machine (TE74S) manufactured by Phoenix Tribology
Reciprocating tribometer (TE77)
This is a reciprocating tribometer (TE77) manufactured by Phoenix Tribology
Pin-on-disc machines
This is one of pin-on-disc machines in the facility
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Tribological measurements

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.

Links to tribological test equipment:

Additionally there two pieces of equipment to help with preparation of samples before testing and for post-test preparation before optical and scanning electron microscopy.

Research Areas

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.

Links to Corrosion and wear-corrosion equipment:

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.  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.

Links to Characterisation equipment:

 

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.

 Links to theme pages:

nCATS facility equipment is heavily used in consultancy work, particularly by nC2 Engineering Consultancy.  If you are interested in conducting consultancy work this can either be by directly through an academic or nC2 Engineering Consultancy or by a combination of the two.

Link to nC2 Engineering Consultancy

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