The Engineering Materials Laboratory is fully equipped with a wide range of equipment to provide effective preparation, processing and characterisation of engineering materials, including sample preparation machines, optical microscopes, image analysis system, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), microhardness and heat treatment facilities.
Contacts:
To get more information on how to access these facilities or if you have a collaboration or consultancy enquiry, please contact Dr Nong Gao using N.Gao@soton.ac.uk email address.
Engineering Materials Laboratory has a long history in studying and characterisation of a wide range of synthetic and natural materials. Below you can see some examples of the results achieved using these facilities:
A)- 3D image of FV566 martensitic tempered steel microstructure revealed by optical microscopy.
B) - Optical micrograph on as-built L-PBF IN718 ZX-plane
C) - LSHR Ni-base superalloy turbine disc alloy, tested at 650oC showing intergranular cracking ahead of main crack tip, grain etching produced by differential oxidation
D) - Actin cytoskeleton fibres in a human bone cell imaged by fluorescence microscopy
E) - polyacrylamide hydrogel engineered topographies