CSEM Revetest Scratch Tester

Capable of applying forces in the range 1 to 200N to test adhesion and cohesion of hard coatings.

A scratch test is used to characterise adhesion between coating and substrate.

CemeCon Impact Tester

The impact tester incorporates a novel testing method suited to evaluate coatings and materials under dynamic load conditions similar to those experienced by metal cutting/milling tools. The PC controlled test uses a carbide ball to apply repetitive impacts to the material under test. Loads of up to 900 N can be applied at a fixed frequency of 50 Hz.

CSEM Tribotest

PC controlled pin-on-disk tribometer capable of applying loads of 1, 2, 5 or 10N at rotation rates up to 420 rpm. The contact head is equipped with interchangeable styli (eg 6mm spherical steel, carbide or alumina; or cylindrical steel rod) to suit the surface under test.

CSM High Temperature Tribotest

Computer-controlled pin-on-disk tribometer with a heated sample holder. The machine can perform the pin on disk test at a controlled sample temperature between room and 950 C. Normal loads of 1, 2, 5 or 10N can be applied at rotation rates up to 420 rpm. The contact head is equipped with interchangeable styli (eg 6mm spherical steel, carbide or alumina; or cylindrical steel rod) to suit the surface under test.

Eifeler Kalowear Tester

Equipped for small-scale abrasive wear tests. Wear is applied via a steel ball-bearing which is rotated at speeds of up to 1100 rpm. The wear face may also have abrasive SiC particle suspension applied to it.

CSEM Caloprep Tester

For measurement of coating thicknesses of between 0.3 to 30 micrometres by abrasive ball-cratering.

EG&G Potentiostat/Galvanostat

Computer-controlled potentiostat capable of a range of electrochemical measurements.

Mitutoyo MVK H2 Microhardness Tester

Designed to test film hardness by Knoop or Vickers indentation with a loading range of 1 to 1000g.

A Knoop indenter diamond is pushed into a coating and the impression length is measured to determine the hardness.

Fischerscope Dynamic Ultra-microhardness Tester

Dynamic hardness testing equipment able to test universal hardness and plastic/elastic deformation by the application of a loading/unloading cycle in the range 0.05 to 1000 mN.

The plastic and inelastic hardness are found from the loading and unloading displacement data as a function of load.

Eifeler Image Analysis Suite

A comprehensive imaging system consisting of an Olympus BX40 high magnification optical interference microscope linked via CCD cameras to a dedicated computer. The powerful image analysis package ‘analySIS’ may be used both to manipulate images for digital storage or to automatically calculate a range of coating attributes; such as coating thickness from a ball-crater image.

Rockwell Diamond Indentor

An established test for rapid measurement of coating adhesion.

Zeiss, Stemi SVII Binocular Optical Microscope

A top quality, adjustable light source, low magnification optical interference microscope for tool inspection.

Zeiss, Industrial Research Axio-Tech

A bright field/dark field microscope with interference contrast capability.

Minolta CM508D Colorimeter

Capable of measuring surface colour to all international standards with or without inclusion of the specular component.