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Facilities and equipment

Additive manufacturing

Large Format AM

Large Format - High Temperature Printing (Robotic System) with localised heating for High Temperature Polymers

  • Utilising a Kuka robotic arm, pulsar extruder and localised heating system from LEAM, the system is fully PAEK capable. 
  • This system has a build chamber capability of approximately 1m cubed.
Laser sintering

EOS P 800

  • The EOS P 800 is the first Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) System which can process high temperature thermoplastics. 
  • This system is a powder bed process, scanning each layer using a CO2 Laser. It has a build volume of 700 x 380 x 580mm (x, y, z).
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 380°C
  • Materials: EOS HP3 PEK - Unreinforced PolyEtherKetone (PEK), semi crystalline high performance thermoplastic material.
  • Development Materials: PEEK, PEKK, Graphene-PEEK, CNT-PEEK.
  • Applications: High strength and stiffness as well as good ductility at higher temperatures. Chemically resistant to aggressive environments, suitable for sterilization for medical and food contact applications.
  • CALM is proud to be the first owners of an ALM system like this within the UK.

EOS P 810

  • The EOS P 810 is the second generation of Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) Systems which can process high temperature thermoplastics.
  • This system is a powder bed process, scanning each layer using a CO2 Laser. It has a build volume of 700 x 380 580mm (x, y, z).
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 300°C
  • Materials: EOS HT23 PEKK - Carbon Fibre reinforced PolyEtherKetoneKetone (CF-PEKK), semi crystalline high performance thermoplastic composite material.
  • Applications: Extreme high strength and stiffness at high temperature. Chemically resistant to aggressive environments, suitable for aerospace and automotive applications
  • CALM is the only independent research centre with both the P 800 and P 810  systems.

EOS P 100 Formiga

  • The EOS P 100 was first released in 2008 with the focus of manufacturing in mind. The P100 is designed for easy of material change, part manufacture and repeatability.
  • This system is a powder bed process, scanning each layer using a CO2 Laser. It has a build volume of 200 x 250 x 330mm (x, y, z).
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 200°C
  • Materials: High performance thermoplastic; either polyamide 11 or 12, reinforced or unreinforced.
  • Applications: Ideally used to manufacture parts for functional testing, design communication and tooling applications. Can withstand high mechanical and thermal loads.

Sharebot SnowWhite

  • The Sharebot SnowWhite is a small scale Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) System which can process polymers below 200°C
  • This System is a powder bed process, scanning each layer using a CO2 Laser. It has a build volume of 100 x 100 x 100mm (x, y, z)
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 200°C
  • Materials: Polyamide 12, 11. Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU)
  • Applications: Material development, small scale component manufacturing or prototyping

EOS M 100 

  • Metal printing - options include EOS CobaltChrome, StainlessSteel 316L and Titanium Ti64
  • Build platform of 100mm in diameter 
Material extrusion

Minifactory Ultra

  • This FDM system produces high quality parts utiling a heated build chamber (up to 250°C)
  • Heated filament chamber for drying filament and immediate printing
  • Materials: A range of thermoplastics from PLA, ABS to high temperature polymers such as PEEK and PEKK. T
  • Applications: Ideally used to manufacture parts for functional testing, design communication and tooling applications.

Intamsys Funmat Pro 410

  • Heated build chamber (up to 90°C) and heated build plate (up to 160°C)
  • Build volume 305x305x406mm
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 500°C, including PEEK

3DGence Industry F340  x 3

  • Heated build chamber (up to 85°C)
  • Build volume 260x300x340mm (x, y, z).
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 500°C, including PEEK

Stratasys Dimension 768

  • This FDM system deposits material through an extrusion head layer by layer following a deposition path.
  • It has a build volume of 203 x 203 x 305mm (x, y, z).
  • Materials: Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
  • Applications: Ideally used to manufacture parts for functional testing, design communication, tooling and final part applications. It also has FDA certified one of its materials for medical devices.

Markforged Mark 2

  • This FDM system is capable of printing Continuous Fibre Reinforced components.
  • It has a build volume of 320 x 132 x 154mm (x, y, z).
  • Materials: Markforged Onyx (micro carbon fibre filled nylon), Nylon, Carbon Fibre, Glass Fibre and Kevlar Fibre.
  • Applications: True continous fibre reinforced polymer composite components where high stiffness is required, such as Automotive components.
Powder analysis 

Freeman FT4 Powder Rheometer

  • The FT4 Powder Rheometer is used to characterise the rheology or flow properties of powders.
  • It is able to measure the bulk properties such as density, compressibility and permeability as well as the powder's resistance to flow, whilst also analysing shear strength and quantifying how a powder shears with respect to the surfaces of process equipment.

Granutools Granudrum

  • The Grandrum instrument is an automated powder flowability measurement technique predicated on the rotating drum principle.
  • The flowability of a powder is measured as a function of the shearing rates and rheological properties like shear thinning or shear thickening can be evaluated.

Granutools Granucharge

  • The Granucharge instrument is able to measure the triboelectric charges created during powder flow.

Microtrac Sync

  • The Sync Analyser is able to measure particle size and shape (morphology) of dry powders.
  • Particle size and shape analysis from 0.01 to 4000 microns using laser diffraction (ISO 13320:2020) and dynamic image analysis (ISO 13322-2).
  • Excellent sub-micron detection using blue laser technology. Ability to resolve narrow and multi-modal distributions in the sub-micron range.

Materials processing and manufacturing

Injection moulding

Battenfeld HM40/130 - Thermoplastics

Compression moulding / hot press

Lab Tech LP-S-50 hydraulic press

Compounding / extrusion

Chareon Tut twin screw extruder with side feed

Rondol single screw extruders

Plasma treatment

Plasma treatment technology for pre/post treatment of materials

Ovens / furnaces / mixers

Vacuum Oven: Binder - room temperature to 250°C

High temperature oven with purge/protective gas: Carbolite, room temperature to 450°C

Box furnace: Carbolite up to 1100°C

Shear mixer

Materials analysis

Thermal analysis

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

  • Mettler Toledo DSC 1 STARe system with intracooler, DSC823e (wtih liquid nitrogen supply) & DSC821e

Flash DSC

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)

  • Mettler Toledo TGA/DSC1 STARe system

Dynamic Mechanical Analyis (DMA)

  • Mettler Toledo DMA1 STARe system and DMA/SDTA861e

TA TMA 450

  • Thermomechanical Analyzer from TA instruments. Non-contact, friction-free motor delivers forces from 0.001N to 2N.

Spectroscopy

Bruker:

  • Alpha FTIR system with Platinum ATR setup
  • Sentinel Raman
  • Matrix NIR

Perkin Elmer:

  • UV Lambda B1010
Microscopy

Zeiss - Axioplan2 Optical Microscope

Standard stereo microscope (60x) with external fibre optic light source

Digital camera imagery system with application software

Rheology

TA Instruments:

  • Discovery Hybrid Rheometer HR-1, with Peltier and parallel plate attachments
  • AR2000 Rotational Rheometer

Rosand:

  • Capillary Rheometer

Melt Flow Index (MFI) - 2 options:

  • CEAST MFI

  • KARG MFI
Particle analysis

Powder Rheometer: Freeman Technology FT4

Surface analysis

Taylor Hobson: Talyscan 150

Other equipment

Oxygen Indexer

Brabender Aquatrac polymer moisture content measurement

Mechanical testing

Universal materials testing
  • Lloyd LR300k Universal Materials Testing Machine- 300 kN maximum load
  • Lloyd EZ20 Universal Materials Testing Machine - 20 kN maximum load
  • Lloyd Laserscan 200 Extensometer
  • Lloyd EX 800 ExtensometerThermal Chamber (-70°C to 300°C)
Impact testing
  • Instron CEAST 9350 drop tower
  • CEAST resil pendulum impact tester

Imaging suite

The Imaging Suite, located in The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of ·¬ÇÑÊÓÆµ offers SEM, TEM, AFM, CT and XRD facilities for experimental applications at micro and nano scale. See the imaging suite webpages for more information.