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CSMA & TWI Form a Bond CSMA Ltd and TWI have put in place a partnership that gives clients of both
organisations access to leading edge materials characterisation and analysis
services. CSMA is part of Stoke based CERAM, the internationally renowned centre for materials and technology, while TWI is the world's leading knowledge centre for the joining of materials, with offices and facilities across the UK and worldwide. Both world leaders in their fields, the companies believe that this form of strategic alliance is essential to remaining at the forefront of technological developments and customer requirements in provision of analysis and characterisation services. Tony Kinsella, managing director of CSMA, comments: “Sound, commercially viable application of technology to meet specific customer product development needs and process problems, is not just down to the availability of suitable equipment. The expertise and experience of the scientists and engineers who work with it is crucial. “There is a lot of excellent equipment available for use in academia, often at very low cost. However, there is often little experienced support for the equipment and its application, leading to poor overall data and often wrong conclusions”. The TWI/CSMA partnership, which commences from 1st May 2005, overcomes this issue by joining two unique sets of resources. Dr Andrew Sturgeon of TWI comments: “The latest equipment and expertise available at CSMA is complimentary to the facilities and expertise at TWI, and will allow us to enhance our analysis capability and range services for industry.” The partnership gives CSMA access to a number of TWI techniques including: Electron Probe Microanalysis The JEOL JSX 8600 Superprobe with Thermo Electron Vantage EDX/WDX has four WDX spectrometers, using LiF, PET, TAP, STE, LDE, LDE-C and LDE-B crystals. The fully automated software includes capabilities for particle analysis as well as SE and BSE imaging, EDX/WDX quantitative analyses, linescans and mapping. With a detection limit of just a few ppm for all elements from Be-U the JEOL JSX 8600 Superprobe with Thermo Electron Vantage EDX/WDX is suitable for analysing flat surfaces of materials such as metals and ceramics. Scanning Electron Microscopy Leo 1455EP SEM With multi-modes (high vacuum, variable pressure and environmental), the Leo 1455EP with EDAX Gemini EDX system is suitable for in-situ drying/wetting experiments as well as spot analyses. The Leo 1455EP SEM also has imaging capabilities. Leo 1550FEG SEM The Leo 1550FEG SEM and EDAX Pegasus Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD) and EDX can be used to LV image non-conducting samples, determine crystallography as well as spot and linescan analysis. With a resolution of 1nm, the Leo 1550FEG SEM can be used for mapping chemical and crystallographic analysis using the light element EDX and EBSD. |
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