Postal Address:
Advanced Composites Manufacturing Centre
School of Marine Science and Engineering
Reynolds Building
University of Plymouth
Plymouth, Devon UK, PL4 8AA.

Composite manufacture:

• Aeroform 400°C 14 bar autoclave (internal dimensions 1.5 m long x 0.66 m diameter)
• Bipel Bytec 40kN hydraulic press (0.5 x 0.5 m working area, 0.38 x 0.35 mm 400°C platens)
• Microwave Heating 4.5 kW microwave oven
• Heraeus UT6420 300°C curing oven
• Hedinair curing oven
• Aeroform Hot Bonder field repair control system
• Heraeus VT5042EKP vacuum oven
• Plastech Hypaject RTM machine (currently in upgrade to research instrument)
• Hypalock mould and clamps
• Hawco infrared strip heaters
• Comark 6600 digital thermometers
• Polymer Labs PL-DSC differential scanning calorimeter
• Avery-Berkel WA205 analytical balance
• Solvector photo-ionisation detector
• Edwards high vacuum pumps
• SCM MiniMax S45 diamond blade band saw
• Tyslide diamond wheel slitting saw

Mechanical testing:
Contact: Terry Richards <T.Richards@plymouth.ac.uk>
Telephone: 01752.5.86063
Facsimile: 01752.5.86101

• Instron 8501 100 kN servohydraulic test machine, 150 mm stroke
• Instron 1175 100 kN universal testing machine, speed up to 1000 mm/min
• Instron 1026 5 kN testing machine
• Instron 4300 5 kN testing machine
• Avery 6609CCH 1500 Nm torsion testing machine
• Avery 6703 300 J Charpy/Izod pendulum impact machine
• Barcol impressor portable hardness machine
• Brinell/Rockwell/Vickers hardness machine
• Strawberry Tree parallel port data acquisition systems

Non-destructive testing
Contact: Terry Richards <T.Richards@plymouth.ac.uk>
Telephone: 01752.5.86063
Facsimile: 01752.5.86101

• Scanray X-ray cabinet
• Wells Krautkramer ultrasonics
• Thermography
• AECL 109 acoustic emission
• Forster Defectometer eddy current
• Photoelastic benches and reflection polariscope

Rheology:
Contact: Dr Mansel Davies <M.Davies@plymouth.ac.uk>
Telephone: 01752.5.86878

• Weissenberg Rheogoniometer R20 and R18.
• Controlled stress rheometer CSR 100 and CSL500.
• Hot film probe shear stress measurement system including slit flow calibration rig.

Chemical analysis:
Contact: Dr Dave Harwood <D.Harwood@plymouth.ac.uk>
Telephone: 01752.5.84564

• Bruker F66 Research Grade FTIR with microscope and MCT detector (transmission or reflectance mode).
• Nicolet Research Grade FTIR
• Perkin Elemer Benchtop FTIR
•   all the above with Diffuse Reflectance (DRIFT), attenuated total reflectance (ATR), gas, solid and liquid phase capabilities.
• Gas Chromatography: conventional, headspace, pyrolysis: over 35 different instruments.
• Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectroscopy (Main research instruments and quadrupole instruments)
• HPLC - MS system.
• HPLC - normal and reverse phase: a number of instruments
• Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometers (ICP-MS): five instruments and one emission instrument.
• JEOL NMR spectrometer with multi-element capability (including ²⁹Si) and variable temperature sample
• Atomic Absorption and emission spectrometers (several, including graphite furnace)
• Fluorescence spectrometers (two)
• UV-Visible spectrometer (several)
• Luminescence spectrometers (two)
  

Optical microscopy:
Contact: Terry Richards <T.Richards@plymouth.ac.uk>
Telephone: 01752.5.86063
Facsimile: 01752.5.86101

• Olympus BX60 metallurgical microscope
• Olympus C3030 digital camera (3.4 megapixel) and associated software
• Buehler 2001 cut-off machine
• Buehler Metpol 2000 grinder/polisher
• Finlay Scopeman MS-504 fibre optic microscope

Electron microscopy (details confirmed by RM on 21 January 2005):
Contact: Dr Roy Moate <R.Moate@plymouth.ac.uk>
Telephone: 01752.5.84535

• JEOL 6100 scanning electron microscope
     Oxford INCA 200 energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) with SATW (super-atmospheric thin window)
          light element detection - fully quantitative - x-ray mapping - image analysis
     Oxford Instruments CT1500 cryo-stage
     Digital imaging and image processing. Oxford Facet Stereo stereology software
     150 mm sample size – 4 nm resolution – motor driven eucentric goniometer stage
     fast pumping – automatic brightness, contrast, focus and astigmatism
• JEOL 5600 scanning electron microscope
     LV mode for non-conductive samples
     HV mode for conductive samples
     integrated digital imaging
• JEOL 5200 scanning electron microscope
     5.5 nm resolution.
• JEOL 12EX2 120 kV transmission electron microscope
     Large magnification range (50x to 1000000x). Motorised stage. Image rotation. CCTV link.
     digital camera and SIS image analysis