Teesside

Element Teesside is the Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence within the UK and has recently invested in state-of-the-art powder characterization capabilities for the Aerospace, Medical, and Energy sectors. The laboratory offers the full life-cycle of testing on metallic materials from the R&D stage through to post-production and failure analysis.

Element Teeside services include powder characterization, mechanical testing, metallography, and chemical analysis of the most advanced aerospace alloys, titanium, steels, and non-ferrous metals. Additionally, Teesside has a fully equipped machine shop for specimen preparation and furnaces for the heat treatment of test material before the test.

Services and capabilities

• Powder Characterization
  The Teesside facility performs powder characterization to validate that the properties of the material are pure, uniform between batches, and ready to be 3D printed. Our scope includes representative sampling, particle size distribution, sieve analysis, apparent density, compacted ‘tap’ density, flowability, and morphology. Our experts accurately characterize the materials to ensure they are fit for the desired outcome. Materials may be analyzed upon receipt to validate that the correct product was delivered and at regular intervals to ensure fitness for use. We provide one-time and recurring powder characterization testing tailored to your requirements.

• Chemical Analysis
  The facility performs chemical analysis services to identify and verify chemical composition to determine the quality and to investigate any impurities within materials. Our experts can help you verify a material or to obtain a detailed breakdown of an unknown material, to help you select the proper method for your application and end goals. Our scope includes; Carbon & Sulphur analysis by combustion, Nitrogen, oxygen & hydrogen analysis by fusion, XRF analysis, OES (spark), ICP-OES

• Tensile & Charpy Impact Testing
  The laboratory also has a range of tensile frames to provide information on tensile strength, yield strength, and ductility of metallic materials. Capabilities include several machines that can test up to 200 kN, elevated tensile frames testing up to 65 °C, and a specialist SANS machine that can test up to 400 kN on large welds and flat pieces of metal. In addition, the laboratory has two Charpy frames accredited to ASTM and British Standards that determine the amount of energy absorbed by a material during fracture, measuring the material’s notch toughness.

• Hardness Testing
  Teesside has a range of hardness testing machines used for routine testing to qualify how hard the materials are, including a Brinell, Vickers, and a semi-automated hardness machine that can run several tests overnight, saving time for the customer. The facility also has a Rockwell machine that is typically suited to hard materials.

• Microscopic Examination
  Our metallurgists at the laboratory prepare samples, then use  a high-powered electron microscope to investigate both the chemical composition of the materials and look at samples to investigate reasons for failure.The microscopes are used to read the fracture face, they look at fractures up to x1m magnification to identify the reason for failure. For example, our experts will investigate the sample on the wing of an airplane, or a fracture on a piece of metal pipe and identify the reason for failure. Optical microscopes are used to look at the micro level to investigate the quality, distribution, and structure of the materials. Our experts report back on the different shapes and structures to help identify the reasons for failure.The Teesside laboratory has recently invested in an Olympus Microscope 5X53M. The microscope takes 200-500 images of a sample at multiple magnifications. This provides both a micro and macro view of the material meaning our customers can see as detailed as the end part of a thread and the full picture of the sample in one image, making it much easier to move between multiple images.

Our accreditations

The laboratory is ISO 17025 and NADCAP accredited, as well as having the following approvals:

• Airbus
• Cares
• GE
• GKN Aerospace Sweden
• Pratt & Whitney Canada
• Rolls-Royce PLC (UK)
• Safran

If you have any questions or for more information on the Teesside capabilities, please contact us.