Anton Paar Ltd, Queen Mary University and Nanoforce have joined forces to organise an Instrumented Indentation course aimed at users who want to gain experience and knowledge in extracting useful data from challenging sample materials.
Running at Queen Mary University of London from April 15-17, the course is suitable for users of conventional indentation methods (Vickers, Rockwell, Knoop, etc.) who are thinking of adding instrumented indentation to their portfolio of practical test techniques, and for current nanoindentation users who have some prior experience but have encountered practical problems related to test parameters, sample preparation or data interpretation.
Course content is also applicable to research personnel developing specifically-adapted indentation methodologies and also to industrial test engineers who need to integrate such techniques into their internal Quality Control (QC) programmes.
The event will feature research methods including: Mapping of properties across surfaces, Testing in liquids, High Temperature Testing and Evaluating properties of Micro Electro Mechanical Devices (MEMS) such as accelerometers, beams and microswitches.
Various applications will be discussed, including: metals, polymers and ceramics, coatings, soft materials, multiphase materials (metals and composites).
An overview of industrial standards will be provided, with an insight on practical ways to implement ISO 14577 in the research lab as well as on the production floor.
There will also be advanced experimental sessions with focus on: unusual behaviours (Cracking, Phase Transformations, etc.), potential pitfalls, strategies for different materials (thin films, time dependent materials, etc.) and data interpretation (Advanced).
The course has been approved for Professional Development by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.