H E L P I N G I N D U S T RY

N AV I G AT E L A R G E

R E S E A R C H F A C I L I T I E S

T H E C O M P A N I E S

Finden and Novitom are both examples of expert

service companies that help industries access

large facilities such as the ESRF (see box). Starting

trading in 2013, and based on the Harwell Campus

near Oxford, UK, Finden has seven employees and

a turnover of about €475k. Meanwhile, Novitom

was founded in 2011; it has 15 employees, sites

near both the ESRF and SOLEIL synchrotrons

in France, and a turnover of about €1.3m.

T H E W O R K

As experts in cutting-edge instrumentation,

Finden researchers typically acquire data from

the ESRF and other facilities on behalf of their

clients In one project with a leading chemical

company Finden researchers employed chemical

imaging at the ESRF to map the chemical species

inside a catalytic converter at dif ferent stages of

ageing The results allowed the company to see

the pathways of deactivation and to redesign

the device to last longer

Meanwhile, Novitom specialises in materials

characterisation, non-destructive testing and

microanalysis, based on synchrotron techniques

such as tomography and dif fraction. Using the ESRF,

it has helped aerospace companies to develop additive

manufacturing; medical companies to improve

quality control; and automotive and energy clients

to expose defects in critical components, to give

a few examples.

T H E I M P A C T

“The ESRF staf f have a can-do attitude, and their

techniques are cuttingedge Our work allows

companies to tweak their products in ways that

have big realworld impacts As a result of the

catalyticconverter study for example everyone

in Europe is breathing cleaner air

Simon Jacques cofounder and director Finden

Because techniques are evolving so fast its not

always clear to industry exactly how synchrotrons

can help We identify what techniques can solve

their RD problems as well as provide expert

assistance and easytouse sof tware The ESRF

therefore has a twofold impact on our company

and on the companies we serve

Barbara Fayard cofounder and CEO Novitom

“As a result of the

catalytic-converter study

at the ESRF, everyone

in Europe is breathing

cleaner air.”

Simon Jacques cofounder

and director Finden

Industry uses ESRF instrumentationI M P A C T O N I N D U S T R Y

KEY FACTS

Many other expert service companies

have been created in order to facilitate

industrial access to large research

infrastructures such as the ESRF

Such companies form a microindustry

themselves they grow as they help other

companies to solve researchanddevelopment

problems that would be impossible to tackle

using conventional sources

For more information on expert services

companies please visit wwwmixnorg

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