Industry uses ESRF instrumentation

A M A D E M A

KEY FACTS

Tailormade for SMEs Transnational Access

TamaTA is a programme that helps and

encourages smalltomedium enterprises to

access worldclass acceleratorbased light

sources in Europe and in the Middle East to

boost their innovation and competitiveness

It is one of many activities of LEAPSINNOV

a project funded by the European Commis

sions Horizon2020 programme to boost

lightsource access

“ The synchrotron results

surpassed our expectations in

terms of detail and resolution. ”

Vassilis Drakonakis, managing director, AmaDema

T H E C O M P A N Y

AmaDema was founded in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 2016 to

manufacture a new product that makes f ibre-reinforced

polymer composites stronger and lighter. Today it has

14 employees and an annual turnover of €600k.

T H E W O R K

Fibre-reinforced polymer composites are increasing-

ly adopted for tasks that demand strength without

weight. Made of glass, carbon or other f ibres embedded

in epoxy or other polymers, they are used in a range

of industrial sectors aerospace uses them instead of

aluminium alloys for instance NanoWeld by

AmaDema makes these composites up to 20

stif fer and 100 tougher while of fering substantial

weightsaving opportunities NanoWeld consists of

a dry membrane that sandwiches existing technical

f ibres before they are embedded in their polymer

matrix Inside the membrane are nonwoven polymeric

nanof ibres which themselves include nanoparticles

AmaDema scientists wanted to study the membrane

in more detail to see if they could improve it, but lab

techniques such as scanning electron microscopy only

delivered fuzzy, 2D images. They wanted to see if

synchrotron X-ray nanotomography could help

visualise the membrane in high-resolution 3D, and so

they applied for access to the ESRF via the TamaTA-

Innov programme (see box).

T H E I M P A C T

We wanted a proof of concept to see whether we could

actually see anything In fact the synchrotron results

surpassed our expectations in terms of detail and

resolution They showcased the intricate and complex

structure of the interfaces between the nanof ibres in our

membrane and the carbon f ibres of the host technical

fabric we could reconstruct it entirely in 3D We hope

that the results will help us design protocols for a better

distribution of the polymer matrix during manufacture

Also the turnover of the results was immediate and

the communication with the ESRF staf f was excellent

Overall our experience with the ESRF was exceptional

VASSILIS DRAKONAKIS MANAGING DIRECTOR

AMADEMA

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STRONGER AND L IGHTER

COMPOSITE MATERIAL S

I M P A C T O N I N D U S T R Y