INDUSTRY

March 2023 ESRFnews

A “send-your-sample” day tempts five businesses to witness the potential of

synchrotron micro and nano tomography.

The ESRF has a wide range of

regular industrial clients, from

small technology start-ups to huge

multinationals. But according to

Ed Mitchell, the head of the ESRF

Business Development Office (BDO),

there are still lots of companies missing

out on the boost to research and

development that only the world’s

brightest synchrotron light source

can offer. In October, then, the ESRF

hosted a “send-your-sample” day, so

that new businesses could try out its

micro and nano tomography for free.

One of the businesses to take part

was FORCE Technology, a Danish

consultancy that helps bring other

industries up to the state-of-the-art in

various areas, including computing,

sustainability and manufacturing.

Torben Haugaard Jensen, a specialist

in materials testing and analysis

at FORCE Technology, brought

samples of a new type of cast-iron

weld to the ESRF for analysis via

micro computed-tomography (μCT).

He had already studied them with

laboratory imaging, which provided

a few two-dimensional slices of the

welds, but the synchrotron data

revealed high-resolution, fully three-

dimensional images, to explore their

quality in detail.

“With the power of the ESRF, we

can clearly distinguish the different

phases in the material,” says Jensen. “It

gives us a much better understanding

of the processes [going on in the

weld]. These first results have been

very promising.” His team are now

evaluating how to incorporate

synchrotron access into their ongoing

development of welding methods

Its easier to justify using the time

and money for a bigger experiment

because weve already demonstrated a

proof of principle he adds

Supported by the EUs

STREAMLINE project the taster

day saw an eclectic mix of samples

being sent for analysis from battery

electrodes to microfiltration

membranes and from fatigued

steel to parts fabricated by additive

manufacturing. The imaging

techniques are non-destructive and

highly flexible, available at four

beamlines (BM18, BM05, ID19

and ID16B) over an energy range of

20–250 keV, over regions spanning

microns to several centimetres, and

resolutions ranging from tens of

nanometres to several microns

Another company to participate

was the tube manufacturer Vallourec

based in France The μCT of their

steel sample revealed that cracks

in the metal probably spawned

from artefacts of the metallurgical

processing We were amazed by the

resolution of the tomography and the

amount of data that was generated

2600 tomographic slices per sample

says Michel Piette technology

director at Vallourec Indeed with so

many images he and his colleagues

Companies sample ESRF brilliance

S T E F C A N D É

are now considering tools to extract

information automatically. They

believe it has potential for specific

studies. “The test convinced us that

this tool has become efficient for the

kind of problem we are investigating,”

Piette adds.

Habib Murtaza, an engineer at

the Manufacturing Technology

Centre in Coventry UK says that

only synchrotron microtomography

had the power to see the micron

sized internal features present in his

companys additively manufactured

samples that he sent to the ESRF for

the trial He believes that the data will

help him and his colleagues develop

the manufacturing parameters Will

he use the ESRF again Definitely

he says



Jon Cartwright

23

ID16B was one of the ESRF beamlines involved in the free-for-industry synchrotron tomography day.

“We were

amazed

by the

resolution

of the

tomography,

and the

amount of

data that was

generated