Facilities and equipment

Additive manufacturing

Laser sintering

EOS P 800

  • The EOS P 800 is the first Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) System which can process high temperature thermoplastics. 
  • This system is a powder bed process, scanning each layer using a CO2 Laser. It has a build volume of 700 x 380 x 580mm (x, y, z).
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 380°C
  • Materials: EOS HP3 PEK - Unreinforced PolyEtherKetone (PEK), semi crystalline high performance thermoplastic material.
  • Development Materials: PEEK, PEKK, Graphene-PEEK, CNT-PEEK.
  • Applications: High strength and stiffness as well as good ductility at higher temperatures. Chemically resistant to aggressive environments, suitable for sterilization for medical and food contact applications.
  • CALM is proud to be the first owners of an ALM system like this within the UK.

EOS P 810

  • The EOS P 810 is the second generation of Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) Systems which can process high temperature thermoplastics.
  • This system is a powder bed process, scanning each layer using a CO2 Laser. It has a build volume of 700 x 380 580mm (x, y, z).
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 300°C
  • Materials: EOS HT23 PEKK - Carbon Fibre reinforced PolyEtherKetoneKetone (CF-PEKK), semi crystalline high performance thermoplastic composite material.
  • Applications: Extreme high strength and stiffness at high temperature. Chemically resistant to aggressive environments, suitable for aerospace and automotive applications
  • CALM is the only independent research centre with both the P 800 and P 810  systems.

EOS P 100 Formiga

  • The EOS P 100 was first released in 2008 with the focus of manufacturing in mind. The P100 is designed for easy of material change, part manufacture and repeatability.
  • This system is a powder bed process, scanning each layer using a CO2 Laser. It has a build volume of 200 x 250 x 330mm (x, y, z).
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 200°C
  • Materials: High performance thermoplastic; either polyamide 11 or 12, reinforced or unreinforced.
  • Applications: Ideally used to manufacture parts for functional testing, design communication and tooling applications. Can withstand high mechanical and thermal loads.

Sharebot SnowWhite

  • The Sharebot SnowWhite is a small scale Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) System which can process polymers below 200°C
  • This System is a powder bed process, scanning each layer using a CO2 Laser. It has a build volume of 100 x 100 x 100mm (x, y, z)
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 200°C
  • Materials: Polyamide 12, 11. Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU)
  • Applications: Material development, small scale component manufacturing or prototyping

 

Material extrusion

Stratasys Dimension 768

  • This FDM system deposits material through an extrusion head layer by layer following a deposition path.
  • It has a build volume of 203 x 203 x 305mm (x, y, z).
  • Materials: Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
  • Applications: Ideally used to manufacture parts for functional testing, design communication, tooling and final part applications. It also has FDA certified one of its materials for medical devices.

3DGence Industry F340  x 2

  • This FDM system produces components within hours, creating highly defined details on parts using 3D printing materials such as PolyEtherEtherKetone (PEEK).
  • It has a build volume of 260 x 300 x 340mm (x, y, z).
  • Capable of processing polymers up to 500°C
  • Materials: A range of thermoplastics from PLA, ABS to high temperature polymers such as PEEK and PEKK. The support material ESM-10 is water soluble for easy removal from complex geometries.
  • Applications: Ideally used to manufacture parts for functional testing, design communication and tooling applications.

Markforged Mark 2

  • This FDM system is capable of printing Continuous Fibre Reinforced components.
  • It has a build volume of 320 x 132 x 154mm (x, y, z).
  • Materials: Markforged Onyx (micro carbon fibre filled nylon), Nylon, Carbon Fibre, Glass Fibre and Kevlar Fibre.
  • Applications: True continous fibre reinforced polymer composite components where high stiffness is required, such as Automotive components.
Powder analysis 

Freeman FT4 Powder Rheometer

  • The FT4 Powder Rheometer is used to characterise the rheology or flow properties of powders.
  • It is able to measure the bulk properties such as density, compressibility and permeability as well as the powder's resistance to flow, whilst also analysing shear strength and quantifying how a powder shears with respect to the surfaces of process equipment.

Granutools Granudrum

  • The Grandrum instrument is an automated powder flowability measurement technique predicated on the rotating drum principle.
  • The flowability of a powder is measured as a function of the shearing rates and rheological properties like shear thinning or shear thickening can be evaluated.

Granutools Granucharge

  • The Granucharge instrument is able to measure the triboelectric charges created during powder flow.

Microtrac Sync

  • The Sync Analyser is able to measure particle size and shape (morphology) of dry powders.
  • Particle size and shape analysis from 0.01 to 4000 microns using laser diffraction (ISO 13320:2020) and dynamic image analysis (ISO 13322-2).
  • Excellent sub-micron detection using blue laser technology. Ability to resolve narrow and multi-modal distributions in the sub-micron range.

Materials processing and manufacturing

Injection moulding

Battenfeld HM40/130 - Thermoplastics

Battenfeld HM45/130 - Thermosets

Compression moulding / hot press

Lab Tech LP-S-50 hydraulic press

BYTEC hydraulic press

Compounding / extrusion

Chareon Tut twin screw extruder with side feed

Rondol single screw extruders

SMC (Sheet moulding compound)

Lab scale SMC facilities

Ovens / furnaces

Vacuum Oven: Binder - room temperature to 250°C

High temperature oven with purge/protective gas: Carbolite, room temperature to 450°C

Box furnace: Carbolite up to 1100°C

Materials analysis

Thermal analysis

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

  • Mettler Toledo DSC 1 STARe system with intracooler, DSC823e (wtih liquid nitrogen supply) & DSC821e

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)

  • Mettler Toledo TGA/DSC1 STARe system

Dynamic Mechanical Analyis (DMA)

  • Mettler Toledo DMA1 STARe system and DMA/SDTA861e

Spectroscopy

Bruker:

  • Alpha FTIR system with Platinum ATR setup
  • Sentinel Raman
  • Matrix NIR
  • Vector 22 MIR

Perkin Elmer:

  • UV Lambda B1010
Microscopy

Zeiss - Axioplan2 Optical Microscope

Standard stereo microscope (60x) with external fibre optic light source

Digital camera imagery system with application software

Rheology

TA Instruments:

  • Discovery Hybrid Rheometer HR-1, with Peltier and parallel plate attachments
  • AR2000 Rotational Rheometer

Rosand:

  • Capillary Rheometer

Davenport:

  • MFI

Particle analysis

Powder Rheometer: Freeman Technology FT4

Surface analysis

Taylor Hobson: Talyscan 150

Other equipment

Oxygen Indexer

Brabender Aquatrac polymer moisture content measurement

Mechanical testing

Universal materials testing
  • Lloyd LR300k Universal Materials Testing Machine- 300 kN maximum load
  • Lloyd EZ20 Universal Materials Testing Machine - 20 kN maximum load
  • Lloyd Laserscan 200 Extensometer
  • Lloyd EX 800 ExtensometerThermal Chamber (-70°C to 300°C)
Impact testing
  • Instron CEAST 9350 drop tower
  • CEAST resil pendulum impact tester

Imaging suite

The Imaging Suite, located in The College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of Exeter offers SEM, TEM, AFM, CT and XRD facilities for experimental applications at micro and nano scale. See the imaging suite webpages for more information.