Rapid response metallurgical testing services

Citation

(2004), "Rapid response metallurgical testing services", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 76 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2004.12776eaf.008

Rapid response metallurgical testing services

Rapid response metallurgical testing services

Keywords: Metallurgy, Testing, Coatings

Rapid response metallurgical testing services are now available from Wallwork Metallurgical Services (WMS), a new business centre in the Wallwork Group, based at Bury near Manchester, UK.

Supported by a team of ten experienced metallurgists, WMS offers customers a full choice of services, extending from testing, failure analysis, applications guidance and consultancy to expert witness support. Initial evaluations are normally available within 48 h, covering raw materials such as engineering and tool steels, semi-processed components and completed parts.

Where appropriate, the service includes routine hardness testing and profiling, case depth analysis, carburisation evaluation, nitride case depth optimisation and other related topics such as grain boundary analysis and phase investigation of hardened stainless steels. While the prime service will operate on a 48 h cycle, some services such as electron microscopy or spectral analysis, which require special sample preparation, may take longer.

“The WMS team has more than 30 years” experience supporting Group activities”, explained Director Richard Burslem. “We have substantial expertise in applying the various metallurgical techniques to support the design of complex shapes with a high variation of cross-section, the matching of metals and treatments to engineering specifications, and consultancy to support machining, heat treatment and finishing.”

The new business is based at Bury, but also has access to Wallwork and Teevac facilities at Cambridge, including electron microscopy. X-ray surface coating analysis and other facilities are used for evaluation of hard coatings and components using high temperature alloys, titanium alloys, and hard coatings such as titanium nitride or chromium nitride.

Richard continued, “Our new service allows complete outsourcing of the metallurgical testing function and other related work. Now that JIT and other management practices place such a reliance on rapid reaction, we felt the time had come to apply this thinking to laboratory services. While we recognise that certain detailed evaluations, such as those required for expert witness, must take whatever time is needed to produce highly accurate, fully substantiated results, we are sure that most of our customers want a rapid response service. Wallwork Metallurgical Services is designed to offer that on a nationwide basis.”

Wallwork also maintains active links with a number of academic institutions and other specialist organisations to provide highly specialised services or in-depth research if required.

Details available from: Wallwork Metallurgical Services. Tel: +44 (0)161 797 9111; Fax: +44 (0)161 763 1861; Web site: www.wallworkht.com