Consultancy and services to industry

The key aim for the facilities in the Advanced Microscopy Centre is to support high quality research and training of personnel in the use of microscopy for the Faculty of Sciences.  However, where there is the possibility of working in collaboration with Industry, we are keen to collaborate in a number of ways.

The routes by which we can offer collaboration with industry include:

• A session on a microscope with full technical support
• In-depth analysis with expert support from our academic staff
• A series of images and/or micro-analysis of your component
• Consultancy
• Collaborative research contract
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP)
• CASE or fully funded PhD studentships
• Expert Witness Service 

The University of Leicester’s Advanced Microscopy Centre hosts a comprehensive range of microscopy and materials characterisation instruments such as:

• Scanning electron microscopes
• Transmission electron microscopes
• Focused ion beam milling microscope
• X-ray CT scanner
• Raman spectrometer
• Nano indentation
• Fatigue and hardness testers
• Tensile testers
• Scratch testers
• Optical profiler
• Optical microscopes

These are complemented by academic and support staff who are experts in their own research field and experienced participants in industrial collaborative partnerships.

Typical applications for industrial purposes;

• Fracture analysis
• High resolution characterisation of alloy joints and welds
• High resolution chemical analysis of advanced structural components
• Particle size and chemical composition analysis
• Surface engineering and analysis
• Characterisation of nano structures
• Imaging and chemical analysis of nano particles
• Fault detection, failure analysis and quality control
• Assembly inspection of complex mechanisms
• Dimensional measurement of internal components