Materials Characterization Laboratory

The Materials Characterization laboratories have the capability to test and characterize all types of materials used in the transportation industry. The laboratory is comprised of seven areas of expertise including: metallography, fractography / scanning electron microscope, X-ray chemistry, corrosion, mechanical properties, analytical chemistry, and nondestructive evaluation. Testing capabilities are as follows:

Corrosion Lab

Cyclic CASS Humidity Salt Spray Gravelometer

SEM/Fractography Lab

Scanning Electron Microscopy Fracture Analysis / Fractography Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy

X-Ray Spectrochemical Lab

X-Ray Fluorescence X-Ray Diffraction

Analytical Chemistry Lab

Optical Emission Spectroscopy Inductively Coupled Plasma Classical Wet Leco Carbon / Sulfur Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry Fourier Transform Infrared Spec. Thermogravimetric Analysis Differential Scanning Cal. Dynamic Mech. Analysis

Non-Destructive Evaluation

• Fluorescent Liquid Penetrant
• Fluorescent Magnetic Particle
• X-Ray Radiography / Radioscopy

Mechanical Properties Lab

• Hardness - Rockwell, Brinell
• Micro - Hardness
• Tension / Compression
• Torsion
• Charpy / Izod Impact

Metallography Lab

• Macro Etch
• Macro Photography
• Light Microscopy
• Image Analysis