The instruments that permit to develop our activities and services are describe next:

Sample elaboration and treatment

Arc furnace. Model: Edmund Bühler MAM-1

Arc Melting is used for melting metals– typically to form alloys. The heating is produced by an electric arc between a tungsten electrode and the metals placed in a depression of a refrigerated copper crucible. The chamber is evacuated and then backfilled with argon gas to avoid the oxidation of the alloy.

• Designed for melting samples of approx. 5-20 g up to 3500°C,

• Small melting chamber ensures fast evacuation and low gas consumption

• Freely movable, water-cooled electrode

• Dismountable, water-cooled copper crucible plate with trough-shaped molds

• Crucible plates with customized molds on request

• Reliable, contactless ignition of the arc

• Powerful arc melting generator, integrated into the housing

• Pressure manometer and valves for evacuation and gas inlet into the arc melting chamber

• Small roughing pump (can be built-in) or turbomolecular pumping system (stand-alone unit)
  for the evacuation of the melting chamber

• Safety functions:  Protection against over-temperature, eye protection
 

High-temperature quenching homenade furnace in an inert atmosphere

The homemade high-temperature furnace allows us to perform different thermal treatments in an inert atmosphere in a reproducible way. The atmosphere of the quartz tube can be modified through a rotary vacuum pump connected to the chamber and to an argon gas bottle.

This vertical furnace is equipped with a controller that regulates the conditions, namely temperature range and time of the isothermal treatment to be performed. After heating, two different cooling processes can be performed: low rate cooling treatments by setting the system cooling freely or rapid quenching treatments in the samples by opening the bottom side of the vertical quartz tube. This furnace is used to induce different types of atomic order, to recover some microstructural parameters or for reduction reactions in nanoparticles.
 

Climate chamber. Model: KBF 115. Binder

The KBF-115 climate chamber is a custom-made solution for long-term testing and accelerated stability testing for pharmaceutical products in accordance with the ICH Q1A guideline.

The corrosion-free and condensation-free interior also ensure temperature and moisture levels, even when fully loaded.

Important characteristics:

• Temperature range: 0 °C to 70 °C.
• Humidity range: 20% to 80% RH.
• APT line preheating chamber technology.
• Humidity regulation with capacitive humidity sensor and steam humidification.
• LCD to display temperature and humidity along with additional information and alarms.
   

Ball mill. Model: PM 100

Planetary ball mills can be used for all those applications where small particles are needed to obtain. With this technique not only it is possible to make classical procedures of grinding and mixing but also due to the high energy of the process mechanical allowing can be made. The  high centrifuge force of those planetary ball-mills generates high grind energy.

Characteristics:

• Powerful and fast grinding down to the submicron range
• Adjustable power and speed to ensure reproducible results
• Suitable for long-term trials
• Dry or wet grinding
• Unbalance sensor that allows unattended operation
• Programmable automatic start
• Application: spraying, mixing, homogenizing, colloidal grinding, mechanical alloy
• Fields of application: agriculture, biology, geology / metallurgy, engineering / electronics, building materials, medicine / pharmacy, environment / recycling, chemistry, glass / ceramics
• Material type: soft, hard, brittle, fibrous - dry or wet
• Initial particle size: <10 mm. Final grain size: <1 micron, for colloidal grinding <0.1 micron
• Max speed main wheel: 100 - 650 min^-1
• Ø effective main wheel: 141 mm
• Force G: 33.3 g
• Grinding tools material: hardened steel, stainless steel, tungsten carbide, agate, sintered corundum, silicon nitride, zirconium oxide