Materials Engineering

Prevent costly downtime and failures with the help of our multi-disciplinary team of materials experts.

National Centre of Tribology’s materials assessment capabilities

Your trusted partner specialising in solving materials and tribological problems. NCT has been helping clients address such issues for more than 50 years.

Our unique, specialist team of engineers and scientists focusses on developing evidence-based understanding, providing solutions and preventing recurrence of problems.

We offer a wide range of services, including:

Macro Inspection: Detailed inspection of components using macro and micro digital cameras.
Metallographic Preparation: We prepare metallic, polymeric and ceramic materials for analysis.
Materials Selection: We select the most appropriate materials, manufacturing and heat treatment routes for your new or existing applications.
Metrology: We can fully characterise component dimensions using coordinate measurement (CMM), contacting and non-contacting profilometers and other measurement techniques.

Optical Microscopy: We use metallurgical microscopes with state-of-the-art digital image analysis equipment to interpret and analyse microstructures and assess coating thickness.
Chemical Analysis: We provide bulk and local analysis of metals, alloys, and non-metallic materials.
Mechanical Testing: We offer hardness testing including macro and micro, bespoke fatigue and tensile testing.
Electron Microscopy: We have SEM/EDAX capability to interpret wear mechanisms, interpret fracture surfaces, idantify surface contaminants, etc.
Surface Topography: We use contacting profilometry and non-contacting laser 3D profilometry to fully characterise engineering surfaces.
Replication: We offer both polymer replication of surfaces for surface features and metallurgical replication for microstructure assessment.