Nothing makes us happier than seeing kids having fun while getting stuck into STEM!

We love sharing our passion for materials science, so it was great to welcome more than 65 families to our escape room style activity at the University of Southampton’s Science and Engineering Day. They tackled a series of challenges, learning about concepts such as corrosion, surface damage, fractography, friction and chemical analysis along the way.

A big thank you to the hardworking team from nC² and the School of Engineering who made it all happen on the day. You can see more photos from the event here (with thanks to photographer Thomas Dyke).

Understanding how materials perform – and why things sometimes go wrong – is crucial for everyone’s safety. That’s why our Director, Professor Nicola Symonds, is always keen to share her forensic engineering expertise with up-and-coming engineers. Having investigated numerous rail, air and marine accidents, she’s well placed to bring the subject to life with examples from her own career.

This week she gave a guest lecture to students on the Failure of Materials and Components module, which brings together budding mechanical, aerospace, maritime and civil engineers from across the University of Southampton’s MSc and MEng engineering degrees. The module focuses on the performance of different structural materials in a range of applications, the assessment of failure problems, and the associated micromechanical failure modes.

Module lead Professor Ian Sinclair says: “We include lots of real-world examples, like the ones Nicola presents, to keep the relevance and applicability clear. Nicola’s lecture goes down really well with the cohort every year.”

Find out more about our expert failure and accident investigation services.

This image represents the power of bubbles – and the testing process we use to measure it.

Cavitation erosion is caused by the implosion of gas bubbles on a surface, resulting in damage and material loss. The picture on the left shows the effects of cavitation on a nickel sample, taken at hourly intervals over an 8-hour period.

At nC2 we’re undertaking a programme of cavitation testing to examine the effect of binders in cobalt chrome on its cavitation resistance. We’re carrying out this work to ASTM G32 ‘Standard Test Method for Cavitation Erosion Using Vibratory Apparatus’, exposing samples to cavitation and interrupting the test on an hourly basis to measure mass loss. In order to conform to the standard we compare our equipment using a nickel alloy like the one shown.

This is one of the more unusual mechanical tests we’ve done recently, and a great example of our bespoke testing services for clients whose specifications go beyond the norm.

It’s a torsion test using our Instron E10000. We simulated doing up a nut on a bolted joint to a specified torque, and measured the resulting tension within the bolt with a sandwich type load cell.

If your project would benefit from custom testing tailored to your spec, get in touch to find out how we can help.

They say every picture tells a story…

Using highly magnified images like this one, our experts are able to find out what’s happened to a material – in this case, corrosion – using samples from our own laboratory testing or from components provided by the client.

This microsection of an aluminium bronze alloy shows that the component is subject to selective phase corrosion. With insights like these we help our customers to understand the causes of corrosion and how to prevent it.

Find out more about our corrosion testing and analysis capabilities.

How has 3D printing enhanced your business? At nC², our desktop 3D printer has become an invaluable tool in the lab. It means we can rapidly build bespoke parts and attachments for our clients’ projects, adding value to our testing capability and timely project delivery.

If your project would benefit from our custom designed testing and analysis, get in touch for a chat with one of our consultants.

Congratulations to Dr Benjamin Cunningham, our mechanical testing expert, who has become a Chartered Engineer.

We’re really proud to celebrate this professional milestone, which demonstrates Ben’s high level of engineering competence and expertise. Well done Ben!

You can read more about Ben’s skills and experience here, and explore our mechanical testing services.

Nicola and Rachel, with Diana Davis from the National Museum of the Royal Navy, were at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard talking to students on the University of Southampton Defence & Security Mobility Doctoral Training Programme.

We were delighted to share the latest on our HMS Victory testing and analysis work, which is contributing to the conservation of this icon of maritime heritage.

While we were there, we had the honour of meeting Naval Base Commander Commodore Rosenberg, who had been invited to talk about the importance of the defence industry to the UK economy – we were pleased to be scheduled so that he could hear our update.

Funded by the UKRI EPSRC, the Defence & Security Mobility DTP opens up the opportunity for professionals in the defence and security industries to complete a PhD over 7 years, alongside their career and other commitments.

A big thank you to DTP Programme Manager Zara Johnson, who organised this excellent event.

We have successfully completed our stage 1 ISO 9001 assessment – a key milestone on the journey towards certification of our quality management system (QMS). Here’s why we’re doing it…

✅ For our clients: our customers report high levels of satisfaction, but we don’t want to rest on our laurels. By optimising our QMS we have streamlined our operations, improving efficiency and ensuring our clients continue to receive the highest standards of service and customer care.

✅ For our staff: our people are our most important asset – improved communiciation and smoother processes help them stay motivated and engaged.

✅ For our reputation: we want the world to know we’re committed to excellence and continuous improvement.

We look forward to the next steps on the journey towards certification.

Wishing all our clients past and future, and our partners at the University of Southampton, a very merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of us at nC²!

We look forward to working with you in 2025 to tackle more challenges and deliver added value to your materials science and engineering projects.

To celebrate the season, we’ve created a fascinating explainer showcasing the power of forensic science – with a suitably festive theme!

Watch the video and see how our expert uses FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopy to distinguish between different polymeric materials – specifically, the sticky tape used for Christmas wrapping.

Can our scientist identify which one of three different tapes was used…?

It was great to welcome Steve Jackson, Declan O’Brien and Anthony Britt from Siemens Mobility on a tour of the state-of-the-art μ-VIS X-ray Imaging Centre (muvis) facilities within the School of Engineering.

Bethany Harding has been scanning items to kick-start an investigation that we are supporting the rail company with.

If you’d like to see the μ-VIS facilities for yourself, you can take the virtual tour.

This week the whole team went to visit the Air Accidents Investigation Branch at Farnborough.

While our Director, Professor Nicola Symonds, works with them often, contributing her failure analysis expertise to their investigations, it was a great opportunity for the rest of the team to learn about their history, see the improvement in digital technologies over the years and understand better their role and aims.

As well as corrosion testing, our experts can design cathodic protection systems.

We recently provided advice to our sister unit, the Wolfson Unit MTIA on how to use cathodic protection in fresh water to extend the life of the metallic structures in their world-leading University of Southampton Towing Tank. We will be monitoring the effectiveness of the protection over the course of its life.

Find out more about our corrosion testing cathodic protection services.

Our focus on corrosion continues with a look at our electrochemical testing capabilities.

Our experts can combine environmental testing with shorter-running electrochemical tests allowing us to correlate results, quickly, for additional insights. Our benchtop laboratory potentiostats are capable of various electrochemical techniques and corrosion testing methods to determine corrosion rates and surface characteristics.

Recent projects have included anode capacity measurements to DNV standards and determining the galvanic compatibility of materials used in ships.

Get in touch to discuss your project, or find out about our corrosion testing services.

We’re delighted that our Director, Professor Nicola Symonds, has been nominated as an Engineering Role Model as part of National Engineering Day 2024.

Nicola is tireless in her mission to inspire girls and women to pursue engineering, through activities in schools and within the University of Southampton, recruiting talented women to her team at nC², and being a visible presence on the wider stage nationally and internationally. Considering that women still make up only 15.7% of the UK engineering workforce, down from 16.5% in 2023, positive role models like Nicola are all the more important.

She says: “A heartfelt thank you to those who nominated me and to the Royal Academy of Engineering for this recognition. It’s an honour to be part of a community that inspires the future generation of engineers!”

From desert sun to ocean spray, our corrosion facilities enable us to set up bespoke tests to simulate a wide range of environmental conditions. These include salt spray, UV testing and humidity testing using our environmental chambers.

All our chambers are designed to expose samples to specific conditions over a period of months. We also have outdoor exposure racking and a test tank at the National Oceanography Centre where we carry out immersion testing in sea water.

Whatever rigours your paint, coating or material will be up against, we can give you insights into how it will perform. Find out more about our corrosion testing services.

This month we’re shining the spotlight on our corrosion testing capabilities – and what better place to start than an introduction to the team.

Senior consultants Spencer and Rachel lead on our corrosion and paint testing projects. Both have a wealth of corrosion expertise; Spencer in the maritime and offshore industries and Rachel in the aerospace industry. Rachel also conducts our corrosion failure investigations. They are supported by Sam, our Senior Engineering Technician.

Corrosion testing could help you understand a failure issue or make evidence-based decisions about the optimal coating or material for your product and environment. Spencer and Rachel will be delighted to talk through your options – here’s how to get in touch.