News

Well this makes a change… usually we only paint samples for testing, but in this video you’ll see us sprucing up some cabins!

We had a brilliant team day volunteering at the QE2 Activity Centre, which provides activity sessions and day services for people with additional needs including learning disabilities, autism, physical disabilities and sensory impairment.

It was great to get together and do a team-building activity that will really make a difference for this amazing local resource.

Thanks to everyone at the Centre for having us.

If you need help to solve a materials engineering problem, get in touch.

We offer free, no-strings initial consultations, so you can talk to our expert consultants about your requirements and we can advise on the best solution – all in the strictest confidence of course.

Come and meet us in person and take a lab tour, or arrange a call – find out more here.

We had a brilliant day at The Mountbatten School in Romsey running our escape room challenge in five science lessons!

We’re passionate about making STEM accessible and enjoyable, so the school’s feedback is music to our ears: “A big thank you for running such a fun and thought-provoking escape room! Our students loved the challenge – and it was a brilliant way to explore real-world links to materials science while getting them thinking critically and creatively.  A fantastic hands-on experience that sparked curiosity and showed science in action!”

Thanks to Mountbatten for having us and to all the students for getting stuck into the challenge with such relish.

It’s official! We’re delighted to have received our ISO 9001 certificate – evidence of our commitment to the highest standards of service and customer care. You can find out more about our quality policy here.

Congratulations to the team, especially Rachel Triggs and Dr Spencer Court who led us on our journey to certification success.

Is your business thinking about ISO 9001 accreditation? Read our LinkedIn newsletter for some tips from the nC² team.

Congratulations to our Director, Professor Nicola Symonds, who has been appointed a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. This prestigious award recognises Nicola’s distinguished career in air-accident investigation.

“I am thrilled to have been elected a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society which represents a life-long achievement that I have been working towards for the best part of two decades. As someone who is deeply passionate about celebrating the role of women in the workplace, I hope this inspires a new generation of young female students to see the incredible opportunities that a career in engineering can bring.”

Read more about Nicola’s accident investigation work here.

You know that moment in police dramas when forensics come back with a result that turns the whole case around? One of the techniques forensic labs use to analyse scene-of-crime material is Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy – and we use it to solve industry problems too.

FTIR uses infrared light to identify an organic material’s unique spectral fingerprint. As you might expect from something that has to stand up in court, it’s incredibly accurate and reliable. Our rapid FTIR testing service can help you to:

• accurately identify a material
• compare or verify samples for quality control, monitoring or problem solving
• resolve failure issues, for example determining the cause of an unwanted residue by comparing samples of the residue and potential source materials

Could FTIR help you crack a materials engineering problem? Find out more and get in touch with our expert consultants for a no-strings conversation

We are thrilled that following a thorough audit of our quality systems and processes by the BSI (British Standards Institution), we have been recommended for ISO 9001 certification.

This is an internationally recognised standard for organisational quality management systems and provides our clients with added confidence in our commitment to delivering services of the highest quality.  You can read our quality policy here.

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…?