News

The best thing about being a University-based consultancy? It gives us access to unrivalled expertise and facilities on behalf of our clients. For example, Dr Mark Light, Head of the Materials X-ray Diffraction Facility, is our go-to specialist for any project with an XRD element.

With over 25 years’ experience in this field of materials characterisation, including numerous industry projects, he’s able to advise on optimal techniques and uses the Facility’s state-of-the-art instruments to get the data our clients need.

We’ve been making a film about our involvement in the conservation of HMS Victory – here’s Rachel Triggs talking to camera about the materials testing she’s doing for the team at the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

Read more about the HMS Victory project here.

With Easter approaching, we set out to answer the questions on everyone’s lips… which is stronger, chocolate egg or chocolate bunny? And what would it look like if we put them in an Instron electromechanical axial testing machine? Watch the video to find out.

The winner was the bunny, which was much stronger than the egg, requiring 436 N of force to break, while the egg needed just 51 N. On closer inspection (between mouthfuls) we did spot that the bunny was made of thicker chocolate than the egg, which explains its added strength…

A very happy Easter from all of us at nC²!

Our Director Professor Nicola Symonds has been back in the classroom as an industry guest lecturer, sharing her extensive knowledge of materials failure and failure investigation with University of Southampton engineering students.

They are learning from one of the best! Internationally recognised for her expertise in failure and accident investigation, Nicola helps our industry clients solve failure problems, and is regularly asked to provide testing and analysis to the UK’s rail, marine, rail and air accident investigation bodies.

Find out more about Nicola’s expertise.

As March draws to a close we are coming to the end of our celebration of nC²’s super-talented women, but not before we shine the spotlight on Rachel Triggs.

Role: Senior Consultant
Area of expertise: Corrosion control, paint and coatings testing
Career in a nutshell: Worked with nC² since 2016 as a contractor, then recruited as a consultant, after 15 years at the Ministry of Defence
Best thing about the job? “Our team ethos – we always support each other to ensure that we deliver the best results to our customers.”

Find out more about Rachel.

At nC² we’re keen to share our passion for engineering and inspire young people to go into the sector. Here’s Dr Jelili Bello and Sam Hambrook putting this into action at a careers day at Wyvern College in Eastleigh.

They talked about their own motivations and career paths, and their roles at nC2, hopefully sparking some new career ideas and encouraging pupils to pursue their interest in STEM.

Throughout March we’re celebrating nC²’s brilliant women engineers, inspired by International Women’s Day 2024. This week, meet Professor Nicola Symonds.

Role: Director
Area of expertise: Failure/accident investigation
Career in a nutshell: Led nC² since its establishment in 2015, after 10 years working on accident investigations in the Ministry of Defence
Best thing about the job: “Leading, working, and having fun with such an excellent and diverse team.”
Most proud of: “Providing my expertise to support the five-year Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigation into the 2018 Leicester City Stadium AW169 helicopter crash, which was published in 2023.”

Find out more about Nicola.

It was great to welcome Jenna Taylor and Emry Eisaman from the National Museum of the Royal Navy. They came to drop off some samples for the HMS Victory project, so we took the opportunity to show them our capabilities – here they are with Dr Ben Cunningham in the Testing and Structures Research Laboratory. Always a pleasure to hear about the exciting conservation work NMRN is doing – we’re so proud to be part of it.

Inspired by International Women’s Day 2024, our month-long celebration of the talented women in the nC² team continues. This time we recognise the skills and expertise of Sam Hambrook.

Role: Senior Engineering Technician
Area of expertise: Sample preparation, imaging, evidence tracking, lab management
Career in a nutshell: Joined nC² in 2019 – previous roles include yacht skipper and police officer!
Best thing about my job: “The variety of projects and having the expertise of others to call on.”

Find out more about Sam.

Our nC² lab keys have been stolen! We need some young sleuths to crack the code set by the dastardly Professor Nogood, so we can continue our vital work. Watch the video for the full story…

We hope you’ll share our plea for help with your little detectives, and join us on Saturday 16 March at Science and Engineering Day for our fun escape-room style challenge.

It’s part of a fantastic free day of activities, workshops, lab tours and live shows, with something for all ages to discover. We’ll be at the University of Southampton’s Boldrewood Campus, Building 176, level 1. Visit the Science and Engineering Day website for more details and free tickets.

To mark 🌟 International Women’s Day 2024 🌟 we’re celebrating the talented women in the nC² team, with a profile each week during March. First up, it’s Dr Ilaria Corni….

Role: Head of Operations and Principal Consultant
Area of expertise: Materials characterisation and electrochemical deposition
Career in a nutshell: Joined nC2 in 2016 after working as a researcher at the University of Southampton
Favourite thing about my job: “I really enjoy helping clients to solve engineering and material related problems. Every day at work is different and it is exciting to be involved in projects spanning from the medical to the aerospace sector.”

Learn more about Ilaria.

We’re proud to report that nC²’s Director, Professor Nicola Symonds, has been made a Fellow of the Women’s Engineering Society. This prestigious award recognises individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the field of engineering and to the sustained encouragement of women in STEM.

As an internationally recognised expert in failure/accident investigation and a staunch advocate for women in engineering, including within the nC² team, Nicola is truly an exemplar for both. Congratulations Nicola!

At nC² everything we do is powered by expertise – and we’ve got a huge pool of specialist knowledge to draw from at the University of Southampton. Take Dr Neil Wells, who manages the University’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy Facility and is a member of our network of experts.

We can bring Neil on board when our clients are seeking to understand the composition, 3D structure and other key structural characteristics of a chemical sample at a molecular level – an invaluable technique for quality control and product development. Find out more about Neil.

Our Head of Operations, Dr Ilaria Corni, has been in the laboratory testing whether a client’s sensor would work at cryogenic temperatures. She put the sensors through their paces, thermal cycling them between room temperature and minus 190 C using liquid nitrogen.

And it was good news for the client – all the sensors survived and showed great potential for use in this temperature range. We look forward to seeing them on the market.

Thrilled to share this captivating microstructure image of brass extracted from a valve. The intricate details were revealed through a meticulous process of cross-sectioning, polishing, and etching, offering a glimpse into the hidden world within the metal. It’s amazing how a simple valve holds such mesmerizing complexity beneath the surface.

Kudos to our skilled professional technician Sam Hambrook who brings these microstructural wonders to light!

We help our clients find solutions by tapping into a wealth of specialist expertise across the University of Southampton. For projects involving chemical analysis, we can call on Dr Julie Herniman and Professor John Langley who are leading experts in chromatography and mass spectrometry.

They use state-of-the-art instrumentation to help companies understand chemical profiles, whether for problem solving, quality control or monitoring. Get in touch to find out how our network of expertise could help you.

Who said corrosion can’t be beautiful? Usually we need to use our microscopes to view corrosion within our clients’ metal components, but not in this case. Here you can see a cross-section through a zinc-plated steel fastener from the historic ship HMS Victory. It was installed about 25 years ago and has been removed as part of the current conservation project.

We’re helping the National Museum of the Royal Navy to take an evidence-based approach to materials selection to ensure that the rain is kept out of HMS Victory’s timbers in future, so they are unlikely to ever see rusty fasteners like this again. Read more about our work supporting the conservation of HMS Victory and our corrosion testing capabilities.