University of Akron

Materials     Energy and Propulsion     Structures

Materials

Advanced Aerospace Seals Research

Collaboration with NASA through the Space Act Agreement provides access to NASA facilities. Currently at NASA GRC, the Advanced Seal Research Team operates the following laboratory equipment.

• Universal materials testing machines equipped with environmental chambers, 30k lbf load capacity and -150°C to 600°C temperature control
• Universal materials testing machine, 100k lbf load capacity with 60 in. x 60 in. T-slot platens
• Stand alone environmental chambers for testing from -73°C to +200°C
• Laser inspection systems for dimensional analysis
• – Custom designed compression/adhesion test fixtures for small material samples (<50 lbf)
• Custom designed leak test fixtures for evaluating leak rates of seals
• Helium leak detectors

Rubber Compounding and Testing

• 2 Roll Rubber Mills
• Midget Banbury – 225 grams (1/2 #)
• Mooney viscosity: Alpha Technologies MV 2000
• Cure rheometry: Alpha Technologies MDR 2000
• Advanced Polymer Analyzer Model 2000
• Brabender Intelli-Torque Plasti-Corder
• Wallace Rapid Plastimeter

Microscopy

• Instrumentation
• JEOL JSM5310 Scanning Electron Microscope
• JEM 1200XII Transmission Electron Microcsope
• FEI Tacnai Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope
• RMC Product’s-PowerTome PC-CRX Ultramictrome
• Polarized Light Microscopes – Phase Contrast
• Hirox Digital Microscope with 3D Tiling x6-x320
• Atomic Force Microscopy Instrumentation
• AFM-CP, AFM Explorer, AFM Autoprobe M5 under the direction of Dr. Mark Foster
• Digital Instrument’s Nanoscope AFM under the direction of Dr. Stephen Cheng

Magnetic Resonance Center

• 7 NMR systems ranging from 200 MHz to 750 MHz
• X-band EPR

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center

• Gemini-300
• Varian Gemini-300 is available for fast routine variable temperature proton and carbon experiments, running VNMR 6.1B software on a Sun Ultra 10 computer with Solaris 2.6 operation system. Students who have been trained and authorized will be given an account to access the system.
• Varian Mercury 300
• Varian Mercury 300 is both liquid and solid instrument with ultra 10 workstation system. It has VT, indirect detect, Pulse Field Gradient, and two probes. The probes are:
• 5 mm variable temperature, indirect detect and Pulse Field Gradient 1H/19F/13C/31P 4 nuclei probe
• 5 mm variable temperature, broadnabd probe;
• Solid-state broadband variable temperature CP/MAS probe;
• CMX-200
• Chemagnetics CMX-200 is a solid-only instrument. It has variable temperature, -150 to 250 *C, and spinning speed controller. The software is Spinsight II 3.0. The probes are 7 mm VT CPMAS mutilnuclei and 5 mm 1H CRAMP. It is usually configured with the CPMAS probe tuned to carbon. Tuning to other nuclei is possible, and is allowed for students who have been trained and authorized.
• The following five instruments are available in the chemistry department:
• Inova-750 solids and liquids NMR spectrometer
• Inova-400 solution NMR spectrometer
• Gemini-300 solution NMR spectrometer
• Inova-200 solids NMR spectrometer
• CMC-200 triple resonance solids NMR spectrometer

Microscale Psyochemical Engineering Center

• Instruments include:
• Coulter Counter
• Gamma Ray Density Gauge
• Streaming Current Detector
• Advanced Microscope with image analysis software
• Infrared Spectrophotometer
• Permeability Test Apparatus
• BET Apparatus
• TOC analyzer

Polymerization Pilot Plant

• 1 liter
• 15 liter
• 50 liter reactor
• Polymerization at high temperatures under most chemical conditions
• Temperature control from over 250 deg. C to -80 deg C.
• Cationic, anionic, free radical, and condensation polymerizations
• From vacuum to 150 PSI
• Determination of physical, mechanical and chemical properties of polymers by all conventional and state of the art techniques
• Evaluation of polymer processing such as injection molding, extrusion, and thermoforming.

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Energy and Propulsion

Gas Turbine Research Testing Facility

• Aramis 3-D
• Simultaneous 3D Measure
• Measuring Sensitivity is 1/30,000 Field of View
• High Dynamic Range: Microns-Millimeters/Step
• Post-Processing
• Static or High speed capacity

• 2 CSZ Environmental Chambers
• Chamber 1
• Temperature and Humidity control
• -73C to190C
• Humidity 5% to 98% RH
• 4’ x 4’ Chamber
• Chamber 2
• Temperature and Humidity control
• -73C to 190C
• Humidity 5% to 98%
• 2’ x 2’ Chamber
• Gas Gun
• Projectile up to 4”radius
• Speeds up to 700ft/sec
• High speed imaging
• High speed DIC strain measurements
• 5 Load Frames
• 400 kip load frame
• 300 kip load frame
• 100 kip load frame
• 52 kip load frame
• 20 kip load frame
• Photron APX-RS High Speed Cameras
• Full 1024 x 1024-pixels resolution up to 3,000 fps
• 10,000 fps at 512 x 512-pixels
• 250,000 fps at reduced resolution
• Polytec Scanning Laser Vibrometer
• Non- contact laser Doppler vibrometer analysis of structural vibrations.
• Shearography Non-Destructive Testing
• Local deformations from Applied load
• Local relative weakness in material & structure
• Sensitive to 1/10th micron displacement

Chemical Analysis

• Chromatography Instrumentation
• HPLC: Varian Model 240 High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph
• GC: Varian CP-3800 Gas Chromatograph
• GC/MS: Thermo Fisher Focus DSQII
• GPC: Waters 515 Pump with 2414 Refractometer for THF/DMF/Toluene
• Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy Instrumentation
• Thermo Electron Nicolet 4700 Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer
• SensIR Technologies DuraScope ATR
• NMR Instrumentation (available in collaboration with the Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory)
• 1 – Varian INOVA 750 MHz (Solid + Liquid)
• 2 – Varian NMRS 500 MHz (Solid + Liquid)
• 1 – Varian INOVA 400 MHz (Liquids)
• 2 – Varian Mercury 300 MHz (Liquids)
• 1 – Varian INOVA 200 MHz (Solids)
• 1 – Chemagnetics 200 MHz (Solids)
• Miscellaneous Equipment
• Mettler Toledo DL31 Water Analyzer
• Buchi Rotavapor
• Melt Flow Index Instrument
• Brookfield Viscometers

Thermal Analysis

• DSC: TA Instruments Q200 Differential Scanning Calorimeter
• TGA: TA Instruments Q50 Thermogravimetric Analyzer
• DMA: TA Instruments RSA3 Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer
• DMA: Rheometrics Mark V Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analyzer
• Melt flow index Dynisco Polymer Test

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Structures

Physical Testing

• Instron Tensile Test Machine Model 5567 – Load Cell Range to 6500 Lbs
• Alpha Technologies T-10 and T-2000 Tensiometers
• Rex Digital Durometers with Computer Interface – Shore A, C

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