Labs And Facilities

The Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering has a range of laboratories for both teaching and research. The laboratories have equipment for processing of many types of materials and analyses, testing and investigation. These modern test facilities are also available for routine testing and inspection of materials on commercial basis. The following lists the laboratories currently housed within the faculty along with a brief description of the major instruments available:

Melting & Casting Laboratory

Induction heating furnaces (melting and casting of ingots in air or under vacuum) Sand testing equipment (tensile, compression, shear, permeability standard/non standard) Sieve analysis (determination of sand particle size distribution) Mould preparation; Mueller sand preparation facility. Casting (sand casting, shell casting, full mould casting, investment casting, sodium silicate/CO₂ process casting, centrifugal casting. Facilities for squeeze casting and spin casting have been developed)

Metal & Powder Processing Laboratory

Rolling Mill (lab. scale) Hydraulic press, compaction dies, metallic powders and characterization facilities

Heat Treatment Laboratory

Box and tube type electrical furnaces (up to 1600 ° C for phase transformation and recrystallization studies) Vacuum and temperature controlled furnaces Jominy end quench test apparatus (for hardenability experiments) Quenching and stress relieving facilities.

Ceramics Laboratory

High energy planetary ball mill, Centrifugal particle size analyser, High-temperature controlled-atmosphere furnace.

Carbon Synthesization Laboratory

Vacuum furnaces, Vacuum Arc-discharge facilities are used for teaching and research purposes. It is used for alloy development. 

Polymers Laboratory

Inter-departmental facilities are available for the spectroscopy, thermal analysis and mechanical testing of polymers and polymer composites. Processing facilities (injection moulding machine) have been acquired to study and correlate the composition and process parameters with the mechanical properties of polymers and particulate composites.

Workshop

Sample preparation for mechanical testing laboratory Cutting, shaping, milling and drilling of samples, and general maintenance Lathe machining Electric arc and gas welding , brazing, soldering and other joining facilities.

Non Destructive Testing Laboratory

Dye penetrant (for detection of surface cracks, laps and folds on castings and forgings) Magnetic flux flaw detector, (for surface and sub-surface defects of castings, forgings and rolled products). Ultrasonic flaw detector, portable radiography equipment for inspection and quality control of casting, weldments, seamless pipes and wires X-ray Radiographic facility

Mechenical Testing Laboratory

Hardness testing (Rockwell, Brinell, Vickers and Universal portable tester for plastics) 5kN and 30kN universal testing machines (for tensile, compression and bend tests) 100kN universal testing machine (including creep and fatigue testing in the range -180 to 450 ° C) Izod and Charpy impact testing

Metallographic Laboratory

Sample preparation facilities: cutting, grinding, polishing, chemical and electrochemical etching. Optical microscopes for micro-structural examination of metals, alloys, ceramic, polymer and composite materials; Nomarski interference contrast; photomicrographic printing, video display of microstructures; micro-hardness testing. Facilities for computer based image analysis are be developed

Scanning Electron Microscope Laboratory

For the study of surfaces at high magnifications (up to 400,000x). Surface morphology for fracture analysis, coating defects, porosity, chemical analysis and micro-structural studies, Grain boundary and deformation texture analysis using EBSP channeling patterns. Associated sample preparation equipment – sputter coater and ion milling machine

X-Ray Diffraction Laboratory

For the identification of crystal structures and phases. Texture analysis for preferred orientation developed in plastic deformation and annealing. Residual stress analysis. In-situ study of phase transition in materials

Corrosion Monitoring Laboratory

Electrochemical test cells with various accessories, computerized electrochemical measuring system, Potentiostats, Sweep generators, Zero resistance ammeters, Rotating disk electrode machine which allows study of corrosion behaviour under flowing conditions, facilities to perform corrosion studies in environments like H₂S, CO₂, CH₄ and various acidic and alkaline media.

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) Laboratory

FMCE has recently established an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) laboratory for materials characterization especially at nano scale level. AFM is an advance characterisation technique capable of performing many kinds of materials analysis i.e. high resolution imaging, magnetic characterization, nano lithography, nano indentation etc. The AFM lab is useful both for the teaching and research work.