Automotive and aerospace

The Aerospace and Defence industry is at the forefront of technological developments in science and engineering with many commercial aircraft and military vehicles containing tens of thousands to millions of individual components. Many of these are high value, high integrity parts that must perform reliably under extreme conditions time and time again. These components and their manufacturers are subject to strict testing and certification protocols to ensure safety and compliance. Similar challenges face the automotive sector although with less extreme operating environments and reduced testing and certification requirements.

Aerospace and automotive sectors are also under significant pressure to reduce their carbon footprint while managing costs. So, there is a significant focus on alternative propulsion systems and fuels, including batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and biofuels. And a drive to reduce the mass and volume of vehicle structures to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions. This can be achieved through use of light weight alloys, polymers and composites, and by using advanced manufacturing techniques such as additive manufacturing and powder metallurgy.

Malvern Panalytical’s solutions can be used to help address these industry challenges by

• Analyzing sulfur and heavy metal concentrations in fuels
• Determining the elemental composition and crystalline structure of specialty alloys and ceramics
• Measuring residual stress, grain size, and crystalline texture of metal and ceramic components
• Certifying the particle size, shape, and elemental composition of powder feedstocks for additive manufacturing and powder metallurgy
• Characterizing the feedstock quality and performance of battery systems and fuel cells
• Determining the molecular weight of specialty polymers, and particle size and chemistry of fillers
• Measuring precious metal content in recycled catalytic converters.
• Checking and optimizing the spray droplet size in fuel injector systems