Head of Working Group
"Driven by academic curiosity, what inspires me in my job as head of the accredited test lab are the fascinating moments constantly recurring. Both in the framework of user-oriented research and development work, and in connection with material characterizations for testing services – investigation and assessment of things unknown at first, of material properties hidden, can be compared with investigative work."
Surface Topography
Profilometry (tactile / optical)
Fields of Application:
Determination of roughness parameters (2D / 3D)
Analysis of grain depths and defects
Determination of waviness, contours
Coating Thickness Measurement
Fault diagnosis, technology-accompanying investigations
Suitable Materials:
All materials (leather, plastics, textiles, etc.)
Analytical Instruments:
Strip light projection
Confocal laser scanning microscope
Shape from Shading technology
Instruments with stylus methods in different resolutions (nm to µm)
Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)
Your contact person:
Microscopy
Light Microscopy
Fields of Application:
Photographic documentation,
Microscopic examination of samples (surface, cross section, thin section),
Quantitative image evaluation/statistics,
Coating thickness measurement,
Fault diagnosis, technology-accompanying investigations
Suitable Materials:
All materials (leather, plastics, textiles, etc.)
Analytical Instruments:
Stereomicroscope
Incident and transmitted light microscope
Digital camera
Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM)
Fields of Application:
Scanning electron microscopic examination (resolution about 10 nm),
Measurement of coating thicknesses,
Fault diagnosis,
Technology-accompanying investigations
Suitable Materials:
All materials that are vacuum resistant or have limited vapour pressure, even microscopic samples
Analytical Instruments:
REM Quanta FEG 250
Your contact person:
Atomic-Force-Microscopy – AFM
Fields of application:
Determination of nanoscale roughness
Analysis of mechanical properties from biomaterials to polymer blends
Measurement of conductivity on the nanometer scale.
Suitable Materials:
All materials (from metal to ceramics to biomaterial).
Analytical Instruments:
JPK NanoWizard 3 AFM
QI Software
Conductive AFM (CAFM)
Heated measuring cell for measurements in air and liquids
Your contact person:
Analytics and spectroscopy
Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX)
Fields of Application:
Fast semi-quantitative elemental analysis up to about 0.1%,
Analysis of surfaces / on cross sections,
Local analyses up to about 1 µm resolution
Suitable Materials:
All materials that are vacuum resistant or have limited vapor pressure, even microscopic samples
Analytical Instruments:
At the scanning electron microscope ESEM-REM
Your contact person:
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
Fields of Application:
semi-quantitative, standard-free elemental analysis up to about 0.1 at%
analysis of surfaces, signal depth only about 5 to 10 nm
information about bond states possible (e.g. polar / non-polar fractions of carbon bonds)
non-destructive statements about depth distribution by means of angle-dependent measurements
depth profiles by gentle sputter ablation (bond preservation by use of cluster ions)
local analysis possible down to about 10 µm on an area of 200 x 200 µm² (Imaging XPS)
large sample stage, throughput of sample series effectively possible
Suitable Materials:
all materials that are vacuum resistant (after degassing e.g. also leather, polyamide)
Analytical Instruments:
modern X-ray photoelectron spectroscope AXIS Supra® with Al/Ag monochromatic anode and Mg/Al dual anode
