The expertise and experience to address the new reality
With an increased demand for high-performance materials in extreme environments, the current generation of materials is reaching its limits. Our innovative ideas are breaking down barriers to bring new technologies to maturity through advanced materials development and process optimisation.
Delivering extreme performance
Leveraging our foremost skills and experience, our next-gen consultancy provides unique insight into the behavior of materials in extreme environments through the latest failure analysis, process optimization, and characterization technologies.
Case Study
Turning advanced ceramics ideas into reality
Emerging classes of materials require high temperature survivability, along with broad and adaptable functionalities for various harsh environmental applications. Our expertise covers various material systems such as Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics (UHTCs), Ceramic-Matrix Composites (CMCs), and Environmental and Thermal Barrier Coatings. Our new advanced ceramic pilot line provides the capability to optimize production processes, develop novel materials, and provide a vision for commercial scale-up.
Case Study
World-leading metals performance evaluation capabilities
We are home to the largest and most sophisticated high temperature water corrosion facility in the world. With over 10 million hours of Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) testing experience in a variety of extreme environmental conditions, it is suitable for testing for both Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) and Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) nuclear applications. Our high temperature testing of up to 1600°C/2900°F determines the variation in mechanical properties for a range of ceramic and metallic materials. Conversely, our cryogenic temperature testing is for materials designed to operate in extreme cold, such as those used in hydrogen-fuelled vehicles or the environment of space. We perform metallurgical evaluations for corrosion susceptibility and failure analysis, providing qualitative and quantitative information about the characteristics of a material or a failure.
Case Study
MIDAR® Technology
Our MIDAR® technology uses a low-temperature chemical reaction to consolidate a material in order to form a robust body with high strength and chemical stability. The process can be tailored to suit system needs through choice of material, making this technology versatile and beneficial for various materials applications.
With our formulation development expertise in simulant particle size and shape, powder flow, and flow rheology, our MIDAR® ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization) uses regolith as a raw material for lunar construction applications.
The MIDAR® composite bridges the temperature performance gap between metals and high-end Ox/Ox CMCs. Since there is no sintering, production costs are lower, making it a more accessible material for harsh environment applications.
With the unique power to revolutionize nuclear waste disposal, MALLETTM is our new, economical, lower carbon technique for encapsulating intermediate level waste.
Case Study
Additive Manufacturing
Our prominence in continually developing the processes of additive manufacturing is widely acknowledged. We improve material performance and manufacturing yields, whilst also reducing waste, processing time, and cost.
Drawing on our attested expertise in metals, our emerging and novel research in ceramic additive technologies, including Robocasting, lends itself perfectly to the advancement of these manufacturing processes.
Developing appropriate material formulations, printing parameters, and de-binding and sintering processes for these materials is key to the success of this technique, demanding our wide-ranging capabilities and experience.
Exhaustive testing for extreme environments
Our extreme temperature mechanical testing and characterization capabilities can be applied to industry or custom standards to enable material behaviour to be assessed.
Nuclear
Our world-leading, broad, and flexible testing characterization facilities can evaluate infiltration and crack growth behaviour of advanced metals, both in Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) and Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) conditions. We also have the capability to precisely control novel water chemistries in order to understand material response over long durations with our Stress Corrosion Cracking facility.
Space
To prevent contamination, products for space are manufactured in cleanrooms, using a cleanroom monitoring method that we have developed and has been validated. MOC Monitoring is the measurement of airborne organic species that could contaminate the product and is capable of accurately measuring and reporting to a limit of < 50 ng/cm2 in accordance with the Indirect method described in ECSS-Q-ST-70-05C.
Aerospace
Our safety testing simulates complex real-life critical loading scenarios. Years of expertise, partnered with state-of-the-art ISO 17025 and Nadcap-compliant facilities, enables us to test and characterize the properties of materials under both standard and product-specific loading configurations.
The importance of machine learning
IMPACTTM (Integrated Materials Processing & Computational Techniques) connects research teams to the right tools, bridging gaps in materials and process knowledge, enabling us to provide solutions that, quite simply, make the world a materially better place.
Lucideon has built a toolbox of partnerships to support projects across the materials development lifecycle, from early-stage Research and Development, through to product validation and application.
Innovating change
Our world-class expertise is leading the charge in innovating change for harsh and demanding environments. We help organizations to prepare our world today for the challenges of tomorrow. Let’s start exploring a new materials technologies journey, together.
Our Experts
Discover more about our experts.
Read our other stories
Enabling Net Zero
Leveraging our expertise to solve your Net Zero technology materials challenges
Read our other stories
intelligent Microbiology-Driven Formulation (iMDF)
Combining consultation with intelligent Microbiology-Driven Formulation development to make informed decisions
Read our other stories
Constructing a sustainable approach
Combining structural expertise and world-class testing facilities for advanced methods of construction
Read our other stories
Our Cutting Edge Technology Platforms
Solving problems and adding value with our unique array of technologies
Read our other stories
Integrated Materials Processing and Computational Techniques (IMPACT™)
Combining our expertise and computational methods to solve your material and process development challenges