Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility - News
Material world exposed by £2.5m X-ray facility
Dinosaur experts will rub shoulders with aircraft designers at a new x-ray imaging facility in the School of Materials.
The Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility will provide researchers from across the world with the 'x-ray spectacles' to see inside materials and structures from the metre to the nanometre scale in 3D – with unparalleled resolution.
They will also be able to watch structures evolve or processes occur on timescales ranging from seconds to months.
The Facility represents an investment of £2.5 million by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the University and the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).
Based in the Materials Science Centre in The School of Materials, the unique facility is open to academic and industrial researchers from Manchester and beyond. It forms part of the University of Manchester Aerospace Research Institute (UMARI).
It provides world-class facilities for a process known as Computed Tomography – a powerful non-destructive evaluation technique for producing 2-D and 3-D cross-sectional images of an object from a series of 2D x-rays.
Objects examined may range from heavy engineering components to micron-sized biological samples. Biological events, degradation processes such as corrosion, or crushing of materials can be monitored in a non-invasive way.
Imaging equipment is supported by a suite of powerful workstations for the offline reconstruction and visualisation of data. A sample preparation area and office work space is also available.
The new facility will be used by researchers working with a diverse range of samples and objects, including composite, biological, metallurgical, paper, textiles, sports goods, archaeological, paleontological and geological samples.
The Facility complements and extends the advanced equipment that already exists within the Schools Stress and Damage Characterisation Unit for the non-destructive investigation of materials across a very wide range of disciplines.
Prof Phil Withers, founder of the new facility said: "From a series of 2D x-ray images we can construct 3D 'pictures'. This facility enables us to study how things evolve over time, either naturally or under a range of loads, temperatures or other stimuli. It is bringing together scientists and engineers from many disciplines to see things behave at a level of detail not previously possible." Dr. George Baxter, NWDA Director of Science and Innovation, said: "The NWDA is pleased to provide its support for this important project, which supports the aims of the Northwest Science Strategy and will help to further enhance the region's scientific capability. The Northwest has a reputation as a leader in the field of science and innovation, and the opening of this pioneering new facility is another example of the region's strengths in this area."