In the Faculty of Engineering, two new pieces of equipment were purchased with contributions from the Research Support Fund.
The first is a current generation pendulum impact tester, a standard tool in the mechanical engineering domain used for testing properties of materials. The machinery formerly used by the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering was about 50 years old and although it was still capable of some mechanical testing, it lacked safety features and wasn’t of modern technology calibre. The new pendulum impact tester is fully automated and equipped with modern sensors and integrated measurement devices. It’s capable of a much higher level of precision and, most importantly, ensures the safety of users doing the tests.
Funding from the Research Support Fund was also used to purchase an environmental scanning electron microscope. The new, current generation of this scientific equipment allows for a greater range of experiments to be conducted, and the resolution of the microscope is much greater. This capability is extremely important for testing materials in order to understand the processes that are occurring as specimens (i.e., parts used in machinery) are analyzed at the nano and micro scale to determine the mechanical properties. This state-of-the-art equipment allows Waterloo researchers to further the understanding of the physical nature of advanced materials and apply this knowledge to various application areas.
August, 2020