PINSTECH has contributed significantly to the development of PAEC’s indigenization program by providing technical and finance for the development, production and characterization of materials related to nuclear industry. Several metallurgical and chemical processing projects have been undertaken in this field. R & D activities have been pursued on projects of strategic importance, including development of reactor fuel and structural materials, alloys, advanced ceramics, heat treatment, mechanical and corrosion testing, materials characterization, etc.
Sophisticated metallurgical laboratories for preparation of alloys, including those for high temperature application, well equipped mechanical testing and metallurgical laboratories as a supporting facility for alloy development, and computrized laboratories for chemical, gaseous, phase/texture analysis corrosion studies, stress corrosion cracking and fatigue testing, etc, have been established.
PINSTECH has been played pioneering role in the development of technical know-how for the production and processing nuclear materials and fuel for Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP). Facilities exist for the determination of mechanical properties of ferrous and nonferrous alloys, such as hardness, tensile strength, fatigue limits, creep resistance and toughness. Charpy and tensile/fatigue tests, for both static (100 KN) and dynamic (50kN) loads upto a temperature of 1000oC, can be performed. Some of the other facilities are Brinell Hardness Testing, Rockwell Hardness Testing, and instron servo-Hdraulic Universal Testing Machines, Frank Pendulum impact Tester, etc. Metallography Laboratory has a full range of equipment dor specimen sectioning, mounting, grinding polishing. Etching and structure revealing. Micrographs of samples upto 2000X can be provided.
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For higher magnification, the techniques of scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy are available, particularly for metallurgical studies. These microsocopes have a magnification upto 250,000X. The scanning electron microscope can also be used for elemental analysis, with the help of X-ray microanalyser attached with it. This facility is of particular interest for the measurement of point to point compositional the material. It can also be used to determine the cause of failure of mechanical components. The instrument can be used to pits, etc. |
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A wide range of thermal analyses for different materials (polymers, organic, inorganic, ceramics and metals) can be performed. These include: Simultaneous Thermal Analysis, Thermal Gravimetric and differential Thermal Analysis, Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Dilatometry analyses, etc.
The physical testing can be divided into two parts: material related and integrity related. The material related testing services include: particle size measurement, Average particle diameter. The measuring range is 0.1-192 mm.
Among integrity related testing are: flaw detection (surface and internal) in welds, flaw detection in cats using ultrasonic techniques, magnetic particle testing and penetrate testing particle testing and penetrate testing techniques. Neutron radiography services can be provided for the examination and evaluation of industrial materials and components.
| X-ray Diffractometer is available
for chemical phase (texture) analysis of polycrystalline materials such as
metals, alloys, minerals, semiconductors and noncrystalline materials such as
polymers/plastics.
Transmission Mossbaure Technique is also available for phase analysis and in defining the role of impurities. This technique has additional advantage in development magnetic materials. |
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