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  6. Surface Modification and Measurement Technology

Depending on the stress profile, it is necessary for materials, components and micro & macro systems with modified surfaces to function safely and reliably in practical applications.

With the exception of mechanical integrity, many products incorporate their actual function in the form of multi-material systems – for instance in the form of coatings – on the surface, and must be capable of withstanding complex stress conditions. Surfaces must also be protected from degradation or be capable of providing certain safety or protective features. Functional and protective coatings as well as defects and damage to these are characterised at microscale and nanoscale levels.

To solve these problems, the Surface Modification and Surface Measurement Technology division studies both synthesis-related and measurement-related topics. Investigations concern the application and ongoing development of coating and surface designs in the fields of quality assurance, standardisation and damage analysis.

  • Fields of expertise

    • Measurement technology: Multi-probe methods and multi-spectral mapping/imaging of surface characteristics: Nano-micro-macro
    • Modification: Additive/subtractive plasma and wet chemical techniques: Functional/protective coatings, samples, characteristics, particle systems
    • Characterisation of generic characteristics (surface topography, surface energy, coating thickness, coating morphology, coating gradients) and system characteristics (adhesion and bond strength, interfacial contact stress) of coating/substrate systems
    • Characterisation of mechanical-technological, optical and chemical-structural surface/coating characteristics
    • Evaluation of stress, damage and failure mechanisms

  • Main activities

    • Adhesion, gluing and bond strength of coating/substrate or multi-material systems
    • Materialography (topography, surface energy, coating thickness, structure, morphology)
    • Plastoelastic and viscoelastic properties of coating/substrate systems (hardness, elastic/creep moduli)
    • Optical and dielectric properties of coating/substrate systems (refraction indices, extinction coefficients, real and imaginary parts of dielectric function)
    • Chemical and microstructural properties of coating/substrate systems (chemical composition and structure, phases, texture, grain size)

  • Range of services/technical equipment

    • Tension, tensile shear, torsion, peel, scratch, cavitation test
    • Fluorescence, optical, stereo, IR microscopy
    • Lateral, longitudinal, diagonal, microtome cuts, etching
    • Surface energy: Droplet and plate method
    • Coating thickness: Cross-section/calotte cut, magnetic induction/Eddy current, ellipsometry, X-ray imaging
    • Topography: AFM, WLIM, stylus scanning, structured-light scanning
    • Mechanical characteristics: Measured penetrant testing, hardness testing
    • Optical characteristics: Ellipsometry (UV-vis-IR)
    • Chemical-structural characteristics: X-ray fluorescence, FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray reflectometry
    • Coating, structuring, reference coating systems

  • Publications of the division

    In the database PUBLICA you will find publications by BAM employees.

    Publications of the division Surface Modification and Measurement Technology in PUBLICA

    PUBLICA

Dr. rer. nat. Uwe Beck, Head of Division Surface Modification and Surface Measurement Technology, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM)

Contact Dr. rer. nat. Uwe Beck

Head of Division 6.7

Branch Fabeckstraße

Phone +49 30 8104-1821

Email

Researchgate