Research

SEAM is involved in a number of biomedical/biomaterial projects in both large market areas and niche market technologies. Areas of research include: the design, synthesis and optimization of materials to interact with biological components, implants, drug delivery systems, characterisation of biomolecules and biopolymers, biosensors and biomaterial mechanics.

Material analysis is a broad term encompassing all forms of materials testing and property analysis. This can be for numerous purposes such as to understand the source of a foreign material, to gain an understanding of material strength or durability in a given environment or load condition, to obtain characteristics for computer simulation or to reverse engineer a product. SEAM has the capability provide analysis to determine thermal and mechanical properties of a very wide range of materials including polymers, ceramics, glasses, metals and composites.

SEAM has completed research projects for companies which use polymers in medical devices, biotechnology, engineering and coatings. These projects involved thermal, mechanical and micro-structural analysis and were instrumental in determining production and material problems in manufacture and development, so that production time, quality issues, development cycles and costs were reduced and/or waste could be eliminated.

The current industrial process depends on the control of many parameters to achieve the required product quality results and also ensure safety in an industrial environment. Different types of sensors must be installed in the equipment’s and on the shop floor to acquire the desired data. With the development of technology and the rising Industry 4.0, there is an increasing demand for sensor and monitoring. The acquired data can optimise processes, reduce lead time, increase productivity, and improve process sustainability. The different sensor can work together to provide information to a system that registers all the information and can autonomously decide to stop, start or correct a process step.

Placing sensors in different devices and components makes it possible to acquire different information and allow devices to communicate with each other or to a managing/monitoring system. This type of application includes simple home devices such as thermometers and lightening but also highly complex industrial processes in which the programmable logic controller can manage a process based on sensors input data.