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Contact: Ben Franks
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ben.franks@r-techmaterials.com
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+441656748000
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www.r-techmaterials.com
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Testing House
Kenfig Industrial Estate
Margam
SA13 2PE
Neath Port Talbot
- Size
- SME
- Direct employees
- 25
- Turnover (reported)
- £1,500,000
- Regional Markets
- Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, North America
- Nuclear Contracting Tiers
- Tier 3: Original Equipment Manufacturing Organisations
Accreditations
R-TECH Materials
Testing & Inspection
Testing & Analysis for metals, polymer and composite materials
Overview
R-Tech Materials is a global provider of materials expertise. Through our materials testing and consultancy services, we provide our clients with the accurate information, quality service and in-depth knowledge they need, to stay at the forefront of their industries, where materials matter most.
The laboratories at Testing House, R-Tech Materials’ UK base, provide one of Europe’s largest ranges of commercially available mechanical testing equipment. Our accredited test equipment and procedures enable us to test the characteristics of materials from the thickness of a human hair up to a 50mm diameter bar of reinforcing steel. State of the art testing software controls this equipment and when sample conditioning or elevated temperature testing is required, we utilise a full suite of temperature and humidity controlled chambers and environments.
The R-TECH Materials team is a world-leading, multi-disciplinary team, built upon academic qualification and real, hands-on industrial experience. Our materials consultants, scientists and engineers work together to provide their collective expertise to our customers’ materials problems, allowing us to add considerable value to their projects.
Our capabilities include:
- Destructive testing (metals, composites and polymers)
- Fatigue testing
- Chemical Analysis
- Material Characterisation
- Elevated and sub-ambient testing
- A range of metallurgical services
- Failure Analysis (metals and non-metals)
- Plant Integrity
- On site metallurgical services including replication metallography
- Weld approval testing
- Welding Consultancy and Co-ordination
Products and Services
| Product | Sector |
|---|---|
| Other Supplies & Support Services including Analysis & Health | Nuclear Civil |
| Other Supplies & Support Services including Analysis & Health | Construction - Civils |
| Other Supplies & Support Services including Analysis & Health | Oil & Gas including LNG |
- Destructive testing (metals, composites and polymers)
- Fatigue testing
- Chemical Analysis
- Material Characterisation
- Elevated and sub-ambient testing
- A range of metallurgical services
- Failure Analysis (metals and non-metals)
- Plant Integrity
- On site metallurgical services including replication metallography
- Weld approval testing
- Welding Consultancy and Co-ordination
Site Facilities
Shop Floor
1100m2 Static testing equipment from 10kN to 1500kN Fatigue testing equipment to 400kN Hardness & Impact testing On-site machining workshop for metals and composites Microscopy and SEM Portable hardness, PMI
Inspection / Testing
- Advanced testing facilities
- Chemical
- Equipment Qualification
- Proof Load Testing
Recent Work
Innovate UK project in Partnership with EDF
In long-term high temperature service, austenitic stainless steels show considerable microstructural development, with often life-limiting changes in mechanical properties. Since 2011, R-Tech Materials have managed several R&D projects, one funded by the Innovate UK call: ‘Developing the Civil Nuclear Supply Chain – feasibility Study’ to develop a structural integrity and remaining life model for these materials.
Currently, industry relies on conservative mechanical test data to assess remaining life without reference to the actual metallurgical condition. With the new model in which remaining life is linked to actual metallurgical condition, the remaining life of plant can be assessed much more accurately.
The project has included an extensive experimental programme comprising creep, tensile and impact testing of pre-aged (up to 5500 hours) type 304, 316L, 316Ti and 321 steels with associated metallographic studies. To date, metallographic studies have addressed the major microstructural changes – dissolution of the delta-ferrite and the precipitation of carbides and the intermetallic sigma-phase. Inspired by established approaches for ferritic steels, the project has developed a formal method of classifying microstructural condition, using data that can be obtained in the field from simple adaptations of established metallographic inspection methods. A kinetic model of microstructural evolution has then been generated, using quantitative metallographic measurements. A continuum-damage-mechanics approach has been used to generate an integrated model of creep and tensile behaviour.
R-Tech Materials have recently completed an MSc programme with Swansea University to extend the microstructural classification scheme and microstructural and mechanical models to address austenitic welds.
Most recently, we received award funding by Innovate UK for the development of a prototype software which involved the metallographic assessment of 250+ specimens. These samples have been creep tested between 550 and 700°C, for up to 190,000 hours and also include 10 ex-AGR samples with lives up to 178,000 hours – all provided by EDF Energy Generation. The goal was to extend the link between mechanical properties and microstructural evolution to the long term data.