Our projects fall into three major categories, namely vacuum, chemical and physical. The systems, instruments, apparatus and components described here are all unique, and were built to customer specifications.

Vacuum Technology Projects

	Mounting plates for material testing in the aerospace industry
	Environmental vacuum test chambers of various sizes. The vacuum integrity and operation of components and electronic systems, under vacuum conditions, were tested in these chambers.
	Ultra high vacuum systems for in situ surface analyses. (more...)
	High vacuum systems for chemical processes. These systems were built for, among others, the production of certain compounds (e.g. tetra-fluoroethylene) at high temperatures under high vacuum conditions.
	Leak testing of large numbers of small, sealed temperature sensors.
	The design and construction of several small, mobile and portable vacuum systems: vacuum distillation apparatus evacuation of infrared long pathlength gas cells without the contamination of these cells by oil backstreaming evacuation of chemical reaction chambers and flushing with inert gases prior to chemical reactions small, portable vacuum systems for evacuating gas sample collectors general laboratory vacuum needs (more...)
	Vacuum/pressure control systems where these systems need to operate under continuously varying conditions of vacuum and pressure (e.g. vacuum deposition systems).
	A high vacuum system for freeze dry preparation of biological samples for electron microscopy. (more...)
	A vacuum system for freeze drying food for hikers and climbers.

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Chemical Technology Projects

	Test systems for the evaluation of the adsorption of toxic gases. (more...)
	Electroplating systems for quantitative plating of metals, such as copper and zinc, from various solutions. (more...)
	Environmental and safety monitoring systems. These include multipoint measuring and alarm systems for monitoring gases, such as HF, in laboratories and chemical plants.
	Sulphuric acid mixing systems.
	Systems for determining the bulk absorption properties of toxic liquids by solids. (more...)
	Production systems for manufacturing speciality gases such as tetra-fluoroethylene and boron-trifluoride.
	Supply of permeation tube standards (this includes the design and manufacture of our own extremely stable and accurate ovens).
	System for large scale removal of metals, such as zinc, iron and chrome, from factory outflows, acid plating and conditioning solutions.
	Analysis of coke oven gaseous products. This included the development of sampling systems and analytical techniques. (more...)
	Supercritical fluid reaction systems (e.g. a system for studying liquid phase zeolite catalysed hydrogenation reactions in supercritical carbon dioxide).

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Physical and Physico-Chemical Projects

	Design and construction of surface analysis equipment (Kelvin surface potential probe and infrared wavelength modulation reflection absorption spectrometer).
	Relative humidity generators. (more...)
	Temperature programmable laboratory ovens for polymer processing.
	Customised glove boxes for handling toxic and corrosive compounds (e.g. HCl and HF, and air sensitive compounds and components).
	Design and construction of a system for measuring the specific surface area of solids using the BET single point method. (more...)
	Measurement of very high temperatures in plasmas by using highly specialised, heat resistant optical probes.
	An apparatus to test the penetration of steel cables into rubber for a company producing conveyor belts.
	Manufacture and servicing of plating systems for the picture frame industry.
	The design and manufacture of of an apparatus to simulate human skin in order to test thermal isolation and perspiration absorption properties of clothing materials.
	A direct current, carbon arc apparatus for producing nanotubes and 'buckey-balls'. (more...)
	A cryogenic temperature control system for a microbalance to do low temperature adsorption studies.
	The design and construction of gas and liquid phase catalyst test rigs to determine the catalytic properties of nanostructured catalysts under various conditions of flow, pressure and temperature.
	The design and construction of an apparatus to determine the diffusion coefficients of different gases through (nuclear) graphite.
	The design and construction of a chemical vapour deposition apparatus to produce high quality carbon nanotubes.

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This page was last updated on: June 16, 2008