Collaborative Research


OILTEBIA (Optical Imaging and Laser TEchniques for BIomedical Applications) is an Initial Training Network (ITN) that seeks to provide advance training to early stage researchers in novel biomedical optical imaging and laser techniques for applications spanning from basic research and drug discovery to pre-clinical imaging and clinical translation, from the bench to the bedside. These medical imaging techniques are beginning to move from the laboratory to the hospital, in consequence in the following years there are going to be a necessity of experts in this field.


HECATE (High Efficiency piezoelectric Alternative materials: Towards Environmentally-friendly solutions) : Ce projet a pour objectif de développer des matériaux piézoélectriques à échelle industrielle sans-plomb, plus respectueux de l’environnement. Plusieurs types de matériaux, tels que des céramiques, des cristaux et des films épais déposés sur substrat seront formulés et fabriqués. Ils seront ensuite intégrés dans différents types de dispositifs à la fois ultrasonores, pour des applications sonar et sondes échographiques pour le domaine médical, et pour la récupération d’énergie.

Les objectifs du projet INCAS consistent à développer une nouvelle génération de sonde échographique active intégrant une électronique multivoie miniaturisée d'adaption et de préamplification ainsi qu'une gestion thermique intelligente dédié aux applications médicales. Ces dispositifs seront destinés à une utilisation sur des échographes à balayage éléctronique et possèdent un nombre de canaux transducteurs variant de 64 à 512.
The StirScan project will develop a NDT system in order to address the challenging problem of detecting kissing bonds in Friction Stir Welds (FSW). FSW is a high-performance joining technique for aluminium alloys which offers excellent joint performance and excellent reproducibility – this is of significant interest to the aerospace and wider transport sectors, where fatigue performance is particularly crucial. The project consortium will develop a new NDT methodology to enable the detection of kissing bond defects below 0.3mm in length in aerospace components - suitable for detection of FSW kissing bonds, specifically targeted in aerospace components, e.g. fuselage and wing skins (top and bottom).
The structural integrity of wheel sets used in rolling stock is of great importance to the rail industry and its customers. A number of rail accidents have been directly related to the failure of train axles, leading to increased demands for their inspection and maintenance. The AxleInspect project aims to develop new inspection techniques based on phased array ultrasonic and electromagnetic techniques suitable for the inspection of both solid and hollow axles. For solid axles, inspection techniques are to be developed that inspect from the end face of the axles using new and novel phased array ultrasonic inspection technology. For hollow axles, probes based on UT and electromagnetic inspection techniques are to be developed, enabling detection of surface breaking cracks that cannot be found by ultrasonic inspection. These new techniques will allow inspection of axles whilst they are still attached to their supporting bogey, allowing minimal wheelset disassembly from the train.
Ocean going ships are the most cost effective form of transporting bulk goods around the world. To date, Europe owns nearly 40% of the world’s fleet of ships, which account for 90% of its external trade and 40% of its internal trade. Moreover, in the supply of ship building components and services, the EU is a world leader. As a result, the maritime industry, which includes ship building and ship operation, are vital to Europe’s economy. In this industry sector, structural failure is a major cause of the loss of ships, vessels and tankers resulting in loss of life and pollution of the world’s oceans, seas and coastal waters of Europe. There is a real need for more reliable, faster, cost effective and safer inspection techniques. The X-Scan project aims to respond to this need by developing novel automated NDT techniques (ultrasonic and electromagnetic) for ship structures.
Wi-Health project will develop a prototype wide-area wireless sensor network with autonomous nodes containing non-destructive (NDT) sensors, for structural health monitoring (SHM) of large structures, specifically bridges and vessels in petrochemical plant. The consortium has a wide expertise in a range of technologies needed to optimise solutions and develop this innovative new product. The aim is to develop an NDT node that is autonomous and self-configuring for optimal performance, and requires no maintenance over its operating life.
There are over 3000 spot welds in a typical car. When a car is repaired, the spot welding parameters can be different as the mass production machinery used in manufacture can no longer be used. The repairer often is not an expert at inspecting spot welds. Assured reliability of the spot weld is paramount since the integrity of the spot welds is vital to the crash performance of a car and the safety of its passengers. Therefore there is a need for a rapid non-destructive inspection device that can be operated by somebody without specific skill. SpotTrack proposal is for creating the first automatic spot weld tracking device that can be applied non-destructively in the automotive repair industry. The new SpotTrack device will allow the user to quickly and reliably tell whether a spot weld is acceptable by giving a simple pass-fail indication.
The objective of MONITORAIL is to develop a cost effective long range ultrasonic inspection and also a wireless condition monitoring system in order to improve and better maintain the European railway system for better efficiency and safety. This will be carried out through the development of the Long Range Ultrasonic technology which has a certain number of advantages: sufficient inspection time, cost compared to the conventional ultrasonic testing, 100% inspection coverage (rail's head, web and the foot).
In power plants failure to detect defects in superheated steam pipe results in a catastrophic failure. A typical electricity power plant of 500MW (both nuclear and conventional) has up to ~4 kilometres of pipe work carrying superheated steam. Cracks (due to creep and fatigue) are generated particularly in pipe welds and if undiscovered, may grow until the pipe ruptures. The HOTSCAN project intends to develop a long range ultrasonic system with high temperature capability for continuous in service inspection and structural health monitoring of steam pipes in power generation plants.
Manual Ultrasonic Non Destructive Testing (MUT) is vital to the integrity and performance management of capital assets in safety critical industries including aerospace, chemical processing and power generation. The MUT system comprises of the sum of its procedures, equipment and personnel. Given the essential need for robust inspection systems, and the known variability of man-machine interfaces, the reliability of MUT has been comprehensively investigated in recent years with a particular focus upon the influence of Human Factors upon the Probability of defect Detection (PoD). Without exception, these trials have demonstrated that the reliability of MUT is sub-optimal. The ICARUS project intends to develop a system wide approach that improves the performance and functionality of each of the three key elements in the MUT system: the procedure, the equipment, and the personnel in order to create a step-change in the reliability of MUT inspection.
The TestPEP project will develop phased array ultrasonic NDE procedures, techniques and equipment for the volumetric examination of welded joints in polyethylene (PE) and other plastics pipes of diameters up to 1m. In addition, the project will develop an automated inspection system that will be able to inspect pipe-to-pipe and pipe-to-fitting butt and socket joints in various plastic pipe materials and diameters between 90 and 1000mm.
The NozzleInspect project is partly funded by the European Seventh Framework Program (FP7) over two years and will develop new techniques to non destructive assessment and monitoring of nozzles used in nuclear power plants and mainly in nuclear reactors
This SubCTest project is for the benefit of participating high technology SMEs that want to develop their existing Non Destructive Testing (NDT) and robotic technologies and techniques into new offshore sub-sea inspection applications.
QualiTi is a collaboration between EU companies and research organisations. Its aim is the development of a new and novel automated Non-Destructive Testing technique and system for the inspection of titanium billet destined for use in aerospace applications. The system will inspect billet components using novel phased array and eddy current probes in an automated system.
RAILECT is a collaboration between EU companies and research organisations with the objective to develop and produce a novel “clamp-on” ultrasonic testing device for the volumetric examination of alumino-thermic rail welds. The system will ultrasonically inspect the weld, and classify it according to pre-determined quality criteria.