Frontier IP (LON:FIPP), which specialises in commercialising university intellectual property, today announced it has taken a 24 per cent stake in Cambridge Material Testing Solutions , a business established to support the work of Dr James Dean, an expert in the mechanics and deformation of materials.
The Company is developing software and hardware to measure material characteristics in critical metal components more swiftly, cost effectively, and accurately than other systems. Among other potential benefits is mobile and remote testing on site, and the ability to assess complex components and joints.
The technology has a very wide range of applications in several sectors, including in the aerospace, nuclear, and oil and gas industries where material degradation and component life assessment of high value assets is critically important.
Currently, the hardware used to measure material characteristics forces a hard tip into a metal surface to create an indent. The material response characteristics are measured, allowing simple measurements of hardness and stiffness to be made. Existing indentation test equipment is bulky and laboratory based.
Cambridge Material Testing Solutions is addressing the materials testing challenges facing industry by focusing on two development areas:
o a suite of software tools, called SEMPID. This can process data generated by existing indentation test equipment and swiftly convert it into information easily understood by engineers to assess the strength and remaining working life of metal components;
o customised indentation test equipment. The new systems will be desktop-based, mobile, or fixed on site to assess critical components while in service.
Dr James Dean received his PhD from the Department of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge. He has worked for Frazer Nash Consultancy, a leading systems and engineering technology company, on a number of projects, mainly in the nuclear and aerospace industries. He then joined Double Precision Consultancy, a specialist in tackling complex engineering challenges.
More details about the technology are below.
Frontier IP Chief Executive Officer Neil Crabb said: “Frontier IP is delighted to be working with Dr. James Dean and his team to help accelerate the commercialisation of this exciting technology. We believe Cambridge Material Testing Solutions could prove invaluable to companies in critical sectors which need to ensure the materials they use are safe and robust.”
Cambridge Material Testing Solutions’ Chief Technology Officer, Dr. James Dean said: “Our partnership with Frontier IP is further confirmation of our proposition’s value. With Frontier IP’s expertise in the commercialisation of advanced technologies and its ready access to the sectors we intend to penetrate, where the accurate and non-destructive characterisation of material properties is crucial to the safe operation of high value assets.”
