Testing of mechanical connections and joining techniques.

Joining & Materials Lab

From both ecological and economic perspectives, companies are increasingly looking for ways to make products lighter yet stronger. They aim to find the right combination of materials for a specific application. Consequently, the way these materials are joined must also be carefully examined — with durability as a crucial factor.

In our Joining & Materials Lab, we replicate the entire joining process under industry-relevant conditions. This allows us to identify and optimise the correct process parameters, resulting in a more stable and robust production process — no matter where in the world it is applied.

In addition, our lab supports the shift towards Industry 4.0. Robot and cobot applications are becoming increasingly common in industrial environments. We research how automation can add value to joining processes and explore how robots and cobots can assist operators in improving the quality of adhesive bonds, especially in complex or repetitive assembly tasks.

Our Offer

From our Joining & Materials Lab, we offer the following services:

• Advice on selecting the most suitable adhesive for your application
• Surface preparation and treatment: atmospheric plasma and laser applications
• Characterisation of material surfaces: surface tension, roughness values, coating thickness measurements
• Proof-of-concept implementation of adhesive process automation using a robot or cobot
• Evaluation of bonding quality in a controlled and climatized environment to realistically simulate production conditions
• Process validation: parameter control at each step of the bonding process
• Product validation:
  • Tensile/compression testing at sample level
  • Bending tests at sample level
  • Durability tests at component and system level