Cases

OCAS’s unique fatigue testing technique chosen to look into the viability of single-sided welds for offshore structures

Following the successful outcome of the "Improved Fatigue Life of Welded Jacket Connections" JaCo project, OCAS is once more the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator preferred partner in their new…

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Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in metallurgical research

The 3-year project has been approved by the Vlaio evaluation committee after receiving highly positive comments of the expert reviewers.

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FatCor: better understanding the FATigue CORrosion mechanisms

“Towards a longer lifetime of offshore wind turbine monopile structures by better understanding the FATigue CORrosion mechanisms”

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Measuring high-temperature hardness to save lives

With an ever-increasing number of steel constructions in residential and industrial buildings, fire safety remains a work of continuous improvement. The main parameter used is the ‘fire resistance period’ –…

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You name it, our GD-OES can analyse it

Steel, non-ferro, painted materials, metallic coatings, tubes, flat samples, small, large, thin, thick, you name it, the OCAS glow discharge optical emission spectrometer (GD-OES) can analyse it

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Fast response prevents failure

OCAS created a dedicated task force to support key accounts in ensuring the reliability of their safety-critical industrial assets.

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Electroplating at your service

What if you want to test an alternative electrolyte? What is the most effective way to optimise your plating parameters? The OCAS upscaling plating pilot is available for your next…

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How failure analysis can save lives

To protect workers against falling from heights in a professional environment, lifelines are used. These lifelines are typically made from stainless steel to ensure excellent performance in an industrial environment.

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Assess corrosion in various environments

Structures can be exposed to all kinds of different environments. It is therefore important to assess corrosion using accelerated tests with conditions close to reality.

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Testing soil corrosion resistance for buried applications 

Although soil corrosion is often not visible, its consequences are important for any buried structure.

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Significantly reduce the number of experimental welding tests

Process simulation is to be understood as a virtual sequence of the process that aims to determine geometrical, metallurgical and technological process results. The simulations allow faster and more precise…

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Data analysis identifies product issue

A customer experienced a complex quality issue on their final product. Traditional methods failed to identify the cause of the problem.

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Predicting mechanical properties from microstructure images

OCAS is developing methodologies to allow machines to analyse images from microstructures, based on artificial intelligence principles. The objective of this work is to improve our understanding of the relationship…

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Artificial intelligence seminar brings together academic researchers and industrial experts

OCAS organised the “Artificial Intelligence for advanced image processing and analysis in new product development” seminar on Friday February 1st 2019 in its labs at Zwijnaarde (Belgium), attracting 60+ participants…

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To measure is to know

To measure is to know, is a key principle of risk management. OCAS has a longstanding tradition in measuring potentially hazardous compounds.

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Hexavalent chromium-free alternative for hard chrome plating within REACH

Back in 2012, driven by the need for REACH* compliant alternatives, OCAS initiated a project on hexavalent chromium-free hard chrome plating. (*REACH: European regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction…

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Green enamelling solutions

Vitreous enamelling has been acknowledged for centuries as one of the most durable ways to protect metals against abrasion, temperature and corrosion. In recent years, driven by ever-stricter environmental legislation,…

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Pro-actively adapt formulations without compromising performance

The essential role of chemical passivations and thin organic coatings is to provide corrosion protection during handling, transport and storage of metallic coated products. The combination of environmental constraints with…

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Food contact compliant materials

To be considered compliant for food contact, materials must meet requirements. Currently, standardization bodies are working on a standard for porcelain (vitreous) enamel. OCAS was invited to participate in the…

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Testing can be fatiguing!

Although, resistance to repetitive loading or fatigue might not be so well known as material degradation term, it is an important material property.

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Wear seminar brings together academic researchers and industrial experts

OCAS organised the “Abrasion resistant steels: modelling and experimental challenges” wear seminar at OCAS on Friday June 15th 2018 in its labs at Zwijnaarde (Belgium), attracting 50+ participants representing 10…

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Enabling extreme testing conditions in a safe way

Pressure-containing equipment such as pipelines, risers, valves, fittings and pressure vessels are often subject to complex loading conditions during their service life. Extreme testing conditions are required to accurately reproduce…

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Fatigue testing of large-scale welded structures made efficient

The shift to deeper waters and larger wind turbine generators requires optimised jacket foundations. Through a better understanding and accelerated testing of a large number of manual and automatic welded…

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Sour corrosion testing at your service

An increasing number of wells contain considerable amounts of hydrogen sulphide H2S. This requires the use of sour resistant steel, to avoid phenomena such as hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) and sulphide-stress…

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MaDurOS – a private public partnership for material durability breakthroughs in challenging operational conditions

The offshore environment puts severe durability requirements on materials. One of its main inherent characteristics is that material is often exposed to several environmental conditions simultaneously: corrosive environment, fatigue loading,…

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