Your one-stop shop for alloy synthesis & processing

OCAS has access to an extended range of lab equipment to synthesize customised alloys in small batches. Unique metal alloys can be processed from liquid phase, over rolling down to final heat treatment in one integrated laboratory.

Casting

Our skilled staff can cast the chemistry you need, from steels to non-ferrous alloys, from generic binary or ternary alloys to complex multi-component systems, in the desired amount, from 100 g to 100 kg, in different geometries. High performance small scale melting devices are available for flexible and quick processing of tailor-made alloys in limited quantities. This equipment allows short lead times and reduced material cost, making it excellent tools for exploratory research.

Rolling

For further processing, using our lab hot and cold rolling mills, we can offer the full range of geometries: heavy gauge, flat and wire rod, using thermomechanical processing in combination with controlled cooling paths, microstructure and properties can be controlled.  Multiple successful rolling campaigns have been carried out, using different compositions including non-ferrous alloys, and shaping various geometries.

Thermal treatment

All samples can easily be submitted to any thermal treatment in air, protective or reactive atmospheres, for batch or continuous annealing, for realising structure and properties. In addition to a range of box furnaces and multiple robotised isothermal baths, OCAS is also equipped with an instrumented tube furnace, a reactive annealing simulator and an automated annealer taking batches of 12 samples. The heat treated samples are ready-to-use for further characterisation (Charpy, tensile test, hardness evaluation, metallography, etc.) making them ideal for exploratory research.

Of course, full characterisation of the samples, including TEM, FIB, and XRD, is also available at OCAS.

“By having this flexible lab capacity for producing customised alloys in various geometries, we can offer our customers access to an unlimited offer of samples in small quantities to accelerate their new developments.”

Elke Leunis, Senior Researcher Metallurgy, OCAS