=New equipment system, the Portaflow P-1 has been developed by Advanced Technology Corporation of the USA, to evaluate nondestructively the integrity of metallic components (including base metals, welds and heat affected zones).

The microprobe system uses an innovative automated ball indentation technique to determine several key mechanical properties, including yield strength, true-stress/ true-plastic-strain curve, strain hardening exponent, Luders strain, elastic modulus and an estimate of the local fracture toughness,

The company is represented in the UK by Cottenham Instruments and Materials.

Cottenham Instruments and Materials, 34 Histon Road, Cottenham, Cambridge, CB4 4UD, UK

Rotary transmitter system

Testing speed can be significantly increased with a newly developed rotary transmitter system, the Circograph Ro 30 LOA in coil-to-coil eddy current testing of wires or tubes, such as in drawing lines.

In contrast to conventional transmitter systems where there is unproductive idle time resulting from indirect testing when the ends of the material are fed into and out of the equipment, the new system from Institut Dr F6rster allows the material to be tested from start to finish at consistently high production speeds. This is achieved by a new lift-off system, with which the test heads can be lifted off or lowered onto the material in the transmitter system while rotating. At the beginning or end of the material, the test heads are briefly lifted off, thus

The four test heads in the Ro 30 LOA rotary automatically

reliably avoiding damage even with ragged material ends. Apart from these short interruptions during entry and exit of material, the rotary transmitter system is constantly in testing mode. The lift-off control for the test heads can be effected by manual input or automatically by external sensors.

The system provides for a further reduction in setting-up and resetting times with the facility to set the test heads to a new material diameter externally without opening the transmitter system.

An automatic compressed air self-cleaning system ensures high functional reliability even when testing material with soiled surfaces.

Institut Dr Fi~rster, Pri~fgerbtebau GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach 1564, D-72705 Reutlingen, Germany

transmitter system are opened and closed

X-ray microanalysis at the Louvre

The recent acquisition of a Link ISiS microanalysis system by the Louvre gallery in Paris, together with a Pentafet X-ray detector, is providing new insights into many of the exhibits, including jewellery and ceramics.

As well as the detection of fakes, the Link ISIS system can give valuable information on artistic technique such as how the paint was applied, how it cured, when new paints and colours became available and the distribution of pigment.

With paintings, the pigment analysis is carried out on minute fragments of paint from under the frame or from the edge of a damaged area such as a crack so that no extra harm is done. The samples can

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The Louvre gallery in Paris which is using Link ISIS X-ray microanalysis to investigate exhibits

be mounted in blocks, or cold set in resins, which allows a cross-sectional view of the painting to be analysed to reveal its layer-upon-layer structure. Because microanalysis is a nondestructive technique, samples can be stored for future cross-checking or for more detailed studies.

For example the Link ISIS system can show how the pre- Raphaelites achieved their bright and vivid colour by using a wet-on-wet technique, where paint was applied over a white base coat while it was still wet.

It also shows how the French impressionists such as Manet and Monet used new types of paint with brighter and more vibrant colours. These included cobalt blue which was manufactured from aluminium or cobalt stannate, arsenical green which contained acetoarsenite, chrome based pigments, such as viridian, hydrated chromium III oxide (which is green), the orange lead chromates and the intense purples of cobalt violet (phosphate or arsenite of cobalt).

One of the advantages of the

system that have been found by the Louvre is that it is easy to use. Based on Windows software, it has a comprehensive on-line help facility.

Oxford Instruments (UK) Ltd, Microanalysis Group, Halifax Road, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP12 3SE, UK

Customization sof tware

Agema Infrared Systems has introduced a software option for its high definition Thermovision 900 thermal imaging system. It allows research and development engineers in materials testing to customize image presentation and analysis for a wide range of different applications.

Called Localdev, the software can be used to manipulate the images, and allows users to take advantage of the benefits offered by the system's dedicated controller, such as much faster operation than conventional PCs, without compromising their ability to customize the system for their

own requirements.

The complete source code for three standard image 'filters" is provided to give those users less familiar with the 0S9 operating system some idea of the requirements of programming in C. A mirror filter, for example, enables images to be mirrored in either the X or Y-axes, or both, whilst a view filter wil l generate several small copies of an image.

For users requiring a more basic level of customization, the company offers three simpler options for developing customer-specific routines. For maximum ease of use, macros and toolboxes can be defined to speed up the most commonly used features. Alternatively, the customer has the option of buying in certain functions directly from an OS9 vendor, or creating his own software routines using 0S9 development software. For more complicated procedures, Agema will undertake to write software routines directly for the customer.

Agema Infrared Systems, Arden House, West Street, Leighton Buzzard, Beds LU7 7DD, UK

Materials characterizat ion range

The MagLab series of systems for materials characterization has been introduced by Oxford I nstru ments.

The concept is that of a fully integrated, computer-controlled system for the characterization of a wide range of materials using magnetic techniques. Areas of research include molecular magnetic materials, high and low temperature superconductors, recording media, and hard and soft magnetic materials.

All systems are supplied with the flexible ObjectBench software

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