Waygate Technologies teams up with top microscope manufacturer
Baker Hughes' Waygate Technologies business has joined forces with Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, to provide customers access to complementary products offered by the two companies for research and quality monitoring in the battery industry, life and material sciences and other industries on international level.
The two leading partners now collaborate in offering enhanced testing solutions from micron/micrometers down to the atomic level for major customers. Here, their technologies perfectly complement each other. The advanced industrial computed tomography (CT) technologies from Baker Hughes' Waygate Technologies allow to achieve highly accurate 3D localization of anomalies within batteries and other specimens, down to a few microns. Meanwhile, Thermo Fisher’s solutions help expose anomalies using lasers for micrometer-precise surgical cuts into the object under investigation, polish them with plasma, and analyze them down to the atomic level using electron microscopy.
Compelling synergies for quality inspection
Additive manufacturing is a prime example of an industry that can strongly benefit from the complementarity of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and micro-computed tomography (µCT). Here, two metal powders are carefully mixed to create a functionally graded bimetallic alloy, for example for space nozzle applications. The material requirements imply strict inspection and control of the finished parts for inclusions or defects.
Since the search radius of an SEM is less than a millimeter, it could take days to inspect the entire part. This is where CT comes in as a complementary technique. µCT allows inspectors to inspect the entire manufactured part and identify large defects in a timely manner, while also highlighting areas worthy of further investigation using SEM and its finer resolution. The key is to combine these two inspection methods for comprehensive analysis.
First choice for hypersonic laboratory at US university
An impressive example of the commercial cooperation between the two companies and the complementary approach in customer environment is the equipment of a hypersonic laboratory at a US university. The university was awarded a grant to open a modern research facility to advance hypersonics in the aerospace industry. Principal investigators working at a state-of-the-art materials characterization laboratory, and familiar with this project, saw the value in that specific approach, and in the need to invest in µCT to complement their Thermo Scientific Apreo 2 SEM system. When the lab director asked Thermo Fisher about their microCT capabilities, they recommended talking to our colleagues to find the best solution. Although late in the competition, the professor, who was already familiar with Waygate Technologies and our products , was convinced by our superior image quality and Thermo Fisher's strong recommendation. This gave the customer confidence in our equipment and after-market support.