Within a more extensive project aimed at increasing the research performance in renewable energies, entitled "Perform Tech UPT", Politehnica University Timisoara has acquired state-of-the-art equipment to furnish a laboratory, which can determine the mechanical properties of surfaces.
The equipment (nano-tensioning platform for characterizing surface layers and thin films & anti-vibration table), together with the related software, also of the latest generation, worth about 100,000 euros, allows the analysis of both compact materials and very thin layers, of the order of nanometers (one-thousandth of a hair).
The equipment, which at present is the most technologically advanced in Romania and unique in the western part of the country, is useful both in the research part, in the most diverse fields, from mechanics and electronics to chemistry, or bioengineering, as well as in industry, especially on the test and quality control side. Virtually any part that involves coatings can be analyzed in terms of mechanical properties, hardness, wear resistance, corrosion, friction, etc.
The equipment purchased in the project can be used to design materials for virtually any field, from protective coating with paint or polymers to the touch-screen of the mobile phone or contact lenses.