Surface Science Western Solves Industry’s Challenges
As any company producing metallic and plastic components will attest, any minor variance or fault in a product can impact production lines, delivery schedules, and client satisfaction at significant costs to the company. Wouldn’t it be terrific to have an in house team of scientists and engineers at your disposal to quickly address any quality issues? That isn’t necessarily a practical solution though when issues like this are not frequent occurrences. So who do you call? Who has the qualifications, expertise and equipment to help you solve the problem? Service Science Western does, located on campus at the University of Western Ontario.
Surface Science Western (SSW) is a consulting and research laboratory at Western, handling all aspects of material surface properties and has been working with industry for over 25 years to help solve its surface and materials problems. The laboratory has a long record of timely and comprehensive analytical services to industries producing metallic and plastic components. Supporting these services is a facility with advanced surface and microscopic analytical equipment and a staff of fourteen scientists and engineers. SSW also has supporting research and programs in corrosion science, thin film deposition and surface analysis.
Through the use of state-of-the-art equipment and analytical technique, companies involved with protective coatings (paints, polymers, anodic oxides, plating etc), automotive and electronic components, plastics and advanced composite materials can draw on the SSW team to quickly find solutions for issues such as adhesion, corrosion, staining and discoloration. SSW scientists have been key players in numerous R&D projects with industry leaders in the automotive, communications, energy, health and consumer goods sectors. While providing surface and materials characterization services, SSW has worked closely with a large number of industrial companies, government organizations and consultants including OPG, AECL, 3M Canada, ACRUX Metal Technologies, Paint Performance Consulting, Gennum Corporation, Com Dev, Toyota, Honda, GM Canada, SGS Mineral Services, Trojan Technologies, FAG Aerospace, Kelcoatings Limited, Lanxess, Babcock & Wilcox and Novelis Inc (to name a few).
Although SSW is a facility located at Western, they operate like any business, looking to expand their markets, improve and expand their services and generate revenue. SSW typically works with about 200 different companies located around the world each year and continues to look for new opportunities. In 2006, they became ISO 9001:2000 registered to ensure they are meeting industry quality standards.
The SSW laboratory also acts as a teaching and research resource centre for academics interested in surface and materials studies. Currently SSW supervises or co-supervises 20 graduate students working on a variety of projects including polymer surface modification; materials reliability for the nuclear industry; mineral processing, characterization and flotation studies; and green technologies (air/water purification and solar cells technology). An additional 30 postdoctoral and undergraduate students are associated with a variety of research projects. This is a great recruiting source for regional companies – students working on real life industry projects.
SSW is looking forward to moving into their new facility early next year located at the Western Research Park. The 7,500 sq ft space is efficiently designed with larger preparation areas with many of the instruments located in their own room. This facility will also allow them to expand into additional space as they grow in the future. They will be co-located with the new Lanxess global R&D facility, a company specializing in polymer research, as well as other new tenants. This facility, Western’s newest LEED building, will be even more accessible to companies wanting to visit with free parking readily available onsite.
In servicing a vast range of clients, from small manufacturing facilities to industrial giants, SSW has garnered a solid reputation for quality, innovation and timely service. They are not only a successful business themselves, but are also helping their clients located around the world innovate, advance technologies and grow.
www.uwo.ca/ssw/