The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering has received $140,000 towards an Additive Manufacturing Capability, through a NSW Infrastructure grant scheme.
“This capability will be a world first and will greatly assist NSW with its intent in becoming the leading advanced manufacturing state in Australia,” ACNS leader, Dr Jamie Schulz, said.
Neutron scattering is a technique used to find answers to questions around the structure and composition of materials used in medicine, mining, transportation, building, engineering, food processing and scientific research.
Neutrons have no electrical charge and penetrate materials more effectively than X-rays. This ability makes neutrons an especially useful tool in industrial materials analysis.
Research at the ACNS has been used to determine the internal structure of many types of materials, helping scientists understand why materials have the properties they do, and helping tailor new materials, devices and systems.
The grant will support an Additive Manufacturing Capability for in-situ measurements on the neutron scattering instruments and potentially also at the Australian Synchrotron, a major research facility in Clayton, Melbourne’s technology and innovation hub.
The Australian Synchrotron facility uses accelerator technology to produce a powerful source of light-X rays and infrared radiation a million times brighter than the sun. It is one of Australia’s most significant pieces of scientific infrastructure.
Funding for the ACNS was prioritised for NSW-based National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy facilities, a national network of research infrastructure projects, which demonstrate significant potential economic, environmental, social and technological benefits to NSW.