At SETSCO, we provide expert consultancy to tackle challenges in construction and engineering. Our skilled team delivers tailored solutions to ensure your project’s safety, durability, and performance, supporting informed decisions and optimal results.
Building Consultancy
Our Building Consultancy offers clear, reliable solutions for building challenges. Using advanced techniques and expertise in materials and standards, we deliver trusted results. We design tailored tests and simulations to ensure your materials and systems work seamlessly, helping you prevent costly issues.
Our Building Consultancy Services
Building Material Consultancy
With natural resources in limited supply, meeting the demand for affordable, high-performance building materials is challenging. Thanks to advancements in technology, we can now create complex materials that meet these demands. SETSCO enhances the product development chain by offering an extensive range of accredited material testing, both in our laboratories and on-site.
Building Performance Consultancy
Repair Works Consultancy
Effective building repairs start with a thorough assessment of the defect’s nature and scope, along with an understanding of the original design. Based on this, SETSCO can recommend solutions that leverage advanced repair materials. We help you select materials suited to the type of repair, working conditions, duration, and compatibility, ensuring the restored area meets its original function and performance.
Restoration & Conservation Consultancy
Building restoration focuses on bringing a historic building back to a specific period while preserving its heritage. This may involve using modern materials that mimic original ones, especially when they’re more durable or environmentally sound. SETSCO’s material testing capabilities allow us to identify materials that meet both historical accuracy and modern environmental standards, ensuring authentic, sustainable restorations.
Failure Analysis
Failure analysis is essential to identify root causes of material or component failures. At SETSCO, we use advanced techniques to reveal failure mechanisms, offering insights that improve product design, manufacturing, and material selection to enhance reliability and prevent future issues.
Our Failure Analysis Services
Surface Analysis
Surfaces are the primary contact point for environmental interactions, making them vulnerable to external damage. SETSCO’s surface analysis techniques include:
- SEM/EDX (Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis): Examines the top micrometre of the surface, often as a preliminary step to select the appropriate surface analysis technique.
- TOF-SIMS (Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry): Analyses very thin surface layers of organic compounds, offering maps and depth profiles of specific atomic and molecular masses.
- AES (Auger Electron Spectroscopy): Provides elemental analysis for the top few nanometres with sub-micrometre resolution, ideal for conductive samples. Generates elemental maps and depth profiles.
- XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy): Similar to AES but also provides chemical information. Suitable for non-conductive samples, with slightly lower spatial resolution.
- AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy): Produces high-resolution surface images, measuring surface texture and roughness at the nanometre scale.
Non-Destructive Testing
Non-destructive testing (NDT) allows us to examine samples without permanent alteration, preserving their structure. SETSCO employs several NDT methods:
- Optical Microscopy: With digital imaging and analysis, used for dimensional measurements, archiving, and inspecting components, microstructures, defects, and contamination.
- X-RAY Scanning: Quickly views the internal structure of a sample, particularly useful for inspecting solder joints and device structures.
- Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM): Uses ultrasound to detect changes in acoustic impedance, revealing internal voids or delamination.
Destructive & Mechanical Testing
Destructive testing provides definitive insights into material strength and failure characteristics. SETSCO’s destructive and mechanical tests include:
- Mechanical Cross-Sectioning: Exposes a sample’s internal structure through precise grinding, polishing, and mounting.
- Focused Ion Beam (FIB): Used for detailed cross-sections, TEM preparation, or circuit modification.
- Decapsulation: Chemically or laser removes materials to expose a sample’s inner structure.
- Hardness and Tensile Testing: Measures resistance to deformation and tensile strength.
- Solderability Test: Assesses the ease of creating a soldered joint, detecting potential contamination issues.
- Wire Pull and Ball Shear Tests: Tests wire bonds and solder balls to verify bonding strength.
- Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM): Uses high-energy electrons for imaging ultra-thin samples, identifying nanometre-scale defects.
Polymer & Organic Material Characterisation
Understanding polymers and organic compounds is essential for device reliability. SETSCO offers:
- Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC): Measures thermal properties like glass transition temperature and phase changes.
- Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA): Examines moisture content, residual solvents, and polymer degradation temperatures.
- FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) and GCMS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry): Identifies unknown organic compounds like adhesives, coatings, and lubricants.
- Melt Flow Index: Determines the flow properties of thermoplastic polymers.
Chemical Testing
SETSCO offers a broad range of chemical testing services to assess material composition and properties. More details can be found in our Chemical Testing section.
Electrical Testing
Electrical testing often provides the first clues in failure analysis. SETSCO offers tailored electrical testing services to locate and diagnose electrical faults, working closely with clients to meet specific testing needs.
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