By RAY WEEDMAN, Marketing Manager, Nanovea Inc.
While R&D topics continue to lead as a beacon for economic recovery, a crucial part of the R&D process continues to receive little to no attention. And make no mistake, you are about to learn of the single most important factor in the advancement of new or improved material technologies around the world.
As industries such as energy, medical, electronics, automotive and countless others continue to make headlines for their effort to improve and advance high-tech products, still nothing is mentioned about the core reason why all of this is made possible.
Understand, for every improvement with an existing material or for every new material developed, a new measurement technique is used to better understand core behaviors leading to specific end-product results. For example, cement products, which have been tested for years on the macro level for strength and weakness, are now in a quick evolution because of new instrumentation. It is now the nano-scale particles being tested to improve various properties of cement by evaluating the effects at the nano scale and the direct implication to the macro scale.
Cement is just one example of the evolution happening with our materials: This is a process that is currently spanning across all material industries, from metals to plastics, to ceramics to biomaterials. Basically, material formulas are being rewritten with the help of this new instrumentation that is also in continuous evolution. This instrumentation not only provides the way for new products, but has also led to an emergence of a new industry of growing nanotechnology instrumentation.
For example, Nanovea, a nanotechnology instrument manufacturer based in Irvine CA, has tailored its product (profilometers, mechanical testers and tribometers) to meet this growing need for solutions to improve materials in various industries. From advanced nano-mechanical testers for nano-indentation, and scratch and wear testing to precision non-contact profiling systems, Nanovea is keeping at the forefront of instrumentation to support global product advancement.
The success of Nanovea is linked to the growing need of all industries to improve materials by understanding and controlling properties, such as hardness, scratch/wear resistance, roughness, flatness and many others. By providing this measurement capability, Nanovea enables energy, medical, electronics, automotive and countless others to making advances needed to extend economic recovery through R&D, ultimately allowing industries to create more value in existing products and open doors with new. Meanwhile, it was quietly made possible by instrumentation such as those designed by Nanovea.
You’re not familiar with a brand like Nanovea because almost all of their work involves non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), so the users of their instrumentation and or breakthroughs made possible are rarely released. Or most may never know or care why the hardness of their golf ball allowed them to make the green, or why their cell phone screen no longer scratches, or that their tires last longer from wear resistance and that the surface roughness of a biomedical implant was crucial to its success. Like most technology, the importance is its use, not how it was made possible.
But if there ever was a time that “how it was made possible” was important, it would be now. Our global economy is currently depending on advances and new products to build on recovery. Thanks to companies like Nanovea, it’s being measured at a nano level to ensure intended results.
For more information, please visit www.nanovea.com.