Industry uses ESRF instrumentation
A M A D E M A
KEY FACTS
Tailormade for SMEs Transnational Access
TamaTA is a programme that helps and
encourages smalltomedium enterprises to
access worldclass acceleratorbased light
sources in Europe and in the Middle East to
boost their innovation and competitiveness
It is one of many activities of LEAPSINNOV
a project funded by the European Commis
sions Horizon2020 programme to boost
lightsource access
“ The synchrotron results
surpassed our expectations in
terms of detail and resolution. ”
Vassilis Drakonakis, managing director, AmaDema
T H E C O M P A N Y
AmaDema was founded in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 2016 to
manufacture a new product that makes f ibre-reinforced
polymer composites stronger and lighter. Today it has
14 employees and an annual turnover of €600k.
T H E W O R K
Fibre-reinforced polymer composites are increasing-
ly adopted for tasks that demand strength without
weight. Made of glass, carbon or other f ibres embedded
in epoxy or other polymers, they are used in a range
of industrial sectors aerospace uses them instead of
aluminium alloys for instance NanoWeld by
AmaDema makes these composites up to 20
stif fer and 100 tougher while of fering substantial
weightsaving opportunities NanoWeld consists of
a dry membrane that sandwiches existing technical
f ibres before they are embedded in their polymer
matrix Inside the membrane are nonwoven polymeric
nanof ibres which themselves include nanoparticles
AmaDema scientists wanted to study the membrane
in more detail to see if they could improve it, but lab
techniques such as scanning electron microscopy only
delivered fuzzy, 2D images. They wanted to see if
synchrotron X-ray nanotomography could help
visualise the membrane in high-resolution 3D, and so
they applied for access to the ESRF via the TamaTA-
Innov programme (see box).
T H E I M P A C T
We wanted a proof of concept to see whether we could
actually see anything In fact the synchrotron results
surpassed our expectations in terms of detail and
resolution They showcased the intricate and complex
structure of the interfaces between the nanof ibres in our
membrane and the carbon f ibres of the host technical
fabric we could reconstruct it entirely in 3D We hope
that the results will help us design protocols for a better
distribution of the polymer matrix during manufacture
Also the turnover of the results was immediate and
the communication with the ESRF staf f was excellent
Overall our experience with the ESRF was exceptional
VASSILIS DRAKONAKIS MANAGING DIRECTOR
AMADEMA
17
16
STRONGER AND L IGHTER
COMPOSITE MATERIAL S
I M P A C T O N I N D U S T R Y
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