Engineering Industry to benefit from UK X-Rays

6 March 2008 

Construction has begun on the latest addition to the UK’s world class new research facility, Diamond Light Source. The Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing (JEEP) beamline will be the first experimental station to extend outside of the main building to enable large engineering components to be placed under Diamond’s powerful X-ray beam.

I12 groundbreaking ceremony for  JEEP  beamline, left to right in foreground

Due to come online in 2009/2010, JEEP will allow researchers within the engineering industry and research to develop a greater understanding of how components are affected by production processes and treatments and how products and systems cope when exposed to strain, ageing, fatigue etc. Components weighing up to two tonnes and up to the scale of one metre will be placed inside the new beamline where scientists will be able to simulate real service conditions whilst continually monitoring the internal stress state and structure of the components using the X-ray beam.

JEEP will have a range of capabilities, using techniques such as imaging and tomography, X-ray diffraction and Small Angle X-ray Scattering. Researchers will be able to use this beamline to study not only material samples but also bio samples, for example bones or teeth, or even soft tissue.

Principal Beamline Scientist, Dr Michael Drakopoulos, says: "JEEP is a multi-purpose, high energy X-ray beamline which will provide flexibility in the type and complexity of the experiments it can accommodate. Once in operation, one of the benefits JEEP will provide is the ability to produce successive 3D pictures of the internal volume of engineering components, similar to the techniques used for CAT scans, allowing researchers to study and measure such things as stress corrosion cracks. Techniques such as this can potentially help companies within the engineering industry to advance their performance."

Phase I of Diamond was completed on time, on budget and to schedule with the successful construction of Diamond’s machine buildings and the first seven beamlines complete in 2006. With two of its Phase II beamlines now online, Diamond is on track to complete the second phase in 2011. The JEEP beamline will actually be made up of two experimental hutches, the first of which will open to users in late 2009 and the second, much larger hutch situated outside the main building, will open in 2010.

If you would like to find out more or you are interested in using the JEEP beamline at Diamond, please contact Dr Michael Drakopoulos on 01235 778157 or email michael.drakopoulos@diamond.ac.uk.

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  For more information or images, contact:

 Sarah Bucknall at Diamond: 0044 (0) 1235 778639 / sarah.bucknall@diamond.ac.uk

Additional quote from the ICE:

Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Regional Director, John Laverty, said: "JEEP is a fascinating project and has a number of potential benefits to the civil engineering industry, including the analysis of component behaviour and failure modes and the development of innovative materials and structures. It’s fantastic to see large scientific facilities like this being developed in the UK."

• Diamond uses arrays of magnets, called insertion devices, to accelerate the electrons at nearly the speed of light and focus them to generate extremely intense pin-pointed beams of synchrotron light of exceptional quality
• In contrast to the current national synchrotron light source in Cheshire, the beams generated by Diamond will be up to 10,000 times brighter - around 100 billion times brighter than a standard hospital X-ray machine or 10 billion times brighter than the sun.