Companies sample ESRF brilliance

The ESRF has a wide range of regular industrial clients, from small technology start-ups to huge multinationals. But according to Ed Mitchell, the head of the ESRF Business Development Office (BDO), there are still lots of companies missing out on the boost to research and development that only the world’s brightest synchrotron light source can offer. In October 2022, then, the ESRF hosted a “Send your sample day”, an initiative supported by the EU’s Streamline project,  which allowed new businesses trying out its micro and nano tomography for free.

The taster day saw an eclectic mix of samples being sent for analysis, from battery electrodes to micro-filtration membranes, and from fatigued steel to parts fabricated by additive manufacturing.

The imaging techniques are non-destructive and highly flexible, available at four beamlines (BM18, BM05, ID19 and ID16B) over an energy range of 20–250 keV, over regions spanning microns to several centimetres, and resolutions ranging from tens of nanometres to several microns.

In the figure, part of the ID16B team working on the samples.

To learn more about the Send your sample day, check the complete article published in the March issue of the ESRFnews digital magazine!