Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS
Equipment for production and evaluation of filters, catalysts
Semiautomatic plugging unit for filter segments.
Continuous multi-step system for foam coating.
Large centrifuge used to coat open-cell foam ceramics.
Extrusion of honeycomb and tube geometries
- Preparation with Eirich mixer and double-Z kneader
- Ram extruder and various screw extruders
- Various dies for honeycomb and tube geometries, individual dies are possible
Manufacture of open-cell foam ceramics following the Schwartzwalder method
- Semiautomatic impregnating unit for foam
- Single- and multi-step rolling unit for foam coating
- Centrifuges for foam coating
Calcination/heat treatment
- Air sintering furnaces, up to 1700 °C
- Inert gas furnaces, up to 2500 °C (Ar, N2, vacuum)
- Fast firing continuous furnace, up to 1100 °C (air)
- Hydrothermal aging unit, up to 650 °C, 10% H2O
Coating
- Immersion coating for individual segments and fine filter substrates
- Centrifuges of various sizes
Filtration test stands
- Sooting, back pressure and particle test stand for segments and filter discs (RT)
- Sooting, back pressure and particle test stand for filters up to 12’’ or industrial hot gas filtration up to 1000 °C (hot gas test stand), also for the endurance testing of filters or cyclical analyses of service life, drop-to-idle
- Back pressure measurements, up to 12 bar on small sample geometries (porometer)
- Pressure drop test stand for foam ceramics, up to 20 m/s
- Determination of cell width for cellular systems
Catalysis test stands
- Fully automatic chemisorption analysis unit (Autochem) for chemical and temperature-programmed reactions on powder samples
- Syngas test stands for the analysis and aging of honeycombs and core samples, static and highly dynamic heating and gas dosing regimes, synthetic gaseous mixtures (N2, O2, CO, NO/NO2, NH3, HC, H2O, SO2, CH4+C3H6, C3H8)
Testing of mechanical properties
- Compressive strength testing on filters, up to 10 bar
- Compressive strength testing for foam ceramics
- Compressive strength testing for honeycomb geometries in A, B or C direction
- Strength testing for honeycomb geometries according to ASTM C1674-08 at RT and < 1600 °C in air
- Determination of Young’s modulus
- Thermal stability and thermal shock resistance
Chemical Composition
- Elemental analysis (EDX)
- X-ray fluorescent analysis (XRF)
- Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES)
- Qualitative and quantitative phase analysis (XRD) also with grazing incidence, from RT to 1400 °C
Characterization of particulate matter and suspensions
- Particle size distribution, particle shape
- Specific surface BET (N2/Kr adsorption and desorption)
- Pore distribution (Hg porosimetry, permeation porosimetry)
- Surface charge, zeta potential
- Rheology, viscosity
- Determination of density (bulk density, true density, pyknometry)
- Sedimentation stability
Microstructure and material characerization
- Materialographic preparation of samples (mechanical preparation, chemical and physical etching techniques, ion beam preparation)
- Microscopy (light microscopy, stereo light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy [REM/FESEM], transmission elec-tron microscopy [TEM], etc.)
- Coat thickness analysis
- Precious metal crystallites and particle size
- X-ray computer tomography
Thermal analytics and thermal physics
- Thermogravimetry (TG)
- Thermomechanical analysis (TMA)
- Thermodilatometry (TD)
- Thermal conductivity at RT
- Heat capacity
Modeling and simulation
- Finite element analysis (FEM), ANSYS (Emag/Mech), COMSOL Multiphysics, FlexPDE, Atila
- Flow simulation (Fluent)
- System simulation (Matlab/Simulink, Simulation X, Dymola/Modelica)
- Thermodynamic simulation (Factsage)
Accredited laboratories (DIN EN ISO/EC 1725)
- Thermal analytics and thermal physics
- Characterization of particulate matter and suspensions
- Laboratory for quality assurance and reliability