Concordia Centre for Composites (CONCOM)

Concordia University, Montréal, Québec
What the facility does

Research and development of low-cost, high-volume polymer matrix composite structures

Areas of expertise

Established in 1979, the Concordia Centre for Composites (CONCOM) has attained world-class excellence in research, training and industrial development activities in composites. The main emphasis of CONCOM’s research, training and industrial support and development is (a) to carry out fundamental and applied research work in the manufacturing of composites (filament winding, pultruding, resin transfer moulding, compression moulding, braiding, automated composites manufacturing, fabricating of 3D composites, maintenance and repair of composite structures, etc.), design of composite structures (development of special finite elements to handle composite laminates and development of computer-aided design techniques for composite structural designs) and evaluation and inspection of composite structures (acoustic emission, ultrasonic, thermal imaging, etc.); and (b) to develop techniques for the characterization of materials, such as measuring mechanical, physical and thermal properties, and for the development of new materials using different processing methods (work on polymer matrix, metal matrix and ceramic matrix composites).

CONCOM encompasses specialized laboratories, including Composites Manufacturing Lab, Composites Testing and Characterization Lab, Automated Fiber Placement Lab, Laboratory for the Physics of Advanced Materials, Materials Processing and Characterization Lab and Thermodynamics of Materials Laboratory.

Research services
  • Designing of composite structures
  • Testing of materials structures and properties
  • Development of new materials and manufacturing techniques
Sectors of application
  • Aerospace and satellites
  • Automotive
  • Construction (including building, civil engineering, specialty trades)
  • Consumer durables
  • Education
  • Forestry and forest-based industries
  • Transportation
  • Utilities

Specialized Lab

Equipment

Function

Composites Manufacturing Lab

Autoclave

 

 

Burning test instrumentation

 

 

Wabash press

 

 

Radius resin transfer moulding (RTM) injector

 

 

Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine

 

 

Layup table

 

 

Brabender Intelli-Torque

 

 

Stamping press

 

 

Rheometer/mixer head

 

 

EXAKT Three Roll Mill

 

 

EasyTube 3000

 

 

Wickert thermo stamping machine

 

 

Thermo Fisher twin screw extruder

 

Composites Testing and Characterization Lab

TA Q200 Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimeter (MDSC)

 

 

TA Q400EM Thermomechanical Analyzer (TMA)

 

 

Leica UC/FC7 Ultramicrotome

 

 

TA Q10 Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC)

 

 

TA Q50 Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA)

 

 

NEXUS Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer

 

 

DEA 2970 Dielectric Analyzer

 

 

DMA Q800 Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer

 

 

Surface profile meter

 

 

Biaxial testing machine

 

 

MTS 100kN

 

 

MTS 250kN

 

 

MTS NanoBionix

UTM, dynamic

 

CSS450 Optical Rheology Microscope

 

 

Brookfield CAP 2000 Viscometer

 

 

Brookfield DV-II+ Viscometer

 

 

LFA NanoFlash Light Flash System

Thermal diffusity

 

Agilent High-Resistance Meter

 

 

ASC Autoclave

Up to 800F/300psi

 

VIC-3D Measurement System

Photogrammetry

 

Composite tube bending machine for pure bending

 

 

Composite bending machine foe tube under three-point and four-point bending

 

Automated Fiber Placement Laboratory

Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) Machine

 

Laboratory for the Physics of Advanced Materials

Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)

 

 

MCR-500 Rheometer

 

 

HAAKE micro-extruder

 

 

Hysitron TriboScope NanoIndenter

 

 

Press

 

 

SER (Sentmanat Extension Rheometer) Universal Testing Platform

 

 

Small-Angle Light Scattering (SALS) system

 

 

EKSPLA Sum-Frequency Generation (SFG) system

 

 

BioRyx 200 Infrared (IR) Optical Trapping System

 

Materials Processing and Characterization Laboratory

Polishing machines

 

 

Electron/optical microscopes

 

 

Ovens

 

Thermodynamics of Materials Laboratory

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)-Thermogravimetric Analysis equipment

DSC-TG analysis

 

Permeability Measuring Machine

 

 

Philips X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) Analyzer

 

Materials Laboratory

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) equipment

 

 

Rheomixer

 

 

Brabender Single Screw Extruder

 

Structures Laboratory

MTS Dynamic Actuators

 

 

Strong reaction frame

 

  • École de technologie supérieure
  • McGill University
  • Université Laval
  • Bauer Ltd.
  • MDA Corporation