Microscopy Australia’s facilities are supporting a range of manufacturing industries across Australia, answering questions about products or processes that can’t be solved in any other way.
One of our Australian medical device manufacturers had recently detected an issue with unexpected foreign particles embedded in the surface of new devices. The team at Microscopy Australia was tasked with the question “what are these particles?” as part of the larger brief of “where could they be coming from in this new manufacturing process?”. Our staff set in place a plan to help the industry client, using a light microscope and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with elemental identification capability to provide answers. By having the microscopist work alongside the manufacturing engineer, they could identify several different contaminants. The conversations that happened on the fly with the engineer helped to narrow down the likely sources. Phone calls to the factory as the data was being collected meant ideas could be cross checked and the client walked away incredibly satisfied with the outcome.
“Thank you for the support you have provided in guiding us through the SEM process of our samples. Your explanations and the various discussions have been very insightful. Through your testing, we feel more confident about determining the root cause of the small markings and can adjust our plans to mitigate the issues.”
The broader team across Microscopy Australia use the above and many other techniques to solve difficult manufacturing challenges across the sector. One of our challenges was verifying a new pipe treatment technique to ensure instructions provided during technology transfer were both accurate and reproducible. Other examples includes verification of patent infringement in solar panel technologies, and failure analysis of an integrated circuit received from suppliers, to list just a few.
Whilst some manufacturing challenges require the use of extremely high-end microscopes, often the answers come from the more routine instruments coupled together with the knowledge provided in consultation with our expert microscopists.
The value we add is both broad and varied. The Microscopy Australia teams consult with the industry clients, identifying the question that needs to be answered and providing support with selecting the appropriate scientific technologies. Our PhD trained professionals then collect the data, produce meaningful results and insights that allow our commercial customers to move forward with developing world leading Australian-made technologies. When we work alongside our clients through these steps it can save months of valuable time and money in the manufacturing process, providing a faster time to outcome.
The consultation that we can offer our clients and the fantastic results we can achieve working together are only possible when our expert microscopists engage at this level.
Crystal structure of a stainless steel sample.
July 16, 2025
