Industrial materials at the National Research Council
Industrial Materials at the NRC
(Main laboratory in Boucherville, Quebec)
(Aluminum Technology Centre in Saguenay, Quebec)
(Centre for Automotive Materials and Manufacturing in London, Ontario)
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) dedicates its industrial materials facilities to help Canadian industry address the challenges of a sustainable economy and to develop solutions for national priorities. These laboratories focus their clean energy R&D on lightweight materials for the air and ground transportation industries in order to improve fuel efficiency in fossil fuel vehicles, and extend the range of electric vehicles. NRC also works to advance materials processing for resource-efficient manufacturing in an effort to reduce the waste of materials and energy in modern manufacturing.
Types of R&D conducted
NRC focuses its industrial materials R&D activities in three programs:
Competitive Materials Manufacturing
Increasing its innovation capacity to address new economic, environmental and regulatory challenges
- Alternative materials processing for cost-effective and green manufacturing of value-added products and services
- Decision-aid systems for efficient and environmentally friendly manufacturing with superior productivity
Next-Generation Biomedical Devices
Providing solutions to national challenges in health and wellness
- Virtual reality systems for more effective and affordable healthcare
- Medical imaging tools and implantable biomaterials for reduced patient recovery times
- Polymer nano-manufacturing and microfluidics for rapid, low-cost, point-of-care diagnostics
Aluminium Technologies and Regional Innovation
Accelerating community-based economic development by helping Canadian firms integrate science and technology advances into their operations.
Specific research projects aimed at environmentally friendly manufacturing
- Bioplastics
- Biodegradable plastics
- Biocomposites
- Biocomposites manufacturing for the auto industry
- Polymer film (proton exchange membranes) for fuel cells
- Polymer films for electric vehicle batteries
- Nanofabrication of solar cell materials
- Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) real-time analysis and process control for resource-efficient manufacturing
- Surface technologies for super-capacitor energy storage
- Surface technologies for battery power capacity enhancement
- Mechanical friction and wear reduction
- Lightweight metals corrosion protection
- Electrochromic controlled window shading
- Photovoltaic (CIGS) cell efficiency enhancement
- Additive manufacturing to reduce material and energy waste
- Power electronics thermal management
- Light-weighting of vehicle structural components and panels
- Renewable natural materials formulations and processing
Services
NRC is well equipped to help businesses achieve cohesive, integrated and timely solutions to complex R&D problems for both Canadian and global markets. Each year NRC scientists, engineers and business experts work closely with thousands of firms, helping them bring new technologies to market. Through research collaborations, community innovation, industry support and commercialization opportunities, firms benefit from NRC’s expertise, services, facilities and licensing opportunities while increasing their own innovation potential.
NRC’s leading-edge facilities provide businesses, universities and government partners with access to state-of-the-art equipment as well as results-driven research and training programs. NRC also offers fee-for-service testing equipment to help businesses accelerate their design cycles.
NRC’s Industrial Partnership Facilities, also known as “business incubators,” provide businesses the opportunity to co-locate with the NRC, enabling them to tap into the organization’s multidisciplinary resources, often leading to successful partnerships.
Partners and collaboration opportunities
For NRC, partnerships are used to promote innovation and the introduction of new technologies within companies. NRC’s world-class multidisciplinary teams and our strong partnership networks ensure the success of projects, from R&D to commercialization.
Collaborative Projects
This type of project is conducted in collaboration with an individual company and involves industrial R&D work with the purpose of providing a specific solution to a given problem. Usually, the collaborative project results in the development of a technology that will be introduced to the market.
Multi-partner projects
Multi-partner projects and consortiums are innovative collaboration concepts. Stakeholders who share the same common or complementary objectives combine their efforts and resources to complete a technology project. R&D activities are precompetitive, and the results target the development of a given technology common to all partners.
Technology Groups
NRC has created technology groups (or special interest groups) to establish and maintain strategic collaboration with all stakeholders in the materials industry, as well as to promote the development and adoption of new technologies in industry. Work groups bring together representatives from industry, universities and government, who decide upon the technological direction of precompetitive R&D activities.
Potential collaborators are encouraged to contact us. Learn more about business opportunities with NRC.
“NRC’s scientists provided us immeasurable support in the development of the DPV-2000. With their excellent reputation at the international level in the field of thermal spraying, they contributed to a very rapid market development that exceeded our expectation. The instrument has now become a worldwide standard for researchers working in the thermal spraying industry, thus establishing Tecnar's reputation as an international leader in the field.”
-- François Nadeau, President, Tecnar Automation Limited
Unique or high-value hardware and/or software
Facilities
- Magna-NRC Composites Centre of Excellence
- McGill – NRC Cold Spray Facility (Part of MAMADC)
- Nano-imprint Lithography Nanofabrication Facility
High-value hardware
- Composite Materials Advanced Characterization laboratory
- Composite Material Fabrication laboratory
- Polymer film for electric vehicle facility
- Metal Injection Moulding laboratory
- Powder Metallurgy Facility
- Aluminum Laser Welding laboratory
- Friction Stir Welding laboratory
- Semi-solid Aluminum die-casting laboratory
- Aluminum Hydroforming Laboratory
- Polymer Rheology laboratory
- Electron Microscopy
- Electron Beam Etching
- Injection Moulding press
- Multi-layer blown film line
- Twin-screw extruders
- Laser-ultrasonic inspection facility
- Electrochemical Deposition laboratory
- Thin-film deposition facility
- Laser consolidation fabrication equipment
- Laser microfabrication equipment
- Thermal spray laboratories (Plasma, HVOF and Arc)
- Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy laboratory
- MicroCT equipment
- Optical Coherence Tomography laboratory
- Ultrasonic Transducer laboratory
- Virtual Reality Surgical Simulator
NRC-developed software
- BlowView Blow Moulding Simulation Software
- PlasView Injection Moulding Simulation Software
- Blade – Surgical Simulation Software
Contact
National Research Council of Canada
1-877-672-2672
Craig Ceppetelli, Portfolio Business Advisor
1-613-998-9388
National Research Council of Canada
Boucherville (Quebec) Laboratory
75 de Mortagne Boulevard
Boucherville, Quebec
J4B 6Y4, Canada
National Research Council of Canada
Centre for Automotive Manufacturing and Materials
London (Ontario) Laboratory
800 Collip Circle
London, Ontario
N6G 4X8, Canada
National Research Council of Canada Aluminum Technology Centre
Saguenay (Quebec) Laboratory
501 University Boulevard East
Saguenay, Quebec
G7H 8C3, Canada
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