By Scott Miller
smiller@scbiznews.com
Published June 24, 2010

The multimillion-dollar electron microscope lab at Clemson University’s Advanced Materials Center in Anderson maintains an open-door policy for its Upstate clients.

Faced with production stoppage due to materials defects, manufacturers sometimes bring product to the lab for inspection – unannounced.

“We’ve had to tell them before that someone wasn’t wearing their hairnet and hair was in the product,” said JoAn Hudson, director of the Electron Microscopy Facility.

The lab has been a boon to industry here and elsewhere, attracting clients from as far as the West Coast because of its power and convenience. It’s also been used as an industry recruiting tool by Upstate counties, economic development agencies and the S.C. Department of Commerce, said John Ballato, Clemson’s associate vice president for research and economic development.

“It’s a very clear symbol that Clemson and South Carolina are serious about developing this (advanced materials) cluster and developing a knowledge economy,” he said.

In addition to trouble-shooting material defects, the lab’s five-person team – three of the members have doctorates, including Hudson – help develop new materials for clients. By analyzing materials at the nanoscale, they can manipulate materials to the clients’ needs, to perform better in certain applications. Materials can be heated, for example, or injected with oxygen or gas, and Hudson can watch nanoparticles react.

“You can see atoms rearrange themselves,” she said. “You can see atoms disappear.”

Hudson’s team has helped make steel stronger, paint more weather resistant and even whipped cream creamier. They also analyze glass, fibers, fabrics, polymers and other materials.

“The Ivy League schools, they have the equipment – they may even have better equipment in some cases – but it’s spread across departments,” Hudson said. “Industry is not interested in having their material floating around and touching many hands.”

The lab is a substantial investment, one many private firms are unwilling or unable to make.

Clemson University invested around $9 million in getting the facility running at the Advanced Materials Center in 2003, said Chris Przirembel, vice president of research and economic development.

“Hitachi has been very generous with us on steep discounts,” Przirembel noted, referring to the university’s equipment partnership with Hitachi.

The university recently added a $3.2 million Hitachi H9500 microscope that allows it to see even smaller nanoparticles. The unique power of that microscope alone has attracted industry partners, Hudson said.

In addition to the millions initially invested in equipment – and keeping that equipment current through upgrades every five to seven years – the lab contains a pricey maintenance budget. Contracts with private companies cover about 50% of that cost, Hudson said.

Annually, private contracts bring close to $250,000 in revenue to the lab, Przirembel said.

“Companies that may need this capability a couple times a year, maybe even 10 times a year, couldn’t support that infrastructure cost,” Przirembel said.

Much of the work there is proprietary, so Clemson can’t name names, discuss the discoveries made or the specific advanced materials created. But the EM lab does work with the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research, and Przirembel said the lab was a selling point to The Timken Company.

“That facility has become a magnet,” he said. “In order to truly understand the structure of a material, you really have to have an electron microscope.”

While the automotive industry is a heavy user, Przirembel noted the facility also is popular among biomedical device manufacturers.

Hudson expects to analyze more bearings and other materials in the future for manufacturers supplying products to the state’s growing wind energy industry. Clemson is developing a windmill drive train testing facility adjacent to Charleston’s port that university leaders expect to attract private companies.

The state’s growing aerospace industry – fueled by Boeing’s 787 assembly plant under construction in North Charleston – provides another avenue for new business at the EM lab, Przirembel said.

And local companies aren’t the only ones using it. Two of the microscopes at the EM lab allow for remote access. Clients can send Hudson the material. She’ll load it into the system, and clients can analyze it from an off-site location.

“It also serves a very important education component,” Przirembel said of the lab. “We train faculty on state-of-the-art equipment. We train a lot of graduate students and we provide some access to undergraduate students as well.”