What do we specialise in?

The Materials Research Lab (LBM) carries out scientific and diagnostic work on structural materials and their welded joints using destructive and non-destructive testing methods, including metallographic, mechanical and thermal testing. We specialise in the study of the effects of temperature, corrosive environment and radiation, which affect the strength of materials, reducing the so-called 'lifetime' of structural components. The LBM houses the only set of hot chambers in the country with a maximum shielding of up to 100 Ci (3.7×1012 Bq), enabling the study of radiologically active materials.

LBM offers testing services to industrial units in many sectors of the economy, including the energy sector. The laboratory is accredited by the Polish Centre for Accreditation, through which it ensures the independent and reliable performance of tests and maintains measurement consistency in accordance with the requirements of the relevant own procedures and the requirements of the Quality Policy and the PN-EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018-02 standard. The LBM laboratory also conducts scientific cooperation with leading national and international scientific units and research institutes and carries out research and development work in the field of manufacturing and testing of modern materials.

LBM con­ducts rese­arch, re-appro­val and dia­gno­stic works on con­struc­tion mate­rials and their welded joints in the field of widely under­stood mate­rials science, using destruc­tive and non-destruc­tive methods. Non-irra­dia­ted and irra­dia­ted mate­rials are tested.

LBM inc­lu­des the Labo­ra­tory for Struc­tu­ral, Cor­ro­sion and Che­mi­cal Testing, the Labo­ra­tory of Mecha­ni­cal Testing, the Labo­ra­tory of Non-Destruc­tive Testing and the Work of Hot Cham­bers con­si­sting of a set of 12 lead cham­bers with a maxi­mum shiel­ding of 100 Ci (3.7 × 1012 Bq), equ­ip­ped with appro­priate tech­no­lo­gi­cal instal­la­tions and con­nec­ted to each other by a trans­port tun­nel. The cham­bers are equ­ip­ped with equ­ip­ment for testing the pro­per­ties of irra­dia­ted con­struc­tion mate­rials.

For over thirty years, LBM has been accre­di­ted by the Polish Cen­tre for Accre­di­ta­tion (PCA) as an accre­di­ted rese­arch labo­ra­tory (AB 025). The Polish Cen­tre for Accre­di­ta­tion is a signa­tory of mul­ti­la­te­ral agre­ements within inter­na­tio­nal orga­ni­za­tions ope­ra­ting in the field of accre­di­ta­tion, i. e. EA MLA, IAF MLA and ILAC MRA. For this reason, the results of accre­di­ted acti­vi­ties, inc­lu­ded in the test reports issued by LBM, bear the ILAC MRA label in addi­tion to the PCA accre­di­ta­tion mark, and thus are reco­gni­zed and reco­gni­zed abroad.

The Mate­rial Testing Labo­ra­tory offers rese­arch servi­ces to com­mer­cial enti­ties and scien­ti­fic part­ners. We pro­vide our clients with inde­pen­dent, impar­tial and relia­ble per­for­mance of tests thanks to the imple­men­ted mana­ge­ment sys­tem, in accor­dance with the dec­la­red Quality Policy and the requ­ire­ments of the PN-EN ISO / IEC 17025: 2018–02 stan­dard. The labo­ra­tory main­ta­ins tra­ce­abi­lity in accor­dance with the requ­ire­ments of the rele­vant own pro­ce­du­res and the requ­ire­ments of the Polish Cen­tre for Accre­di­ta­tion.

 

 

The employ­ees of the Mate­rial Rese­arch Labo­ra­tory par­ti­ci­pate in natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal rese­arch pro­jects finan­ced by the Natio­nal Science Cen­tre, the Natio­nal Cen­tre for Rese­arch and Deve­lop­ment, the Foun­da­tion for Polish Science, H2020 instru­ments or the French Embassy in Poland. Rese­arch con­duc­ted by LBM employ­ees focu­ses on the asses­sment of the impact of radia­tion defects in new mate­rials such as: ODS ste­els, nic­kel and zir­co­nium alloys, mar­ten­si­tic-fer­ri­tic ste­els, Al2O3 coatings and gra­phite. LBM pro­du­ces modern mate­rials using the 3D prin­ting method, and toge­ther with coope­ra­ting insti­tu­tions we pro­duce mate­rials using SPS and HIP methods. The coope­ra­tion is car­ried out with leading Polish uni­ver­si­ties and insti­tu­tes (PW, AGH, WAT, IPPT, ITME) and inter­na­tio­nal scien­ti­fic insti­tu­tes (CEA, VTT, IIT, ORNL, JRC, JAEA or CHRTEM).

LBM acti­vely coope­ra­tes with the Mini­stry of Science and Higher Edu­ca­tion, which sup­ports the deve­lop­ment of new rese­arch methods and allows for the main­te­nance of modern scien­ti­fic equ­ip­ment, inc­lu­ding the only group of hot cham­bers in Poland with a pro­tec­tion of 100 Ci, 3.7 TBq. The cham­bers are equ­ip­ped with advan­ced measu­ring equ­ip­ment and ena­ble a num­ber of measu­re­ments of the phy­si­cal, mecha­ni­cal and struc­tu­ral pro­per­ties of active mate­rials. LBM Was desi­gned and built in the 1980 s to test the so-cal­led wit­ness sam­ples from nuc­lear power reac­tors. The asses­sment of the pro­per­ties of wit­ness sam­ples car­ried out over the years of the reac­tor’s ope­ra­tion ena­bles the asses­sment of the degra­da­tion state of the reac­tor’s struc­tu­ral mate­rials. The­re­fore, it is one of the pro­ce­du­res for moni­to­ring the ope­ra­tional safety of a nuc­lear instal­la­tion.

Contact

Division Head

dr hab. inż. Łukasz Kurpaska, prof. NCBJ
e-mail: lukasz.kurpaska@ncbj.gov.pl

Head of Laboratory for Structural, Corrosion and Chemical Research

dr hab. inż. Jarosław Jasiński, prof. NCBJ
e-mail: jaroslaw.jasinski@ncbj.gov.pl

Head of Nondestructive Testing Laboratory

mgr inż. Marcin Kowal
e-mail: marcin.kowal@ncbj.gov.pl

Head of Mechanical Testing Laboratory

dr inż. Małgorzata Frelek-Kozak 
e-mail: malgorzata.frelek@ncbj.gov.pl

Secretary's Office

Elżbieta Szulim
e-mail: elzbieta.szulim@ncbj.gov.pl, tel. (22) 273 10 62