Using cryo-SEM to perfect your food product

Hummus

This time its the turn of the wider food industry to see what electron microscopy can do for your business at our next free Industrial Solutions event, funded by ERDF, on Wednesday 12 November 2014 (e.g. improve quality, test new ingredients, develop new products).

As well as ice cream, we will also be looking at other food products; hummus, cheese, bread, pastry, to name but a few.





We have speakers from the University giving practical examples of how food companies have used electron microscopy to benefit their business and how they have successfully applied for grant funding through GAIN to develop their company's capacity.  Technical experts from the Plymouth Electron Microscopy Centre (PEMC) and also Mike Wombwell from Quorum Technologies Ltd (equipment supplier) will also be on hand to explore how your company can use electron microscopy to improve your products.

Ice cream

There will also be the opportunity to look around the University's food development lab with Dr Victor Kuri, a leading food scientist, to gain an insight into the sort of product development work he has carried out with companies over the last few years, including Roddas Cream and Kerry Ingredients (UK) Ltd.

Stilton fungi

To join us, simply follow this link to register:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/EMC_workshop_12thnovember

Or contact the Events Team on:
t: 01752 586005
e: events@plymouth.ac.uk

Broccoli floret

Or contact Claire to discuss what the PEMC can do for your company:
t: 01752 588908
e: emc@plymouth.ac.uk

Ice cream, as you've never seen it before ...,

The fourth 2014 Industrial Solutions Event at Plymouth University's Electron Microscopy Centre was a great success!

We welcomed 16 ice cream producers to the University, with their ice cream samples, to find out how using electron microscopy could help their business by looking at their products' micro-structure and therefore understanding their ice cream product better.

Steve Furzeland, former Plymouth University student, and now working for Carl Zeiss, spoke about his time at Unilever, where he spent two years looking at the Magnum ice cream range with electron microscopy to help improve taste, texture, the aging process and stabilisation.

Following a mid-morning coffee, we visited the PEMC to see some live ice cream images, courtesy of the PEMC team; Pete Bond and Dr Roy Moate

and then went onto the University's Food Science department, where Dr Victor Kuri gave us an insight into his work with a range of food companies, including Burts Crisps, Rodda's Cream and Langage Farm, using KTP.

We even had a visit from Fitz of BBC Radio Devon and were featured on drive-time at 17.20 - listen again here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021n0th

Due to the success of this event, we are planning to hold a repeat event for ice cream and other food producers on Wednesday 12 November 2014 - just in time for planning the 2015 product range. Please contact Claire if you would like a place at this free event:

• e: claire.pearce@plymouth.ac.uk
• t: 01752 588908
• m: 07738 858494

Ice cream at x250 magnification

Do my ice crystals look big in this?

Wednesday 9 July - 10.00 - 14.00 - Plymouth University

We're extremely pleased to confirm that the next Industrial Solutions event will be focusing on using electron microscopy to analyse and image the micro-structure of ice cream. With speakers from the industry and the University, we will demonstrate what electron microscopy can tell you about your ice cream product's texture and eating experience by looking at its structure.

Find out how your company could then get free support from us following the event, which you can use to develop your ice cream product further.

We will be joined by two experienced speakers on the 9th:

Steve Furzeland of Carl Zeiss worked at Unilever for two years, where he worked with ice cream, predominantly observing the relationship between air and ice phases and how this can affect the stability of the formulations during transport to customers. He particularly focussed on the Magnum range of luxury ice creams.


There will be also be the opportunity to look around the University's food development lab where Dr Victor Kuri, a leading food scientist, will take delegates through emerging formulations, links between hydrocolloids in formulations, structure and eating quality.

To join us for this exciting event, simply follow this link to register:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/EMC_workshop_9thJuly

Or contact our Events Team on:
t: 01752 586005
e: events@plymouth.ac.uk

The bottom line was boosted ...,

Last month’s third Industrial Solutions Breakfast was a well-attended success, with delegates remarking on not only the quality of the University facilities available for their use, but also the relevance of the speakers from locally-based companies Barden Corporation (UK) Ltd and Fine Tubes Ltd.

Starting with a networking breakfast, attendees, who varied from manufactures to metallic specialists to a cosmetics company, had the opportunity to meet and exchange details. Claire briefly welcomed the group, explained the background to the event and the opportunity to receive 12 hours of free support from the Electron Microscopy Centre (EMC); an opportunity available to all eligible small-to-medium sized companies in the South West (excluding Cornwall) throughout 2014.

Abdul Saeid from Fine Tubes and Gary Hughes from Barden then introduced their respective companies, giving a valuable insight to their approach to quality engineered products, their markets and their companies' objectives.

Each described how they have worked with the EMC for a number of years as an essential, readily-available 'out-sourced' part of their business, particularly looking at:

• surface quality - essential when finish-quality is intrinsic to the performance of the product
• contaminant identification - effectively reducing waste
• pressure test - identifying failures (above)
• plating consistency and thickness (right)
• new process development, validations and control
• materials and defect investigations
• new product development 

Sally Sharpe of the University's Enterprise Solutions team, highlighted other subsidised support available for business, including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), Santander graduate placements and the broader GAIN Growth Hub, which was launched on 1 April 2014 (www.gaininbusiness.com) and which is part of the Plymouth and Peninsula City Deal.

To complete the event, delegates had the opportunity to visit the EMC and the University’s Materials Characterisation Lab, viewing tensile testing, electro-polishing, rapid prototyping and other optical and laser microscopy equipment.

The next event in our Industrial Solutions series will be aimed at Ice-Cream and other dessert producers and the product development/improvement opportunities offered by using electron microscopy (e.g. identifying the size of your product’s ice-crystals) – Wednesday 9 July 2014.

If you want to find out more, then please contact Claire on:

·         07738 858494

·         01752 588908

·         claire.pearce@plymouth.ac.uk

Speaker Background

Thank you to Abdul and Gary for taking the time next Thursday to tell us how electron microscopy has made a positive difference to their companies, both based in Plymouth:

 Gary Hughes – Barden Corporation (UK) Ltd

Gary joined Barden, a world leader in the design and manufacture of super precision ball bearings, as a Technician Engineer in 1996 after studying Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough University. Initially, he provided support to the Engineering teams (reports, calculation, examinations, drawings) before progressing through the department in various roles (Design & Development Engineer, Product Engineer, Senior Engineer) before being appointed as the Product Engineering Manager in 2011 where he manages a team of 14 engineers, including product design engineers and application engineers.

The company has used the EMC for almost 20 years; initially when Barden started developing their super-finishing techniques and standard optical microscopy just didn’t provide sufficient magnification or resolution to understand how the surface finish of their products could be influenced.

As well as surface finish, Barden has increasingly used the EMC for other analysis, including failure analysis of bearings (either from the field or those in production); examination of grain micro-structure; identification of elements associated with known contaminants; distinguishing between coatings and their substrates.

Abdul Saeid – Fine Tubes Ltd

Abdul joined Fine Tubes Ltd, a global metal tubing manufacturer, in January 2013 as a Process Engineer. Prior to this, he was a researcher at the National Centre for Industrial Microwave Processing (NCIMP) at the University of Nottingham where he also completed his PhD in February 2012.

Having made the jump from academia to industry, he has appreciated the benefits of analytical tools, such as SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and EDAX, from different perspectives. During his doctorate in Chemical Engineering he was involved in characterising the mineralogy of oil sand and oil shale deposits. He then worked as a Research Associate developing novel techniques for processing contaminated North Sea oil drill cuttings using SEM to determine the micro-structure of varying feed stocks.

Whilst at Fine Tubes, use of SEM technology has been primarily for assisting in root cause analysis, assessing properties of raw materials and as part of studies into developing new production techniques. It is hoped that future use of SEM will allow Fine Tubes to enhance production efficiency and generate new lines for production.

To register for next Thursday's breakfast, please go to:

www.surveymonkey.com/s/EMC_workshop_3rdApril

Or feel free to contact Claire Pearce for more details about the event, the free support we can offer to eligible businesses and the EMC in general:
- 01752 588908
- 07738 858494
- claire.pearce@plymouth.ac.uk

Boost Your Bottom Line - Industrial Solutions Breakfast - Thursday 3 April 2014

Due to popular demand following our January breakfast, we are pleased to confirm the speakers for our third free Industrial Solutions Breakfast, aimed particularly at manufacturers, precision and electrical engineers, on Thursday 3 April at Plymouth University, part-funded by ERDF - to demonstrate the relevance of electron microscopy to industry.

- Gary Hughes, The Barden Corporation (UK) Ltd

- Abdul Saeid, Fine Tubes Ltd

Starting at 08.00 with breakfast and networking, Gary and Abdul will talk about how using electron microscopy in their respective companies has aided the bottom line; giving practical examples of how this technology can help to solve real issues that they face, from quality control through to new product development, using high-magnification images and in-depth materials analysis, to name but two approaches.

Delegates will then have the opportunity to look around the University's facilities, including the Electron Microscopy Centre (EMC) and find out how they can use this for free during 2014, if they are an eligible SME.

If you're new to the EMC, you're also welcome to bring along a sample for analysis - just tick the relevant box when you register for the event:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/EMC_workshop_3rdApril

Or feel free to contact Claire Pearce for more details about the event, the free support we can offer to eligible businesses or the EMC in general:
- 01752 588908
- 07738 858494
- claire.pearce@plymouth.ac.uk

FREE Support for South West SME Companies

If you are Small or Medium sized Enterprise based in the South West (excluding Cornwall), you could qualify for up to 12 hours of free assistance from the centre funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Electron Microscopy can used for a variety of issues, including in the manufacturing and production environment to help solve and identify contamination issues, investigate surface finishes, look at failure mechanisms and to improve quality in manufacturing processes.

Get in contact for a free, confidential, no obligation discussion to see if we can help
emc@plymouth.ac.uk, 01752 588908

Funding for Businesses

Two different funding streams have just been announced by the University. The South West Innovation Vouchers, are now available that enables Small or medium sized companies that have not worked with Plymouth University before to obtain funding towards projects to be carried out with the aid of the University's expertise and facilities. For more details please follow the link.

The second round of the successful Regional Growth Fund, which provides capital grants for projects that can show they will create jobs. Again, for more information then please follow the link.

Alternatively, please give the Enterprise Gateway a ring, and they will be able to put you through to some one that can help, 0800 052 5600.