Metals as Seen through Our Specialists' Eyes

Key materials used in many high tech industrial sectors, metals hold an important place in our research programs. The first aspect of our activities concerns the development of new or improved metal products, which requires to fully understand the composition and properties of these materials. The second aspect concerns the development of forming processes that will help the manufacture of these materials at competitive production rates and costs. The last aspect consists in designing and evaluating instrumental devices that will enable the control of both the various process parameters and the quality of the parts manufactured.

Indeed, IMI has developed a solid expertise in the following metal processes, whose some lead to industrial technological breakthrough.  IMI has started the Aluminium Technologies Centre (ATC) who intends to provide strong support to the Canadian aluminium manufacturing industry, in particular, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to design, integrate, prototype and develop new concepts and high value-added aluminium products and services.

• Facilities for the Development of Metallic and Ceramic Medical Devices
• Powder Formulation and Forming
• Die Casting
• Semi-solid Die Casting
• Surface Technologies

Many technologies of our own design also enable us to control forming processes and the resulting quality control of products. Among these technologies, we have :

• Laser-ultrasonics
• Optical Sensors
• Numerical Modeling of Processes