NRC Industrial Materials Institute (NRC-IMI)

(Boucherville and Saguenay, Quebec)

Working with Industry to Improve Materials Processing

Industrial materials and processes permeate every sector of the economy. NRC-IMI promotes the growth and competitiveness of Canadian industry through research and development activities related to materials processing technologies. The Institute works in a number of sectors, including metal, polymer, aerospace and automotive sectors, as well as in virtual fabrication, advanced instrumentation and materials, environmental technologies, nanomaterials and biomedical materials.

Aerial photo of NRC-IMI

In support of this mission, NRC-IMI strives to:

• be the leader in developing competencies and knowledge related to the creation and development of industrial materials;
• be a partner-of-choice with industry in the diffusion of knowledge and the adoption of strategic technologies; and
• be a catalyst for innovation and a magnet for future technologies of relevance to industry.

NRC-IMI offers multidisciplinary expertise focused on the next generation of technologies and high-performance systems necessary to produce new materials and manufacture the products that consumers in the 21st century will demand. R&D efforts are centred on three fields of activities:

• Advanced Materials Design through the understanding of science principles to optimize the formulation and the behaviour of material in the process structure performance continuum.
• Modelling and Diagnostics through 3D modeling, simulation, visualization and real-time sensing, high-performance computational methods and information processing.
• The Aluminium Manufacturing Technology Centre offers advanced aluminium manufacturing technologies: hydroforming, electromagnetic forming, bonding, laser welding, vertical roll strip casting as well as semi-solid forming die-casting.

The Institute has received international recognition for its work with scientific collaborators as well as for its active involvement in technology transfer to industry.