Mechanical engineering assistant professor, Steven Naleway (principle investigator — PI) and associate professor, Bart Raeymaekers (co-PI) received a Research Instrumentation Fund (RIF) grant from the University of Utah Office of the Vice President for Research. The grant, for $49,500, is supplemented with generous cost share from the University of Utah Manufacturing Engineering Partnership Center, the Utah Nanofab, several faculty members in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and a large donation-in-kind from Hysitron to acquire a new Hysitron TI Premier nanoindenter. The RIF grant was made possible by the enthusiastic support of faculty from four different departments.

The nanoindenter will be housed at the Utah Nanofab, available to all university researchers and local industry. It will bring the capability to accurately determine mechanical properties of bulk materials, (ultra-) thin films, and targeted structural features spanning a dimensional range from the nano- to millimeter scale. The nanoindenter will also be equipped with the capability to perform scratch testing to determine local surface wear properties. It should be available for use in late spring semester 2017.