During 2009 Micro Materials Ltd celebratrated 21 years within the nanomechanical industry. Established in 1988 Micro Materials has continually been at the forefront of innovation, with our pioneering approach leading to three world firsts:
We provide innovative, versatile nanomechanical test instrumentation, and respond to developments in applications in response to customer and market requirements. The integrity, reliability and accuracy of our equipment is paramount, as is our relationship with our users.
In 1988, Dr Jim Smith left his position as Manager of Engineering Physics at Eaton Corporation in Boston to develop the MML NanoTest®. The basis of this instrument was research carried out at Lancaster University, UK. The company was sold to Millbrook Scientific Instruments PLC in 2004, who were listed on the AIM market of the UK stock exchange. In July 2010 MML returned to private ownership following its sale to David Harding, a long term Millbrook shareholder who saw great potential in MML’s unique technology.
The headquarters of MML are located in Wrexham, in the north west region of the UK. All research and manufacturing is carried out from their custom-built facility, which is equipped with a demonstration suite. The company have many support bases outside of the UK, including the US, Germany, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, India and Korea.
MML are proud to work with a long-established network of global distributors. Many of these distributors have worked with MML for 10 years or more, and have excellent technical knowledge of the system.
MML have over 300 systems worldwide, with many centres having multiple systems. MML have worked with the most prestigious groups in academic and industrial research, including Cambridge University, MIT, Oxford University, SIMTech, GM, Siemens and many more. MML endeavour to establish close collaborative links with our customers, which allows the company to respond quickly to market requirements and emerging research areas.
The first NanoTest was sold in 1992 to a group in Paris. Since then many generations of instrument have developed, including the NanoTest 300, NanoTest 550 and NanoTest 600. In 2006 the NanoTest NTX was released, which saw a large improvement in system performance and stability. The NanoTest Vantage, released in June 2011, represents provides the user with a simplified, high performance, modern instrument, designed to be easy to use yet flexible to allow high level experiment design.
MML focus on listening to their customers and helping them develop solutions that they require in order to push the boundaries of nanomechanical testing. They aim to maintain an imaginative development programme to offer the market something unique. They always aim to provide the customer with first class service, wishing to foster a user community rather than just grow a user base.
The MML staff group consists of physicists, mechanical engineers, materials scientists and chemists, together with administration and finance teams. Staff turnover is extremely low, ensuring continuity of quality in processes and instruments.
