00

Statement

Independent foundation, Basel, established 1951

# Materials fail in ways that are boring, repeatable and worth measuring properly.

Institut Vollmer tests metals, coatings, polymers and ceramics for anyone willing to pay for an honest number. We are a foundation, not a department. Four research programmes, 148 staff, and a rule that raw data leaves the building with every report.

Work with the institute Recent publications

01

Research

Four programmes, reviewed every five years

## Four programmes. No fifth one until one of these closes.

A

### Fatigue and fracture

Metals under cyclic load, from 10³ to 10⁹ cycles.

Crack initiation and closure in wrought and additively manufactured steels, with variable amplitude spectra taken from real service records rather than laboratory blocks. The programme runs three servohydraulic rigs continuously and publishes its raw load histories.

Head
  Dr Katrin Reuss
Started
  1974
Staff
  21, of which 9 doctoral
Funding to
  2029

B

### Thin films and coatings

Adhesion, residual stress and wear at thicknesses below 5 µm.

Physical and chemical vapour deposition on tool steels, glass and polymer substrates. Work concentrates on the failure of the interface rather than on the film itself, using nanoindentation, scratch testing and cross-sectional microscopy.

Head
  Prof. Samuel Ndiaye
Started
  1996
Staff
  18, of which 7 doctoral
Funding to
  2028

C

### Polymer ageing

Thermal, oxidative and photochemical degradation over decades.

Accelerated ageing correlated against field samples recovered from buildings, vehicles and buried pipe. The institute holds a reference archive of 2,900 dated specimens, the oldest exposed in 1963, and adds roughly 60 a year.

Head
  Dr Miriam Aeberhard
Started
  1963
Staff
  16, of which 6 doctoral
Funding to
  2030

D

### Structural ceramics

Silicon carbide and nitride above 1,200 °C.

Creep, oxidation and thermal shock in components for energy conversion. The group maintains the only four-point bend rig in the region certified for testing at 1,450 °C in controlled atmosphere, and shares it with two universities.

Head
  Dr Ilya Brunner
Started
  2008
Staff
  12, of which 5 doctoral
Funding to
  2029

Fig. 1. The scanning electron microscope in Hall B. A 316L specimen goes on the stage at 15 kV after 4.1 million cycles.
Fig. 2. Porosity in the same specimen, imaged after sectioning. Every dark mark is a void.

02

Facilities

Eight principal instruments, all bookable

## Instruments, what they do, and when they were installed.

- Scanning electron microscope Field emission, EDS and EBSD, 0.8 nm at 15 kV 2019 Open, booked
- Transmission electron microscope 200 kV, STEM and tomography, cryo stage 2022 Trained users
- Servohydraulic fatigue rigs Three frames, 100 / 250 / 630 kN, 0.1 to 50 Hz 1988, rebuilt 2021 Staff operated
- X-ray diffractometer Residual stress and texture, Cr and Cu sources 2016 Open, booked
- Nanoindenter Continuous stiffness, 10 µN to 500 mN, heated stage 2020 Trained users
- Thermogravimetric analyser To 1,600 °C, coupled mass spectrometry 2018 Staff operated
- Climate chambers Six units, −70 to +180 °C, 10 to 98 per cent RH 2011 to 2024 Open, booked
- Clean room ISO class 7, 240 m², deposition and lithography 2014 Trained users

Hourly rates and the booking calendar are published at the reception desk and revised each January. Academic users from partner institutions pay the marginal cost of consumables only.

03

Publications

Ten of 112 papers, 2023 to 2026

## Selected publications.

Every paper below is deposited open access within six months of acceptance. Underlying data is deposited at the same time.

1. 2026 Crack closure in additively manufactured 316L under variable amplitude loading Reuss, K., Aeberhard, M., Vollmer, T.International Journal of Fatigue 191, 108441
2. 2026 Oxide scale spallation on ferritic steels above 750 °C Halter, P., Ndiaye, S.Corrosion Science 238, 111902
3. 2026 Creep of pressureless sintered silicon carbide in wet air at 1,400 °C Brunner, I., Sigg, R.Journal of the European Ceramic Society 46, 3311
4. 2025 Sixty-two years of polyethylene: field ageing against the accelerated model Aeberhard, M., Lutz, C., Perrin, N.Polymer Degradation and Stability 231, 110724
5. 2025 Residual stress and interface failure in AlTiN coatings on hardened tool steel Ndiaye, S., Bircher, A.Surface and Coatings Technology 496, 130603
6. 2025 A round robin on hydrogen-charged martensitic steel across four laboratories Reuss, K., Frei, D.Materials & Design 249, 112558
7. 2024 On the reporting of load spectra: a proposal for minimum disclosure Vollmer, T., Sigg, R., Halter, P.Engineering Fracture Mechanics 302, 110088
8. 2024 Photo-oxidation of glass fibre reinforced polyamide in alpine exposure Perrin, N., Aeberhard, M.Polymer Testing 138, 108211
9. 2024 Thermal shock of silicon nitride: quenching versus cyclic heating Bircher, A., Brunner, I.Ceramics International 50, 27904
10. 2023 Digital image correlation at the scale of a single grain: limits and artefacts Lutz, C., Reuss, K.Experimental Mechanics 63, 1411

04

People

148 staff, 22 nationalities, 63 doctoral

## Programme heads.

### Dr Katrin Reuss

Head, Fatigue and fracture

At the institute since 2011. Chairs the working group on load spectrum disclosure and teaches the fracture mechanics course at the technical university two afternoons a week.

### Prof. Samuel Ndiaye

Head, Thin films and coatings

At the institute since 2003, director since 2021. Responsible for the clean room, for the industry programme and for the decision that all raw data leaves the building with the report.

Fig. 3. The fatigue group at the Tuesday bench review. Ninety-two of the 148 staff sit in one programme; the rest work across all four.

05

Industry

Ninety-one companies, 23 joint projects running

## Four ways to use the institute.

1. 01

   ### Contract testing

   Standard mechanical, thermal and microstructural testing to ISO, ASTM and EN methods. Quoted in writing, fixed price, reported within 15 working days.

2. 02

   ### Failure analysis

   A component arrives, a written cause arrives back. Median turnaround in 2025 was 11 working days. Urgent intake is possible within 48 hours at a surcharge of 40 per cent.

3. 03

   ### Joint projects

   Two to four years, cost shared, staff seconded in both directions. Twenty-three are running. Results are published after an embargo of no more than twelve months.

4. 04

   ### Instrument access

   Booked hours on the microscopes, the diffractometer and the climate chambers, with or without an operator. CHF 180 to CHF 420 per hour depending on instrument.

Terms are the same for every client: fixed price, written scope, no exclusivity beyond twelve months, and no result withheld because it is unwelcome. Contracts that require otherwise are declined, which happened four times in 2025.

06

Figures

Financial year 2025, audited March 2026

## The year in six numbers.

- CHF 24.6 m Operating budget, 2025
- 148 Staff, of which 63 doctoral
- 112 Peer-reviewed papers, 2025
- 87 Contract projects completed
- 61 %Income from external sources
- 9 Patent applications filed

The full annual report, 64 pages including the auditor’s statement and every project title, is available on request and is posted to members of the foundation council each April.

07

Contact

Reception, sample intake and deliveries

## Where we are.

Address
  Nordstrasse 44, 4058 Basel
Telephone
  +41 61 720 40 00
Reception
  Mon to Fri, 08.00–17.00
Sample intake
  Mon to Thu, 09.00–15.00
Tram
  Line 8, stop Nordstrasse
Rail
  Basel Badischer Bahnhof, 12 minutes on foot
Deliveries
  Gate 2, Hafenweg, 07.00–16.00
Visitors
  Photographic identification at reception

Nordstrasse 44, built 1968, laboratory wing added 2014.

kontakt@institut-vollmer.ch