In contrast to conventional materials high-performance materials are characterized by specific criteria, such as lower specific density, higher strength or lower costs.

Materials’ testing is not an invention, it´s a must and it becomes more and more important for the development of new materials and new processing techniques.

Nanostructured materials are single- or multi-phased polycrystals with a typical feature size of a few nanometers (1-50 nm) in at least one direction.

The technical progress of mankind is directly connected with the development and use of metallic high-temperature materials.

One important task of materials science is to determine the relationship between microstructure and the resulting properties.

One example of our research field “special metallographic methods” deals with in-situ monitoring of microstructural changes during solidification and heat treatment of metallic materials.

Shape memory alloys have been considered a promising field for technical and biomedical applications for several decades already.