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Innovative materials and advanced manufacturing

Our research teams analyze, design, transform, produce and test technologies involving materials that can enhance their performance, durability, cost-effectiveness and capacity for upgrading in order to produce a positive impact on the environment.

These materials are more robust, more resistant, lighter, cleaner and more recyclable, and can be to improve manufacturing-process equipment and in the manufacturing of finished products. A number of industrial sectors can benefit from these materials that are suited to sustainable development principles, especially transportation and health. Our research teams are constantly striving to develop smart materials through the use of emerging technologies.

Strategic directions in materials and manufacturing at ÉTS

At ÉTS, more than 50 researchers specialized in engineering physics, chemical engineering, materials engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and construction engineering lead materials research activities.

The main strategic directions relate to:

  • Intelligent design of traditional materials based on fundamental concepts and using tools such as modelling and simulation;
  • The development of new classes of materials such as graphene, quantum materials and nanocomposites;
  • The development of materials for the biomedical sector;
  • Optimization of traditional manufacturing processes in terms of their efficiency and respect for the environment;
  • The development of new manufacturing processes such as additive manufacturing and electrospinning;
  • The miniaturization of manufacturing processes (micro-manufacturing);
  • Virtual manufacturing;
  • 3D printing;
  • The integration of materials and manufacturing processes development within the general approach to product development.

Portrait of the Materials and Manufacturing Sector in Québec

In Québec, the advanced materials and manufacturing ecosystem is relatively young and comprises mostly SMBs. Few of them, however, invest in R&D, even though the applications arising from materials and manufacturing are used in many areas including energy, aerospace and health sciences. Our strategy is therefore to work on the entire value chain, i.e. the raw materials, processing and applications, to carry out projects yielding high added value.

Although Québec is active in supplying additive manufacturing services, it’s really inactive on the equipment production side and the development of software that can support it. In addition, the aerospace sector has led SMBs to innovate to be able to offer high added value parts. The same goes for the transport sector.

Finally, among Québec companies that produce nanotechnology components, many have difficulty finding applications that can respond to immediate market needs. Projects with a higher technological maturity would be commercially successful.  

Chairs and research units related to innovative materials and advanced manufacturing

All ÉTS chairs and research units

We want new materials to be less expensive, have new properties and be less environmentally hazardous. Icon
Nicole Demarquette: Inventing New Materials

Given the technological possibilities, our consumption habits and economic and environmental demands, the need for new high-quality materials has never been greater. Nicole Demarquette’s job is to invent them.

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There is a demand for increasingly advanced inspection techniques, due to aging infrastructures around the world, that can be met by guided ultrasonic waves. Icon
Pierre Bélanger: Serving Industry and Medicine with Guided Ultrasonic Waves

At a time when corrosion in pipelines is causing major environmental and security concerns, research on guided ultrasonic waves and their application in industrial settings is valuable. The low ecological footprint and low cost make this a very attractive technology. However, using these waves is complex, and modelling is required, a problem that Professor Bélanger and his teams are trying to solve.

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