The department has a modern material base. As part of the Reference Center for Modern Technologies in Metallography and Materials Science, opened for the first time in Eastern Ukraine, the department has installed a complex of optical microscopes manufactured by the German company Carl Zeiss. Automated workstations with unique specialized software have been created for digital image processing. High-resolution transmission electron microscopes, specialized X-ray diffractometers, etc. are used for nanostructural studies.
The study of the physical and mechanical properties of materials is carried out on automated equipment for testing materials in the mode of active stretching and relaxation, hardness measurement, impact toughness tests, etc. The vacuum laboratory is equipped with installations with oil and oil-free means for pumping. This allows obtaining various materials and coatings in vacuum by ion-plasma, vacuum-arc, thermal and electron-beam evaporation means, including nanomaterials and materials with an amorphous-cluster structure.
The equipment of the specialized laboratory allows for all types of thermal and chemical-thermal treatment: in vacuum and protective environments, surface hardening with high-frequency currents, boriding, cementation, nitro-cementation, etc.
The department provides training in the specialty G8 (formerly 132) – “Materials Science” and the educational program “Applied Materials Science and Latest Technologies” for bachelor’s and master’s levels. More than 40 disciplines are taught, which provide for the acquisition of basic knowledge of the modern level in the management of the structure and properties of such materials as ferrous, non-ferrous and noble metals and alloys, functional coatings. Knowledge is provided on methods of examination of structures, as well as materials science in the jewelry and art and decorative industries. Practical experience is provided in the field of thermal, thermomechanical, chemical-thermal, ion-plasma, micro-arc and other modern methods of material processing.
The latest computer technologies are used in the training for structural analysis, mathematical modeling of influences and automation of processes for creating new materials at the macro, micro and nano levels. Extensive study of foreign languages is provided, including in the direction of the chosen specialization; mastering methods of technical creativity and patenting of inventions and protection of intellectual property; practical training both at modern enterprises in Ukraine and abroad.
