In 2004 Prof David Dingley , Dr Angus Wilkinson and Dr Graham Meaden collaborated in order to try to measure Elastic Strains in semiconductors using EBSD. Dr Wilkinson had already published a method of tracking the movement of zone axes caused by elastic strain by withdrawing the EBSD camera to a large distance from the specimen (so that each camera pixel subtends a smaller angle than usual).
Dr Wilkinson and Dr Meaden quickly realised that by combining their expertise they could improve and automate the process. By extending the analysis so that sub-pixel pattern shifts could be measured, it was possible to bring the EBSD camera back to its normal operational position and monitor several areas of the pattern at once – leading to the first measurement of the distortion tensor using EBSD.
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s, CrossCourt was born and a new window was opened allowing strain measurement to be performed at a scale and sensitivity that showed clearly (often for the first time) the complex interaction between microstructure and the strain state of the material. Since then the technique has been extended in order to also measure the effects of plastic strain in a large variety of different materials from metals to rocks and from photovoltaic to aerospace technologies.
Today we have customers all over the world from large universities to energy companies. CrossCourt was initially developed by BLG Productions Ltd (managed by Dr Graham Meaden). Later we joined forces with Vantage Software Inc. (managed by Damian Dingley) to access their expertise on Software Design and Engineering. We have now formed the brand – BLG Vantage.
Our Ethos
At BLG Vantage we believe in enabling scientists around the world to realise their objectives by providing advanced customisable software tools for calculation and visualisation. We believe in developing long-standing relationships with our software users, supporting them to achieve their goals.