Nicholas Randall

Chartered Engineer (CEng MIM) at MIT Professional Education

Owner, RANDALL ENGINEERING at Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing

Schools

  • Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing
  • MIT Professional Education

Expertise

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Biography

MIT Professional Education

Nicholas X. Randall is a Chartered Engineer (CEng MIM) and holds a B.Sc. in Materials Science from Brunel University (London, UK) 1994 and a Ph.D. from Neuchatel University (Neuchatel, Switzerland) 1997. .His PhD Thesis entitled, “Development & Application of a Multi-functional Nanotribological Tool” consisted of developing the first combined system for nanoindentation and Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM). This system has now been commercially available since 1997.

From 1997 to 2002 he served as the Customer Services Manager with CSM Instruments in Switzerland. He was responsible for after-sales service, technical documentation, installations, training, and contract testing laboratory service. From 2002 to 2014, he was the Vice President of Business Development at CSM Instruments and was responsible for setting-up the US subsidiary of CSM Instruments in Boston, MA. After 10 years in the USA, he returned to Switzerland as Lead Scientist & Business Development with Anton Paar Tritec, following the acquisition of CSM Instruments by Anton Paar in 2013. He then joined Alemnis in 2019 as Vice President. Alemnis develops and manufactures mechanical testing instruments for small-scale testing, both in-situ and ex-situ

Dr. Randall has published extensively in the field of surface mechanical properties testing, especially related to scratch (adhesion) testing, nanoindentation and tribology testing. He is chairman of ASTM committee G02.40, responsible for developing tribological test standards for non-abrasive wear. He has written a chapter on tribological testing of biomaterials for the ASM Handbook on Biomaterials Testing and a chapter on Experimental Methods in Tribology for the Springer book Tribology for Scientists and Engineers.

He is a member of MRS, ASM, ASTM, STLE and The Institute of Materials (UK). He is a regular reviewer for Surface & Coatings Technology, Thin Solid Films, Wear, Tribology International, Materials Chemistry & Physics, Materials Letters and Journal of Materials Research. He is a member of the Editorial Committees of Surface & Coatings Technology and Industrial Lubrication and Tribology. He also runs a biannual course on Reliability and Test of MEMS and Microsystems

Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing

Born in Birmingham, UK, Nicholas grew up and studied in England, the homeland of his watchmaker father. He came to Switzerland to complete his first professional training courses at the University of Neuchâtel’s Institute of Structural Metallurgy, then at the CSEM. This involved working with atomic force microscopes, invented in the mid-1980s. To improve knowledge in this field, the CSEM offered him a Ph.D. research post aimed at developing a new machine combining atomic microscopy with indentation, a technique that involves pressing a pyramid-shaped diamond point into the material with a known force in order to determine its hardness and modulus of elasticity.

In 1999, the CSEM’s instrumentation activities were grouped together in a spin-off company called CSM Instruments. To expand its operations, Nicholas was tasked with opening a branch in Boston, USA in 2002. This required a different stance, forgoing the scientific approach in favour of an industrial one, for everything needed setting up: logistics, marketing, customer knowledge, sales. After five years, the American operation employed seven people and had reached an annual turnover of three million dollars. In 2011, he returned to Switzerland with his family and assisted with the takeover of CSM Instruments by the company Anton Paar, for which he has been working for four years as Lead Scientist and Product Manager.

Your profile is a subtle blend of scientific and industrial skills. How did you succeed in combining the two ? In a small structure like CSM Instruments, you had to be able to do everything. Setting up the American branch gave me a pragmatic approach, based on my clients’ requirements. Also, my Ph.D. provided me with the credibility I needed to work with American universities, and enabled me to publish details of new applications for our instruments in collaboration with them. As a result of working with the universities, I was also given the opportunity to run continuous professional development training courses. In the course of this teaching, particularly where tribology was concerned, I was confronted with the real challenges faced by engineers in charge of carrying out materials tests. This gave me a chance to draw on my scientific knowledge, pitting it against the realities that I came across on the ground.

I am always impressed by the motivation of the professionals who attend my courses. And the interest is confirmed by the fact that certain companies continue to send engineers every year. In fact these short spells spent outside their companies give them perspective about the daily realities of their working environment.

This year, you’re going to be teaching a brand new course at the FSRM: introduction to tribology. Why is this discipline important for the Neuchâtel region? Tribology, from the Greek word “tribos”, which means rubbing, is the science of interactions between surfaces, covering the analysis of existing friction, the wear it causes and the use of lubricants to reduce friction and wear. This discipline was developed in England during the 1960s when the government realised that the industrial losses caused by friction were costing the country billions of pounds.

Tribology is a vast and multidisciplinary subject: it falls under the realms of chemistry, mechanics and physics. In these training courses, professionals from various backgrounds must have a broad understanding of tribology. Then we solve some concrete problems together. Several sectors in the canton, such as microelectronics, watchmaking, space technologies and medical equipment, suffer from the effects of friction. These can occur on the macro-scale or on a nanometric scale. In the biomedical industry, let’s take the example of a contact lens on the eye. Rubbing between the lens and the corneal surface can cause discomfort, especially when the eye is dry and consequently the interface is poorly lubricated. By adding a coating to the lens, we can optimise the wearer’s comfort.

Another example, from the automotive sector: nowadays the only route to improving performance lies in friction reduction. This could be a simple matter of applying a low-friction-coefficient coating to a surface, or it could be improving the lubricant at a sliding interface or reducing wear by modifying the system’s design.

What do you think of Neuchâtel’s innovative ecosystem ? In Switzerland, we have so many ideas and so many resources, all within a tiny perimeter. Neuchâtel is a true “one stop shop”, where it is possible to carry out research, develop an idea, construct a prototype to demonstrate its feasibility and so on. On the other hand, though, the commercialisation phase is still difficult to manage. I think that the Microcity innovation park has an important role to play in this respect.

That said, Neuchâtel has come a long way in 20 years and sells itself much more effectively, which is inspiring. I think that informal networking could be further developed: weekly meetings over a cup of coffee, more coworking spaces, etc. And we have to start by abandoning our secretive culture.

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