INSTRUMENTATION FOR X-RAY FIBRE DIFFRACTION UNDER INDUSTRIAL PROCESSING CONDITIONS. Arumugam Mahendrasingam, Physics Department, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK

A purpose-designed x-ray fibre diffraction camera has been built which when used in conjunction with three synchronised CCD cameras allows the simultaneous recording of wide angle x-ray scattering (WAXS), small angle scattering (SAXS) and strain data. X-ray data recording is by a Photonics Science CCD detector linked to a Synoptic i860 framegrabber. Full two-dimensional diffraction patterns can be recorded with exposure times as short as 40 milliseconds with sufficient on-board memory in the framegrabber to allow up to 128 successive frames each of 512 x 512 pixels to be recorded before diffraction images are downloaded to a dedicated PC. Strain rate and draw ratio at the point in the specimen from which the diffraction data is recorded is calculated from changes in the position of reference lines on the specimen. Programmes have been developed to display and analyse the x-ray diffraction data in the x-windows environment under the Linux operating system. This system allows the variation in orientation and crystallinity in polymer materials to be studied under industrial processing conditions, i.e. strain rates up to 150,000% per minute at temperatures up to 350deg.C. The system is designed to be portable and has been used on in-house rotating anode generators as well as at the Daresbury Laboratory Synchrotron Radiation Source and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble. The capability of the system will be illustrated by studies on a variety of organic polymer materials and artefacts fabricated from them.