Instruments for materials characterization provide several different methods for measuring or characterizing the material properties of samples, including thermal properties, viscoelastic properties, hardness and particle size. In total, the global market for materials characterization instrumentation is forecast to reach nearly $2.5 billion in 2014, representing growth of 6.4% for the year. Although this is relatively strong growth for these technologies, this is following on a disappointingly flat 2013. Some of the 2014 growth represents a release of pent-up demand from last year.

Physical testing is the largest individual market within materials characterization, representing more than 30% of total demand. These instruments measure the strength, hardness, durability and fatigue properties of materials, consumer products and components. Last year was a particularly weak year for physical testing, and the market demand actually declined slightly. For 2014, the return of industrial production and increased global trade will help to provide growth in this segment, which should be about the same as that of the overall materials characterization market.

Because this market is the largest, and the entire materials characterization area remains somewhat fragmented in terms of the supplier picture, four of the top six vendors in the overall market participate in the physical testing segment. Instron (Illinois Tool Works), MTS Systems, and Zwick are almost exclusively focused on the physical testing market. Shimadzu is a more broad-based supplier, competing in several of the materials characterization markets.

The supplier with the greatest vendor share in materials characterization is TA Instruments, a division of Waters. TA Instruments is the leading provider of two of the individual technologies: thermal analysis instrumentation, and rheometry and viscometry. TA also has a significant business in calorimetry, helping to cement its leadership role in materials characterization. The remaining vendor in the top six is Malvern Instruments, a Spectris company, which is the leader in particle characterization and a strong competitor in the rheometry and viscometry market.

Rheometry and viscometry is forecast to achieve the fastest growth among the materials characterization technologies this year, with a growth rate of 7.9%. Like physical testing, many applications for viscometers are essentially quality control functions, and the accelerating economy will help to boost growth for this technology.

Particle characterization and thermal analysis will also achieve greater-than-average growth. Both technologies have industrial applications, and these markets should show improvement this year. However, they also share a greater potential for growth in sensitive life science applications; this should result in market demand increasing by nearly 7% in 2014 for both technologies.

The only technology segment not forecast to achieve much growth in 2014 is petroleum analyzers. Demand from government and military customers will remain fairly steady; the oil and gas industry is no longer ramping up demand for these products, so the growth rate for 2014 is estimated at just 1.5%.

The competitive situation in the materials characterization market is relatively fragmented. Most of the remaining top vendors are involved in only a single technology area. Notable examples include PerkinElmer in thermal analysis, Micromeritics in particle characterization, Anton Paar in rheometry, PAC (Roper Industries) in petroleum analyzers, and MicroCal (GE Healthcare Life Sciences) in calorimetry. Mettler-Toledo is the leader in calorimetry and is also a significant vendor in the thermal analysis market.