The POF Metallurgical Laboratory (also known as "ML") is a multi-mission research and development laboratory located near the

Pakistan Ordnance Factories The Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) is a major firearms and a defence contractor headquartered in Wah Cantt, Punjab, Pakistan. Described as "the largest defence industrial complex under the Ministry of Defence Production, producing convent ...

(POF) in

Wah Cantonment The Wah Cantonment (; ) (often abbreviated to Wah Cantt) is a military base in Wah, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is a part of the Taxila Tehsil of the Rawalpindi District, Pakistan. It is the 24th most populous city in Pakistan by ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. It is a part of POF Materials Testing Laboratories (PMTL Labs). Established in 1972 to study non-ferrous metals, it played an important role during the development of Pakistan's clandestine nuclear weapons program. Its activities include research into

non-ferrous In metallurgy, non-ferrous metals are metals or alloys that do not contain iron (allotropes of iron, ferrite, and so on) in appreciable amounts. Generally more costly than ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals are used because of desirable proper ...

and

ferrous metals Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

as well as testing,

accreditation Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

and

quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to assure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

History

The

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) () is a federally funded independent governmental agency, concerned with research and development of nuclear power, promotion of nuclear science, energy conservation and the peaceful use of nuclear techn ...

(PAEC) used the Metallurgical Laboratory in 1972 to conduct basic research into the chemistry and physical metallurgy of non-ferrous metals. Dr. Khalil Qureshi played a pioneering role as the lab's principal investigator.Rehman, Shahidur (1999)

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Media Books * 999 (anthology), ''99 ...

"§5 The Group at Wah", Long Road to Chagai (1 ed.), Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory: Printwise Publications, pp. 75–89 Mubarakmand, Samar, "''A Science Odyssey: Pakistan Nuclear Emergence''", Synopsis written and delivered at the Khwarizmi Science Society of Pakistan at the Centre of High Energy Physics of

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a state university in Kapurthala, Punjab * Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Techn ...

, 30 November 1998. The lab also undertook classified studies, as codename: ''Wah Group Scientists'', in designing and developing the non-nuclear physical components and performing metallurgy testing of explosives to be used in nuclear devices under Dr. Zaman Sheikh, a physical chemist. The importance of its work in

and understanding the chemistry and metallurgy of plutonium evolved in the Metallurgical Laboratory into a critical laboratory, similar to the

Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology The Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology (PINSTECH) is a federally funded research and development laboratory in Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan. Due to the sensitivity of the projects and security concerns of scientists at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), the program was definitely moved to KRL in the 1980s.

Current Role

These days POF Metallurgical Laboratory offers a variety of material testing services, including: * Metallographic testing: This examines the microstructure of metals and alloys to understand their properties and behavior. *

Chemical analysis Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separa ...

: This determines the elemental composition of a material. *

Mechanical testing Mechanical testing covers a wide range of tests, which can be divided broadly into two types: # those that aim to determine a material's mechanical properties, independent of geometry. # those that determine the response of a structure to a given ...

: This evaluates the mechanical properties of a material, such as its strength, ductility, and hardness. * Testing for

ferrous In chemistry, iron(II) refers to the chemical element, element iron in its +2 oxidation number, oxidation state. The adjective ''ferrous'' or the prefix ''ferro-'' is often used to specify such compounds, as in ''ferrous chloride'' for iron(II ...

and

materials: ML can test both iron-based (ferrous) and non-iron-based (non-ferrous) metals and alloys.

Accreditations

The lab is accredited by various accreditation bodies including PNAC and ISO 14001:2004 by TUV Austria Bureau.

Customers

Following industries utilize the services of ML: * Automobile industry * Research Institute * Oil and gas Industries * Defense production * Manufacturing units * Research & Development * Steel industries

History

Current Role

Accreditations

Customers

References

Further reading