Interdisciplinary Advanced Forming Research Centre, Univ of Strathclyde "The Tech", One of 7 Members of the Advanced Manufacturing Consortium

NEWS RELEASE & PERSONAL NOTES:

This post arose from a short note in the Strathclyde Quarterly Alumni Mag., Autumn 2011. and a real pleasure to see that the once proud Metallurgy Department-Colville Building has prominent place in the new Advanced Manufacturing Consortium (even if Sheffield houses a couple of Centres, cf. ref.1, below and the metals recycling spin-off was cornered by Heriot-Watt 's Caledonian Aerotech. cf refs.3 & 4, below) The notes in parenthesis are more than sour grapes they are intended to keep my colleagues up-north on their toes...
 Now it is also encouraging to learn that, fittingly, my old outfit  Aubert & Duval-Imphy  are among the sponsors, cf. ref.3.

The Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) is a collaborative venture between the University of Strathclyde, Scottish Enterprise,the Scottish Government and internationally renowned engineering firms including Rolls‐Royce, Boeing, Mettis Aerospace, TIMET, Aubert and Duval Aubert and Duval and Barnes Aerospace.

Formally opened in January 2011 by HRH the Duke of York, the AFRC represents a total investment of £30M over 5 years.

The Centre undertakes fundamental and applied  research, and develops cutting‐edge forming and forging techniques to support manufacturing processes in the aerospace, energy, marine and
automobile industries.

Key manufacturing challenges:
-Tighter tolerances: Plant monitoring, control and robotics.
-Longer die life: Improved die design and use.
-Lubrication: Investigating mechanisms and improved lubricants.
Improved models: Microstructure, properties and probabilistic methods

This post could and should, given time, be extended to give much credit to the UK, Innovation Strategy Initiative

References


1. Innovate UK_newsletter 01_june2011 [pdf]

2. Technology Strategy Board


3. Materials Science and Technology, Feb. 1985, Vol 1- 1st Issue.  strong evidence of work done at AD_Imhpy (Imphy SA at the time) In fact much more was achieved, from initiating the industrial aceptation of the project requested by GE-SNECMA, to the industrial realisations to tight tolerances Chemistry, Microstracture, cleanness, equivalence of virgin materials and recycled aero-engine scrap material,  imposed by client QC-AQ procedures

Recycled alloy718 supplied by Ireland Alloys Ireland Alloys in Blantyre, Scotland now part of Murry Metals Grp 1982 to 1986. Excellent source.


4. Caledonian Aerotech
Caledonian Aerotech has carved a lucrative niche in the multi-billion dollar global aerospace market by recycling and processing the special alloys used in the production of aircraft engines, land-based turbines and in the petrochemical industries.

A core process is recovering the metal left after machining, then cleaning, grading and preparing it to be returned as ‘chips’ to specialist melters for re-use, (PS shunned upon by Aerospacial Toulouse now EADS for aluminium-lithium [Al-Li alloys] in 1988! but registered in my report to Airbus Industry on Materials Selection 1988.

Innovation Towards Sustainable Materials-Just what the Doctor ordered: meet the People, the Global Movers.

Big names, concerned scietists, engineers and business executives meet to work on what many consider to be millenium class issues- To Be Treated Fittingly on WWI & II rememberance, Amnesty Day 11-11 1945.   


Big meeting - constructive thinking for serious future planning  anticipated and expected from such a panel of experienced, highly professional specialist in their respective fields.


In all 10 sub-themes will be treated in this expert's approach to Sustainable Materials, Innovation.


1:Setting the Global Scene are: Start 10 Nov. 2010.

• Ian Christmas (Director General, World Steel Association)

• Per Sandberg (Director, International Projects, WBCSD)

• Peter Bonfield (Chief Executive, Building Research Establishment)

2:Materials Sourcing, Processing Technologies, Extractive Industries

• John Groom (Safety and Sustainable Development Adviser, Anglo American)

• Craig White (Wood Technology, White Design)

• Sevket Durucan (Professor of Mining and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College)

• James Anderson (Director of Sustainability, AMEC)

3:Construction and the Built Environment contributions from:

• Hank Dittmar (Chief Executive, Prince's Foundation, Built Environment)

• Beulah Keane (Project Manager, Marks and Spencer, Plan A; Sustainable Construction

• Jamie Smith (Skanska)

• Javed Sethi (Marketing Manager, Lafarge Cement UK)

4:ResourcEfficiency and Environmental Technologies


• Carolyn Roberts (Director, Environmental Sustainability KTN)

• Richard Swannell (Director, WRAP)

• Theo Lehner (Manager, Business Development, Bolidien)

• Edward Way (Chairman, Green Power Limited

5:Assessment Tools and Information Management

• Mike Ashby (Director, Granta Design)

• Rana Pant (European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment, European Commission)

• Norman Swindells (Managing Director, Ferroday Ltd)

• Angela Druckman (Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Mitigation,

Surrey University)

Guest Speaker: Tom Heap (Presenter, Costing the Earth, BBC Radio 4

Thursday 11th of  November

6: Setting the Forward Strategy

• Head of Climate Change, Tata Group
7: Product Design, Packaging and the Consumer

• Martin Charter (Director, Centre for Sustainable Design)

• Tony Taylor (Sustainability and Packaging Manager, Unilever UK)

• Stuart Patrick (Chairman, The Polymer Society, The Institute of Materials, Minerals

and Mining)

8: Transport and Infrastructure.

• Robin Haycock (Transport Energy Consultant, Arup)

• George Coates (Project Director, WorldAutoSteel)

• Geoff Scamans (Chief Scientific Officer, Innoval Limited)

• Pat Winfield (Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Head of Sustainable Vehicle

Engineering Centre, Oxford Brookes University)

9: Energy and Climate Change.

• Rosemary Albinson (Technology and Transport Strategy Advisor, BP Castrol)

• Markys Cain (Knowledge Leader, Functional Materials Team, NPL)

• Rod Martin (Chairman, British Composites Society, IOM3 and Chief Execuitve, MERL)

10: Sustainable Manufacturing and Processes

• Mike Gregory, CBE (Head of Manufacturing and Management Division, Institute for

Manufacturing, University of Cambridge)

• Pascal Payet-Gaspard (Secretary General, International Stainless Steel Forum

Closing Address

• Roland Clift, CBE (Distinguished Professor of Environmental Technology, Surrey

University)

 
More information...? 
cf.  Institute of  Materials Minerals and Mining, IOM3, the global network for the full materials cycle

People working in the field of High Temperature Wear and Erosion - Meeting in Derby famous Engineering City Home of Rolls Royce Aero Engines

High Temperature Wear and Erosion
The People, The Subjects Covered, The Places where things happen 10 November 2010, Riverside Centre, Derby
Register Now

The programme features presentations on:

• Introduction to high temperature materials, with particular reference to their microstructure
  Professor Sarah Hainsworth, University of Leicester
  
  
• Multilayer coatings for erosion protection: Design, modelling and erosion testing
  Dr Richard Wellman, Cranfield University
  
  
• CFD modelling of particle erosion in high temperature corrosive environments
  Professor Margaret Stack, University of Strathclyde
  
  
• High temperature tribological testing
  Dr Mark Gee, NPL
  
  
• Challenges in the quantification of high temperature erosive wear
  S. Graça, M. Hadad, P. Hoffmann, H. Du, EMPA and Alstom Power Ltd
  
  
• High temperature wear and friction performance in a steam environment for power generation sealing applications
  Dr Louise Brown, NPL
  
  
• Recent approaches to developing and understanding nano-structured coatings which might have a future in high temperature wear and erosionapplications
  Professor Allan Matthews, University of Sheffield
  
  
• The design of present and future surface coatings to resist erosion and wear in aero turbines
  Dr David S Rickerby, Rolls-Royce, Derby

The fee to attend the conference is just £98.00 plus VAT for IOM3 Members (or £134.00 plus VAT for non-members).


More Information
Melanie Boyce
Conference Manager
The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining
1 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DB, UK


More information contact  Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3)

Conversations-on-Innovations: Innovation-at-Work: Companies who help accelerate innovation and of course social progress and economic growth

Conversations-on-Innovations: Innovation-at-Work: Companies who help accelerate innovation and of course social progress and economic growth

I discovered the innovation focused company, Innovia Technology, Cambridge UK, thanks to the Google AdSense on my Materials Science & Engineering focused pages Materials Science and Engineering Defined.
Innova Technologies "Capabilities and Approach" page sums up succinct important messages for innovators and their clients:

I discovered the innovation focused company, Innovia Technology, Cambridge UK, thanks to the Google AdSense on my Materials Science & Engineering focused pages Materials Science and Engineering Defined.


Innova Technologies "Capabilities and Approach" page sums up succinct important messages for innovators and their clients:

EXAMPLES OF BOOKS & JOURNALS ON INNOVATION IN MATERIALS SCIENCE

Innovation in Zeolite Materials Science (Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis)


Innovation in Zeolite Materials Science (Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis)

Materials Science and Engineering from The Intsitute of Physics-IOP Conf Series, IOP Science offers an Impressive Journal list with many free papers

IOP's Materials Science and Engineering RSS LINK

IOP Collection ALL JOURNALS and SUBJECTS

Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering

Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering RSS FEED

Smart Materials and Structures RSS

Biomedical Materials

Nanotechnology RSS FEED

Check this site and choose from available materials

Materials Science and Engineering Defined Widgets - Wowzio

This is a most attractive way to follow my postes. Check it out and give me your valued feedback.
Materials Science and Engineering Defined Widgets - Wowzio

I have added a small badge as an attractive "spy on me" permalink.

Steel-Grips, Steel Industry news, Industrially oriented R and D,

This post is not about the latest, much reported innovation: 'Metaklett' (in German) hook and loop fasteners or so called "steel 'velcro™ ' ", steel that literally grips you. I'll post on that later. cf Image.




This post is about the latest links which I have added to my "Materials Science and Engineering Defined" pages, following the pleasure (and privilege) I had upon discovering and reviewing Steel-Grips a German based, European and International magazine English.


Steel business news summaries are a core feature, freely available online at the site and via their RSS feed on your favourite reader (I have added Steel-Grips feed to my page. You will find it on the side bar menu (LHS_left-hand-side), steel section.

There is however much more. Steel-grips online is an industrially orientated steel magazine. My free trial gave me access to numerous papers on the many aspects Iron and Steelmaking, R&D and processing, quality and products.

To quote the editor-in-chief Kerstin Garbracht, Dipl.-Ing:

"With its unique new concept, STEEL GRIPS takes into account recent development: Each issue will highlight an individual topic of common interest from three points of view, i.e.

• from R & D (Research & Development)- here you will find out more about the scientific fundamentals
• from TOP (Technology and Operational Practice) - here you will learn more about applicability of the results of research projects
• from PMS (Plant Makers and Suppliers) - here you can read both, which products may serve better and which have been improved."

Steel-grips will prove to be a useful addition to professionals in the Steel and related Industries,.

Indeed I added numerous papers to my personal digital library and to my original basic library as a life member of The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (Clay, Packaging,and now Wood) and it's famous first academic journal Ironmaking and Steelmaking.

New Materials Science Resource Links added to sidebar for easy permanent access

Following on from the two previous posts

a)Direct observation of atomic movement fundamental to the ageing process of materials.
b) Presenting ISIJ_International with special emphasis on Stonger Tougher Steels

several direct links have been added to relevent left-hand-side (LHS) sidebars in order to facilitate accessing sites worthy of permantent reference and bookmarking.

The up-dated Sidebar headings are:

1. Materials Science & Eng. Free Online Journals-Resources.

2. Steels - Links

A New Video on Materials Science Definitions added to my Video Wall _Places of Useful Learning

Places of Useful Learning

Materials and physical-chemistry processes are all around us. Society appreciates their uses.

Materials Science studies the structure (physics) and chemistry of materials. It is based on the fundamental principles of physics and chemistry. It applies these principle to materials and their uses. I share these views and motivation voiced by Penn State Uni's staff.

Indeed it is the reason I became a scientist, a metallurgist a materials and process scientist at a place who's motto is: "A Place of Useful Learning".

Source: YouTube.

Related posts and links:
. Videos: Superalloy manufacturing RHS vertical menu bar.
. Malcolm McLean Memorial Symposium: “The superalloys: from processing to performance” Putting the Heat on Coal-Fired Power Generation_ Materials, SteelJune09
. Putting the Heat on Coal-Fired Power Generation_ Materials, Steels, Superalloys, Coatings to fight GHG Emissions? Information overload assistance May09
. Materials Science and Technology Feb. 2008
.SAGE Materials Science & Engineering Journals Current free trial runs till 30 June09
.Global Materials Resources-China's Journal of Materials Science and Technology and Acta Metallurgica Sinica plus comments on Superalloy Melting

Global Materials Resources-China's Journal of Materials Science and Technology and Acta Metallurgica Sinica plus comments on Superalloy Melting

I am pleased to bring to the (further?) attention of the Materials Science and Engineering community, these two titles from China's Materials Science and Technology community,
1. The Journal of Materials Science and Technology
2. Acta Metallurgica Sinica.

Don't be put-off with either the slow download time not one or two broken links...

Cheers for their effort,

NB. I trust I may eventually receive a response from the author to my original enquiry which brought me to their site in the first place:

"Desulphurization during VIM Refining Ni-base Superalloy using CaO Crucible" in China's JMST.

Link to My Record of Comment

Comment reproduced:

"I am surprised that my earlier work is not referenced in such work: J. ALEXANDER: "Optimizing deoxidation and desulphurization during vacuum induction melting of alloy 718", & MATER. SCI. TECHNOL. 1985, 1(2), 167-70. Some online references may be found via my pages: http://materialsscienceengineeringdefined.blogspot.com/ Either search VIM or direct link: J. ALEXANDER: "Optimizing deoxidation and desulphurization during vacuum induction melting of alloy 718", & MATER. SCI. TECHNOL. 1985, 1(2), 167-70

Nice to know that others have become interested in such themes [after all this time]. "
Comment by the author of MATER. SCI. TECHNOL. 1985, 1(2), 167-70 and author of these weblog pages.

PS. There is still (understandably) much discretion by manufacturers on how to achieve "Clean, very low oxygen, dissolved(gas) and total oxygen, (the latter includes oxide particles) together with very low sulphur (mostly oxysulfides) not to mention the very low harmful trace elements obtained in today's large size VIM melting facilities despite low surface to volume ratio limiting mass transfer and chemical exchange withe the vacuum atmosphere.

Yet all the above melt specification, so important for superalloy manufacturing, can be achieved.

cf. Past Boiling Point, Materials World 1 June 2009 by Gaylord Smith, Brian Baker, Lewis Shoemaker of Special Metals Corporation, R & D, Huntingdon, West Virginia, USA who describe the developments of INCONEL alloy 740, suitable for use in the high temperature environments of supercritical boilers for energy generation.

Full article currently available only to IOM3 members, open to all with 2 month delay, I believe.

PS if the reader decides to joins IOM3 after reading my pages please mention your source and drop me a line.

Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering

Serendipity or rather signing-up for a Google Alert for the new record breaking R and D achievement, Inverse Temperature HSLA-High Strength Low Alloy Steels, (cf. my earlier post - challenge) introduced me to the excellent, Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering.

Several papers have already been brought to my attention. It is with pleasure that I invite colleagues to join me in reading their favourite subjects-alerts not forgetting to support Brazil's efforts to save the planets rain-forests - by the excellence of our professional skills in metallurgical exergy and information-entropy theory -fairly shared.

NB. Free online with the usual restrictions (for personal use etc. cf policy) The journal should be abbreviated in citations as J. Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. & Eng.

Good luck, make good use of this resource and best wishes over the festive season and beyond.

New Challenge: Mat Sci and Eng : New European Record- Solar PV-Photovoltaic Energy Converstion to Electricity Efficiency 39.4%

Conversations-on-Innovations: New European Record-Science and Engineering - Solar PV-Photovoltaic Energy Converstion to Electricity Efficiency Reaches. [Link below]

Could a concurrent engineering approach pushing current design from prototype to market and if necessary carry out further R and D to optimise the performance/cost ratio...

Are the fundamental limits known? cf. for example, the approach reported in my previous post on nanoelectronics. Thanks to PlanetThougths for the encouragement and motivation for me to comment an so hopefully reach my colleague-readers in Materials Science and Engineering and Innovation.

More...

Materials Science and Engineering Defined - Materials Science past performance and future previsions -up for review

Physics, chemistry and physical chemistry have undergone tremendous changes over the course of this century. In physics, the focus has shifted from atoms to subatomic particles, namely nuclear physics and particle physics.

It is rather fitting that to-day saw the "Guinness book of records" - successful start-up of the Worlds Biggest particle collider housed at CERN on or rather under the French-Swiss border. [cf. Footnote for a humours introduction peppered with serious links to CERN].

Meanwhile, the physics of collections of atoms in the liquid and solid states have slowly emerged as separate, independent fields.

After the Second World War, another interdisciplinary field emerged in the form of materials science, which combines metallurgy, physics, chemistry and physical chemistry. The goal of the subject is to synthesize materials such as metals, ceramics and polymers based on thermodynamic phase equilibria, reaction kinetics and our ability to characterize materials from the atomic level upwards. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between a material's microstructure and its bulk properties. Materials science also includes theoretical studies that deepen our understanding of the properties of materials, helping us to create new materials on a rational basis - rather than through trial and error alone.

Materials science can therefore be said to encompass all of the classical parts of science. (In fact an excellent example is given by the development and manufacture semi-conductors for the electronics industry. [my comment-JA]

Materials Technology & Engineering limits to Materials Science:
Early on, materials scientists and metallurgists tried to maximize a particular property, such as hardness, toughness, magnetization or conductivity. Great demands were made on developing materials with exceptional properties, such as ultimate strength. However, it soon became obvious that when it came to specific applications, advanced materials with various special properties were of little use unless they could be processed simply and straightforwardly. Thousands of materials have therefore been developed over the past 20 years - many with well defined and reproducible properties - but they have not been widely taken up by industry because they cost too much to make and are not particularly durable and may I add, classical engineering difficulties of scaling-up for many engineering applications. cf my previous post-on HKDH Bhadeshia "Big Chunks of Nano-Steel vs Carbon Nanotubes & Materials Modelling. The scale-up difficulty may also explain to some extent why materials scientists and the scientific community at large have massively moved to Richard Feynman's famous call: "There is plenty of room at the bottom". Here the materials scientist "does his own engineering -lab to lab at least in size and sometimes in terms of product volume or mass. But I am jumping the gun concerning Manfred Rühle's supportive conclusion!

Ball's response to critics is to underline the enormous progress achieved despite lack of adoption, or engineering deceptions (innovation from invention to market?). And bookmarks and describes 10 ten groups of materials that he thinks will be at the forefront of technology in the coming century.

Sources: Based on P. Ball's book published in 1997 reviewed in 1998.

(1) Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century, by Philip Ball, 1997 Princeton University Press 480pp.

(2) Manfred Rühle reviewed P. Ball's book for physicsworld Manfred Rühle reviewed P. Ball's book for physicsworld, IOP-Inst. of Physics UK.
M. Rühle is director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Stuttgart, Germany

2 Footnotes:
-The attentive reader and researcher may have noticed that Ball's book is based on guesses, all be they very educated ones, made from the 20 or so period before 1998?
The next century is now, but to be fair it may be sound practise to consider a full review at this half-way period current 2008? Opinions, Comments welcome.

-CERN add-on of 11 Sept. 2008.
I did not intend to add to the undoubtedly vast collection of news feed on this delicate operation by I could not resist linking readers to this humorous introduction by Aussie friends at AZOM (A to Z on Material) in their News Letter 77. [Link]

The Ultimate in "materials" research :LHC-Large Hadron Collider.
From the news papers:
Some say it's a toy some ask if it's as dangerous as it sounds such is the
energy and complexity of the technology and engineering involved

The Hopes, and The Fears

The experts were right: I did go-off well. Ouf!
Now it is up to the "powers that be" that this valuable and costly team do not do a "Challenger Space Flight" type disaster. Good luck and perhaps more importantly scientific, technological, engineering and last but not least "excellent management communication." (quoted from R. Feynman's report to Congress on the "Challenger Enquiry. - an industrial metallurgist, materials scientist and engineer remembers!)

The Metallurgy.(link)

The Technology and Engineering in pictures (link) and their prestigious origins in the 1960's.

HIGGS was found Yes indeed Higgs himself, one of the most renowned Scots' Theoretical Physicist of the day was invited to visit CERN and the LHC. It now remains to find the illusive particle,"Higgs Boson"

Disclaimer: I am unable to reference this very homorous introduction, to CERN's LHC for copyright reasons, and absence of a direct link to our Aussie friends Newsletter MyAZoM. Instead I shall give the reader a link to their well documented Materials Website AZoM.

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