Review - 4th Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy
Review - 4th Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy
“You have delivered a masterplan today, it’s gone brilliantly, and it’s been a pleasure to be a judge, so congratulations on a wonderful 4th Postgraduate Research Symposium”
Professor Bill Bonfield, University of Cambridge
“Mastering an event of such scale on a virtual platform is a huge challenge. There were top quality scientific presentations, lively interaction and discussion between presenters, moderators and Q&A’s from participants. It was a pleasure and a real honour to be part of this fantastic high-level event”
Dr Alexander Fleischanderl, Technology Officer Upstream and Head of ECO Solutions, Primetals Technologies, Austria GmbH
The Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy, now in its 4th year, is firmly established as one of the UK’s premier annual metallurgical events. This year, the symposium, which is organised by the Materials Processing Institute, with support from the Armourers & Brasiers Company and the Iron and Steel Society of IOM3, was online due to Covid-19.
The symposium provides a forum for PhD and EngD researchers and university departments to showcase their research to both the industrial and academic communities. It enables cutting-edge ferrous metallurgy research to improve and develop new materials and new and more efficient processes throughout the ferrous metallurgy sector to be shared. The symposium also enables industry to highlight areas for future research and supports the ferrous metallurgy industry and academic community in forming strong and lasting networks.
Despite moving the event online this year, the symposium retained much of its traditional format and also utilised additional online features.
The Symposium was opened by the event Chair, Chris McDonald, CEO of the Materials Processing Institute, who welcomed all online delegates from the UK and those now joining from around the world. He outlined how the symposium connects the research and industrial base in ferrous materials to showcase to the innovation community, policy makers and funders, the depth of research, their applicability to industry and importance to the UK economy of undertaking this research.
Two central activities at the symposium are the presentations and poster displays from students. Applications to present this year were over 100% oversubscribed and the poster display was the largest of any symposium to date. There was good representation from UK universities, plus the inclusion of international institutions, made possible via the online format.
Presentations were split over three sessions and the range of research being presented added to the appeal of the symposium across the whole ferrous metallurgy spectrum.
Session 1 was chaired by Dr Richard Thackray, who lectures in steelmaking at the University of Sheffield. The theme was Process Optimisation with presentations from the University of Leicester and Swansea University, looking at improving cold spray additive manufacturing; advanced analytics of sinter plant operations to minimise particulate emissions and automated ladle pouring.
Session 2 was chaired by Gill Thornton, the R&D Manager for Liberty Powder Metals Ltd. The theme was Development of Product and Properties with presentations from Imperial College London, Swansea University and the University of Leicester, considering medium manganese steel as a potential successor to twinning induced plasticity steels; rapid alloy prototyping approaches to develop alloys to allow for higher scrap steel content and the effects of deep cryogenic treatment on precipitation behaviour in En31 bearing steel.
Session 3 was chaired by Professor Cameron Pleydell-Pearce, a TATA Steel sponsored lecturer at Swansea University. The theme was Understanding Material Performance with presentations from the University of Cambridge, the CEIT-Basque Research and Technology Alliance, King’s College London and Swansea University, highlighting research of a novel steel and its potential benefits regarding abrasion toughness and impact-abrasion wear; the effect of Ti microalloying and residual S content on the hot ductility of a boron steel by hot tensile testing; multi-scale modelling to investigate dislocation-assisted carbon migration in martensitic bearing steels, and blistering formation in high strength steels during hot rolling.
16 posters were displayed. Delegates could view the posters online and connect and speak directly to the poster authors. A wide range of research was displayed including microstructure characterisation of castable nanostructured alloys, steel susceptibility to hydrogen induced failure, novel coatings, mechanical properties of hot rolled steel plates and ductile fracture mechanisms in nuclear pressure vessel steels.
Alongside the presentations and posters delegates had the opportunity to visit an online exhibition with virtual stands from the Materials Processing Institute, Armourers & Brasiers, IOM3 and symposium sponsor, M2A. The exhibition enabled additional online networking. Delegates could also remotely link with each other, again creating opportunities to meet and network.
Additional feature events at the symposium ensured a varied and engaging format was maintained throughout the day. Continuing the theme of expanding the reach of the symposium beyond the UK, this included a pre-recorded “In Conversation” interview with Dr Alexander Fleischanderl, Primetals Technologies, Austria GmbH, who was also the Keynote Speaker. A video tour of Armourers Hall was given by Peter Batemen, the Clerk of the Armourers & Brasiers Company.
The Keynote Speaker, Dr Alexander Fleischanderl, is the Technology Officer Upstream and Head of ECO Solutions for Primetals Technologies. Dr Fleischanderl delivered a talk on “The Path to Climate-neutral Steel” highlighting the challenges and opportunities facing the steel industry as it seeks to decarbonise operations. Steel production routes in use today and future steel production routes, including integration of digital technologies, were discussed. An overview of what Europe is doing and planning around decarbonisation was provided and the need to optimise decarbonisation opportunities in existing steelmaking facilities was discussed. Going forward, fuel switching to clean hydrogen was outlined along with combining processes to support decarbonisation.
The symposium concluded with the awarding of prizes by the judging panel which included Head Judge, Professor Bill Bonfield, University of Cambridge, supported by Diane Aston, Head of Education and Professional Development at IOM3, Stuart Millman, a former Principal Scientist at the Materials Processing Institute and Mike Goulette, formerly of Rolls Royce and now Master of the Company of Armourers & Brasiers.
The judges acknowledged the very high standard of all presentations and posters. They awarded “Best Presentation” to Rebecca Dewfall from Swansea University for her presentation on blistering formation in high strength steels during hot rolling. “Presentation Runner-up” spot went to Thomas Kwok from Imperial College London for his presentation about medium manganese steel and “Best Poster” award went to Matthew Dodd from Swansea University for his poster exploring adhesion of protective coatings to chrome plated packaging steel substrates. The 2021 Millman Scholarship was awarded to Billy Quartermain from the University of Manchester.
Chris McDonald closed the symposium with thanks to all involved and announced that the next symposium is on Tuesday 22nd February 2022 when it is planned to be back at the Armourers Hall, when the Armourers & Brasiers Company also celebrates its 700-year anniversary.
26 February 2021
