REVIEW - 6TH POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM ON FERROUS METALLURGY
QUOTES FROM A FEW ATTENDEES
Congratulations on another fantastic symposium yesterday, it was great!
Dr Diane Aston FIMMM
Head of Education and Professional Development, Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining
Congratulations on another inspirational day, every year is better than the last.
Anne-Marie Clift
Chief Executive, Armourers & Brasiers’ Gauntlet Trust
We’re really happy to be sponsoring this event this year, it’s a great opportunity to see all the fantastic research that’s been done across our UK universities to secure the future of the UK steel industry.
Dr Laura Baker
Head, Product Management & Development, Tata Steel UK
It’s fair to say that it’s transformational for the young people who are coming with new ideas, but also for some of the leaders in industry who come here and get recharged. So it’s been a great day and a pleasure for me to be part of it.
Professor Bill Bonfield
University of Cambridge
The event gets better every year, and it is a great pleasure to see and hear the Hall full of young people enjoying discussing the subject that is at the core of the history and present-day focus of the Armourers.
Mike Goulette
Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers
There have been some fantastic papers, we’ve had ten presentations and twenty-one posters, and the quality has been extremely high.
Jon Bolton
Chairman, Materials Processing Institute
The Symposium is a great opportunity to get to know other PhD researchers and showcase our research. It’s a pleasure to talk to industry and collaborate with them. It’s been really nice to be voted best presentation on the day and it’s great fun. The Symposium was a really great day.
Joshua Collins
PhD Student, Advanced Metallic Systems CDT, The University of Manchester
Having the chance to do a poster has been incredible because its given me the chance to talk about the pinnacle of my PhD research. It’s been a pleasure to be involved and meet lots of fantastic people.
Anna Tholen
PhD Student, Loughborough University
6TH POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM ON FERROUS METALLURGY – 28th FEBRUARY 2023
VIDEO REVIEW - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoMk9KQ1Sjg
The Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy, now in its 6th year, is firmly established as one of the UK’s premier annual metallurgical events. The symposium was once again ‘sold out’. It is organised by the Materials Processing Institute, with support from the Armourers & Brasiers Company and the Iron and Steel Group of IOM3.
The symposium provides a forum for PhD and EngD students to showcase their research to industry and academia. It enables cutting-edge ferrous metallurgy research to be shared. The symposium also enables industry to highlight areas for future research and the event provides a forum for the ferrous metallurgy industry and academic community to develop strong and lasting networks.
INTRODUCTIONS
Jon Bolton, Chairman of the Materials Processing Institute, and Chair of the symposium this year, opened proceedings and welcomed delegates. He outlined how the symposium connects the research and industrial base in ferrous materials and showcases the best of UK ferrous metallurgical research, outlining the range of activities scheduled during the day including student and industry presentations, poster displays, an exhibition, the awarding of medals and prizes from the Iron & Steel Group of IOM3 along with the Bessemer Lecture and Innovate UK presentation.
Two central activities at the symposium are the presentations and poster display from students. Applications to present this year were again oversubscribed and the poster display was the largest of any symposium to date. There was good representation from UK universities engaging in high level ferrous metallurgical research.
RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
Presentations were split over three sessions, two in the morning and one in the afternoon, and the range of research being presented added to the appeal of the symposium across the whole ferrous metallurgy spectrum.
Session 1 - DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONS
The first session was chaired by Dr Richard Thackray MIMMM of the University of Sheffield. The session focussed on the development of products and applications and featured three presentations from students from the universities of Warwick, Swansea and Loughborough covering the development of a segregation-neutralised dual phase steel for improved formability, the effect of antimony additions on the microstructure and performance of automotive Zn-Al-Mg steel coatings, and evaluation of metallurgical risk factors in post-test, advanced 9% Cr creep strength enhanced ferritic steel.
Session 2 - PROCESS DEVELOPMENT
Gill Thornton, R&D Manager, at Liberty Powder Metals Ltd, chaired this session. Presenters from the universities of Warwick, Leicester and Swansea informed the audience of their research into the effect of high FeOx-containing material dissolution in HIsarna steel, the effects of deep cryogenic treatment on a PVD-TiN coated M2 high speed steel, and the road to net zero – the testing of a new hybrid fuel for sintering.
Session 3 - DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES AND FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE
The final session presentations focussed on the development of techniques and fundamental knowledge. The Chair, Professor Hongbaio Dong FREng CEng FIMMM of the University of Leicester, introduced presentations on a rapid CCT predictor for low alloy steels and its application to compositionally heterogeneous material, oxidation of a dual phase steel during rapid alloy prototyping, gigacycle fatigue performance of steel welds, and the avoidance of hydrogen-assisted cold cracking in multi-pass weld metal from students studying at Manchester, Swansea, Strathclyde and Leicester respectively.
RESEARCH POSTERS
This year saw a record 21 research posters on display and delegates had the opportunity to speak directly to the poster authors during the intervals. It was amazing to see so many posters and all credit to all students who either presented or displayed a poster at this year’s symposium. A wide range of research was displayed which can be seen on the review page link - https://www.mpiuk.com/postgraduate-research-symposium-2023.htm
During the breaks delegates had the opportunity to view the posters as well as visit the sponsors exhibition area with stands provided by Tata Steel, M2A Coated, The Henry Royce Centre at The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Forgemasters. Having an exhibition stand, enabled the symposium sponsors to network with many of the UK’s leading metallurgy researchers as well as industry colleagues.
During the lunch break and new to the symposium for 2023, Chris Pilgrim, the Knowledge Transfer Manager, Materials, at Innovate UK, gave an insightful presentation on “How early career professionals can help transform industry for a better future”. This presentation helped explain the routes and opportunities to engage in research and innovation.
IOM3 AWARDS
In the afternoon after Session 3 of presentations, Dr Laura Baker CEng FIMMM Chair of the IOM3 Iron and Steel Group, announced the winners of the 2022 IOM3 Personal Achievement Awards relating to ferrous metallurgy.
The following awards were presented by Sumitesh Das, R&D Director, Tata Steel UK
• Dowding Medal & Prize was presented to Stuart Leflay
• Stokoweic Medal & Prize was presented to Cathy Bell
• Tom Colclough Medal & Prize was presented to Dr Philp Kirkwood
• Hadfield Metal & Prize awarded to Dr Sara Hornby CEng FIMMM and was collected on her behalf by Bob Ruddlestone, a previous Chairman of the Materials Processing Institute
BESSEMER LECTURE
The presentation of IOM3 awards concluded with a virtual handover of the prestigious Bessemer Gold Medal to Professor Rob Boom CEng FIMMM. The Medal is awarded annually by IOM3 "for outstanding services to the steel industry, to the inventor or designer of any significant innovation in the process employed in the manufacture of steel, or for innovation in the use of steel in the manufacturing industry or the economy generally".
Rob, who was not able to attend in person, proceeded to give his Bessemer Lecture entitled ‘Collaboration to boost evolution and revolution in iron and steelmaking’ from Holland via TEAMS. IOM3 President, Dr Kate Thornton CEng CSci FIMMM followed this with a formal vote of thanks.
MILLMAN SCHOLARSHIP AND ASHOK KUMAR FELLOWSHIP
Jon Bolton presented the Millman Scholarship and the Ashok Kumar Fellowship. The Millman Scholarship was awarded to Lauren Skidmore, who is currently studying Civil Engineering at Teesside University. The Millman Scholarship is an undergraduate scholarship programme, run by the Materials Processing Institute in collaboration with the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers to support undergraduate students during their studies, enabling and them to benefit from the expertise and experience of world leading industrial and materials researchers and gain work placement experience.
The Ashok Kumar Fellowship, run by the Materials Processing Institute in conjunction with the IChemE and Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) was awarded to Josh Fearns who recently graduated from the University of Surrey with an MEng in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. The Fellowship provides a three-month placement working alongside policymakers in the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology.
PRIZES FOR BEST PRESENTATIONS AND POSTER
Prior to the informal drinks reception, the day concluded with the awarding of prizes for presentations and posters. The judging panel was once again made up of academic and industry experts, all of whom who had been involved in judging previous symposiums. The Head Judge was 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 a previous Master of the Company of Armourers & Brasiers.
Once again, the judges acknowledged the very high standard of all presentations and posters with Bill Bonfield commenting that all presentations and posters had been outstanding, and that everyone who had a poster or made a presentation was already a winner”.
Jonathan Hale, Master of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers presented the prizes for the Presentations and Posters.
Best Poster Prize - Awarded to Anna Tholen from Loughborough University for her poster entitled ‘In-situ tempering to improve the metallurgy of additively manufactured tool steel components’.
Presentation Runner Up Prize – Awarded to Andrew England from the University of Strathclyde for his presentation on ‘Gigacycle fatigue performance of steel welds’.
Best Presentation Prize - Awarded to Joshua Collins from the University of Manchester for his presentation on ‘A rapid CCT predictor for low alloy steels and its application to compositionally heterogeneous material’.
The judges agreed that Joshua managed to convey a very challenging technical topic in an engaging and accessible way.
THANK YOU
Thank you to our sponsors of the 2023 Symposium.
Tata Steel UK
M2A Coated
Sheffield Forgemasters
UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Metals
The Henry Royce Centre at The University of Sheffield
UK Metals Council
Cast Metals Federation
and everyone else connected with making the day such a great success.
To access the full review page for the 2023 Symposium click on this link - https://www.mpiuk.com/postgraduate-research-symposium-2023.htm
2024 SYMPOSIUM
Opportunities are now open for PhD and EngD students to submit abstracts to present at the symposium in 2024 or display a research poster. Registration is also open for delegates wishing to attend - https://www.mpiuk.com/postgraduate-research-symposium.htm
24 March 2023
