Isothermal Forging of Titanium Aluminide Based Intermetallic Alloys for Golf Club Head Applications. This project aims to produce prototype premium golf club heads of titanium aluminide alloys using isothermal forging technology. It is expected that innovative materials and processes will be developed that will keep the industry partner, SAT, ahead of its competitors and expand their export market share. It is also anticipated that these advanced materials and processes will lead to further ap ....Isothermal Forging of Titanium Aluminide Based Intermetallic Alloys for Golf Club Head Applications. This project aims to produce prototype premium golf club heads of titanium aluminide alloys using isothermal forging technology. It is expected that innovative materials and processes will be developed that will keep the industry partner, SAT, ahead of its competitors and expand their export market share. It is also anticipated that these advanced materials and processes will lead to further applications in biotechnology and automotive and aerospace engineering.
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Development of Creep Resistant TiAl Alloys for High Temperature Structural Applications. TiAl based alloys are being developed as high temperature structural materials for aerospace and automotive applications and thus their creep resistance (long-term strength at elevated temperatures) is critical. This project aims at developing creep resistant TiAl alloys through a combination of addition of rare earth and severe plastic deformation. It is expected that a refined and stablised microstructure ....Development of Creep Resistant TiAl Alloys for High Temperature Structural Applications. TiAl based alloys are being developed as high temperature structural materials for aerospace and automotive applications and thus their creep resistance (long-term strength at elevated temperatures) is critical. This project aims at developing creep resistant TiAl alloys through a combination of addition of rare earth and severe plastic deformation. It is expected that a refined and stablised microstructure consisting of submicron lamellar grains and nanosized lamellae be obtained. This will result in a highly creep resistant prototype TiAl material and leads eventually to the development of commercial TiAl alloys.Read moreRead less
Reducing the environmental impact of steel making through direct strip casting. This project will investigate direct strip casting of steel, a technology that reduces the environmental footprint of liquid steel processing by up to 90 per cent. With the industry partner Baosteel, the project hopes to expand the application of this process to more steel grades and to also assess possible new steel grades with improved properties.
Engineering alloy design reimagined as a driven system. This project investigates a new approach to engineering alloy design that explicitly takes into account, and exploits, the energy delivered into an alloy during deformation processing. The work intends to resolve fundamental questions concerning the effect of deformation processing of the evolution of the material structure and the effect this structure has on the resulting mechanical and corrosion properties. The new structures resulting f ....Engineering alloy design reimagined as a driven system. This project investigates a new approach to engineering alloy design that explicitly takes into account, and exploits, the energy delivered into an alloy during deformation processing. The work intends to resolve fundamental questions concerning the effect of deformation processing of the evolution of the material structure and the effect this structure has on the resulting mechanical and corrosion properties. The new structures resulting from this approach are remarkably fine and uniform suggesting they will be both strong and corrosion resistant. The proposed work intends to uncover the origins of both these structures and new properties, and exploit them for the design of new engineering alloys with greatly improved properties.Read moreRead less
Unlocking the twinning stress: confidence inspiring light alloys. The ultimate aim of this research is to reduce fuel consumption through weight reduction. It will achieve this by increasing the performance of the lightest structural metal, magnesium. Contrary to the metals it typically replaces (steel and aluminium), magnesium fails via mechanisms that involve deformation twinning. Better understanding of twinning is needed to enhance performance and give automotive makers confidence to apply t ....Unlocking the twinning stress: confidence inspiring light alloys. The ultimate aim of this research is to reduce fuel consumption through weight reduction. It will achieve this by increasing the performance of the lightest structural metal, magnesium. Contrary to the metals it typically replaces (steel and aluminium), magnesium fails via mechanisms that involve deformation twinning. Better understanding of twinning is needed to enhance performance and give automotive makers confidence to apply the metal more widely. The applicants have recently found evidence that a key missing piece of the puzzle is the role of plastic relaxation. The proposed work will use this idea to develop a new fundamental understanding of twinning using novel in-situ diffraction and modelling techniques.Read moreRead less
A new paradigm for creating fatigue-resistant light metals. Ninety per cent of failures of metal components are caused by fatigue. Fatigue arises from cycles of alternating stress during service which lead to failure at stress levels surprisingly short of the material's static strength. Fatigue is the 'Achilles heel' of complex engineering alloys and places significant limitations on adopting new lightweight solutions for improvements to fuel efficiency in transportation. Aluminium alloys in par ....A new paradigm for creating fatigue-resistant light metals. Ninety per cent of failures of metal components are caused by fatigue. Fatigue arises from cycles of alternating stress during service which lead to failure at stress levels surprisingly short of the material's static strength. Fatigue is the 'Achilles heel' of complex engineering alloys and places significant limitations on adopting new lightweight solutions for improvements to fuel efficiency in transportation. Aluminium alloys in particular have notoriously poor fatigue performance. This project aims to develop a new class of fatigue resistant light alloys whose properties improve, rather than deteriorate, during service. This development is based on a new understanding of the coupling of microstructure evolution and deformation.Read moreRead less
Batch annealing of 3rd generation advanced high strength steels. This project is focused on resolving processing issues to deliver advanced high strength steels. These materials will be invaluable for car manufacturers, who are looking for ways to lighten cars and increase fuel efficiency to comply with legislation on carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. The use of breakthrough third generation advanced high strength steels may allow a reduction in mass of 10–20 per cent over existing grad ....Batch annealing of 3rd generation advanced high strength steels. This project is focused on resolving processing issues to deliver advanced high strength steels. These materials will be invaluable for car manufacturers, who are looking for ways to lighten cars and increase fuel efficiency to comply with legislation on carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. The use of breakthrough third generation advanced high strength steels may allow a reduction in mass of 10–20 per cent over existing grades. However, these new steels require modifications to their processing compared with existing steel grades and new questions about how the microstructure evolves during processing must be answered before the processes can be optimised and the new steels can go into production.Read moreRead less
Design and synthesis of transparent conducting metal oxides. With advances in solar cell and flexible display technologies the demand and performance requirements for transparent conductors used as electrodes in these devices will increase dramatically. This research program is focused on developing new materials to meet the demand and the challenges of new, more advanced technologies. The project has the potential to generate valuable intellectual property in the form of new generation transpar ....Design and synthesis of transparent conducting metal oxides. With advances in solar cell and flexible display technologies the demand and performance requirements for transparent conductors used as electrodes in these devices will increase dramatically. This research program is focused on developing new materials to meet the demand and the challenges of new, more advanced technologies. The project has the potential to generate valuable intellectual property in the form of new generation transparent conducting oxide materials for a rapidly growing set of applications. The new devices will directly improve our standard of living and additional economic benefits will come from commercialisation of the technology both here and overseas.Read moreRead less