Mechanisms for Improved Ductility of Magnesium Alloys. The work will lead to more ductile magnesium alloys. These alloys will be more readily formed into automotive components. The lighter cars that will result will be cheaper to run and more environmentally friendly. The exchange of key researchers that will occur under this proposal will provide an exciting injection of expertise into the partner organisations from which students will greatly benefit. The work will also open up access to state ....Mechanisms for Improved Ductility of Magnesium Alloys. The work will lead to more ductile magnesium alloys. These alloys will be more readily formed into automotive components. The lighter cars that will result will be cheaper to run and more environmentally friendly. The exchange of key researchers that will occur under this proposal will provide an exciting injection of expertise into the partner organisations from which students will greatly benefit. The work will also open up access to state-of-the-art equipment in the collaborating laboratories.Read moreRead less
New Wrought Magnesium Alloys: Manipulating the Annealed Microstructure. One of the main impediments to increased use of wrought magnesium is its characteristic but mediocre mechanical properties. The proposed work paves the way for new improved wrought magnesium alloys by determining how the constituent nano-structures, micro-structures and deformation conditions can be manipulated to control the evolution of properties during annealing. The project will deliver mathematical models describing th ....New Wrought Magnesium Alloys: Manipulating the Annealed Microstructure. One of the main impediments to increased use of wrought magnesium is its characteristic but mediocre mechanical properties. The proposed work paves the way for new improved wrought magnesium alloys by determining how the constituent nano-structures, micro-structures and deformation conditions can be manipulated to control the evolution of properties during annealing. The project will deliver mathematical models describing the annealed microstructure and mechanical properties. The work will also explore the potential of a recent discovery made by the CI of a simple technique to randomise the alignment of the annealed atomic lattice structure, which promises to markedly improve formability.Read moreRead less
Modelling twinning transitions in light metals: a new foundation for alloy and process development. Australia's quest to become a world leader in light metals technology is being held back by a lack of quantitative understanding of the metallurgical behaviour of magnesium, which is the lightest engineering metal, and titanium, which is the strongest light metal. In particular, there is poor knowledge of the influence of material parameters on deformation twinning. This knowledge is vital for eff ....Modelling twinning transitions in light metals: a new foundation for alloy and process development. Australia's quest to become a world leader in light metals technology is being held back by a lack of quantitative understanding of the metallurgical behaviour of magnesium, which is the lightest engineering metal, and titanium, which is the strongest light metal. In particular, there is poor knowledge of the influence of material parameters on deformation twinning. This knowledge is vital for efficient production and optimised alloy and part design. This proposal aims to develop a quantitative understanding of transitions in twinning activation for improved performance in fatigue, crash behaviour, structural integrity, forming, forging, extruding, hot rolling and annealing.Read moreRead less
On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. This project aims to revolutionize the security of supply of critical stainless steel parts by producing them on-site and on demand, using three dimensional metal printing. Australia’s oil and gas industry uses tonnes of stainless steel for critical processing components in production plants. Australia is also one of the few developed nations without appreciable productio ....On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. This project aims to revolutionize the security of supply of critical stainless steel parts by producing them on-site and on demand, using three dimensional metal printing. Australia’s oil and gas industry uses tonnes of stainless steel for critical processing components in production plants. Australia is also one of the few developed nations without appreciable production and processing facilities for stainless steels, so relies on specialist overseas suppliers. This is a major risk to the industry, which stores billions of dollars’ worth of replacement parts, including stainless steels, in inventory. This project should reduce reliance on overseas steel suppliers and free up hundreds of millions of dollars of capital invested in the inventory stores of replacement stainless steel parts.Read moreRead less
Sustainable and robust Australian Ni-based superalloy manufacturing. This project aims to solve challenges related to microstructural defect formation in the manufacturing of a critical Ni-based superalloy. It will generate new knowledge on its microstructure evolution and defect origin via a combined experimental and computational approach. Expected outcomes are advanced manufacturing routes with higher yield of defect free materials, using more scrap as input. This will enable robust and susta ....Sustainable and robust Australian Ni-based superalloy manufacturing. This project aims to solve challenges related to microstructural defect formation in the manufacturing of a critical Ni-based superalloy. It will generate new knowledge on its microstructure evolution and defect origin via a combined experimental and computational approach. Expected outcomes are advanced manufacturing routes with higher yield of defect free materials, using more scrap as input. This will enable robust and sustainable alloy manufacturing for power generation, defence, and aerospace industries. Commercial benefits are opportunities to domestically source alloys with reduced dependency on international trade. Environmental and societal benefits include lower emissions due to better mechanical design and workforce training.Read moreRead less
The development of lead-free silicon brass for the plumbing industry. The worldwide brass industry is currently undergoing a transition away from lead-containing brass water fittings to lead-free fittings. The transition is driven by concerns surrounding lead-leaching into drinking water. This project is focussed on the development of new lead-free brasses that can be used to manufacture plumbing fittings with superior combinations of processability, performance and cost.
New Lead-Free Brass Solutions for Drinking Water Applications. The aim of this Linkage Project is to provide viable material solutions to address the health problem of Lead-contamination in drinking water arising from Leaded-brass plumbing products and the impact Lead-removal from brass will have on the brass industry. In order to achieve this, this project engages leading multidisciplinary researchers along with Australian and international industry partners from across the brass industry suppl ....New Lead-Free Brass Solutions for Drinking Water Applications. The aim of this Linkage Project is to provide viable material solutions to address the health problem of Lead-contamination in drinking water arising from Leaded-brass plumbing products and the impact Lead-removal from brass will have on the brass industry. In order to achieve this, this project engages leading multidisciplinary researchers along with Australian and international industry partners from across the brass industry supply and sales network. This project seeks to identify and harness the key material-product attributes required to develop and implement new, lead-free alloy alternatives that meet health-compliance, production and commercial viability, that offer benefits across the industry network and health benefits to society.Read moreRead less
Approaching near-ideal strength for bulk amorphous metals. This project aims to develop a novel metal materials design strategy to break the strength ceilings of nanocrystalline metals and bulk metallic glasses. This strategy is based on a novel concept of synergy between a bulk amorphous matrix and phase-transforming nanocrystallites embedded within. The nanocrystallites, via their uniform transformation lattice distortion, prevent the formation of shear bands in the amorphous matrix and enable ....Approaching near-ideal strength for bulk amorphous metals. This project aims to develop a novel metal materials design strategy to break the strength ceilings of nanocrystalline metals and bulk metallic glasses. This strategy is based on a novel concept of synergy between a bulk amorphous matrix and phase-transforming nanocrystallites embedded within. The nanocrystallites, via their uniform transformation lattice distortion, prevent the formation of shear bands in the amorphous matrix and enable collective atomic load transfer to allow the amorphous matrix to continue to load to achieve its intrinsic near-ideal strength. The amorphous matrix eliminates the grain boundary plasticity of the nanoscrystallites. This concept is novel and untested in the history of physical metallurgy.Read moreRead less
Transformation Dual Phase Synergy for Unprecedented Superelasticity. This project aims to develop metallic materials of unprecedented mechanical properties based on a novel concept of transformation triggered dual-phase synergy. This is enabled by harnessing the intrinsic strength of interatomic bonds in solids using the nanoscience principle of lattice strain matching between phase transforming bodies. The project will provide significant benefits, such as innovating our metal production techno ....Transformation Dual Phase Synergy for Unprecedented Superelasticity. This project aims to develop metallic materials of unprecedented mechanical properties based on a novel concept of transformation triggered dual-phase synergy. This is enabled by harnessing the intrinsic strength of interatomic bonds in solids using the nanoscience principle of lattice strain matching between phase transforming bodies. The project will provide significant benefits, such as innovating our metal production technology and to value-add the metal processing and manufacturing industries of Australia.Read moreRead less
MICROFORMING: effects of microstructural scale on metal formability. Microforming is a rapidly growing industry, and already enjoys considerable activity in Germany, Japan, the US, and Korea, all of which are major trading partners of Australia. This project couples fundamental insight into the effects of microstructural and geometric scale with the frontier technology of microforming. Thus, the project will place Australian researchers at the frontier of microforming research, with the capacity ....MICROFORMING: effects of microstructural scale on metal formability. Microforming is a rapidly growing industry, and already enjoys considerable activity in Germany, Japan, the US, and Korea, all of which are major trading partners of Australia. This project couples fundamental insight into the effects of microstructural and geometric scale with the frontier technology of microforming. Thus, the project will place Australian researchers at the frontier of microforming research, with the capacity to be involved in shaping the industry. In the course of this work, new process routes will be developed, new materials may be created, and new opportunities will certainly emerge.Read moreRead less