Annual Report 2009

1.  Board membership

The technical committees comprising the Division in 2009 were as follows:

HTMC: High Temperature Materials Committee.
MCC: Materials Chemistry Committee
NNC: Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Committee
PEC: Particulate Engineering Committee
RC: Rolling Committee
SMASC: Smart Materials and Systems Committee
SPMC: Structure and Properties of Materials Committee
SPC: Superplasticity Committee
FMC: Functional Materials Committee
DSSMC: Defence, Safety and Security Materials Committee

The current MSTD Board comprises the Chairs of the technical committees, the Chairs of the Surface Engineering and Light Metals Divisions, the Chair of the Incorporated Engineers and Technicians Committee (IETC), the vice-chair of the Sustainable Development Group and a representative from EPSRC. The Chair of the MSTD Board also attends the Surface Engineering and Biomedical Applications Division Boards.

Changes in membership this year have been:

Dr Paul Christian has joined as chair of the NNC in succession to Dr Mike Pitkethly.  Dr Brad Wynne has succeeded Dr Kevin Knowles as Chair of the SPMC.  Dr Mark Jolly has joined as representative of the Sustainable Development Group. Dr Carmine Ruggiero has joined as EPSRC representative.

Thanks are expressed to all those who have served on the Board during this year and in particular to those standing down for their work over the years.

2.  Board meetings

The January meeting of the Board was cancelled due to weather conditions, the business being conducted by e-mail. There was a well attended July meeting of the Board and there have been approximately 24 meetings of the constituent committees. Typical attendance at committee meetings is 50% of nominal membership. The SPMC and MCC have held individual and joint meetings, following a strategy of closer collaboration.

3.  Opportunities for growth of Division Community or constraints

The committees of the MSTD cover a wide range of technology communities covering the full academic / industrial spectrum. Each committee has its own terms of reference. However, the common emphasis is education, whether it by academia to industry or vice-versa. The staple activity is the organisation of technical conferences and symposia, ranging from large international events to small one-day or even half-day meetings tailored to specific technical communities. The smaller targeted events are being used more, as a consequence of the resource requirement and increasing financial risk associated with the larger conferences.  These meetings are increasingly being organised on a ‘self-help’ basis in order to decrease costs. This is particularly the case where the target audience is predominantly academia.

The Institute identified an opportunity during the year for a network for the Defence, Safety and Security Materials community. Consequently a committee for that community has been established within the MSTD, the chair to be confirmed.

As predicted in the 2008 report, the prevailing economic situation, illustrated by the rapid downturn in the steel and non-ferrous rolling industry and also the powder metallurgical sector, has put pressure on attendance at events. This is having a direct impact on the attendance at conferences and, to a lesser extent, committee meetings. The impact on the academic community has been less so far but it is expected that the downturn will work through to academia in the coming year.

The sintered parts business of the metal powder business, being heavily automotive dependant, has suffered badly, but was already down to a fraction of its former size.  The sector suffered two high-profile bankruptcies, Makins and Eckart, who together account for a considerable part of UK production.  Future focus will need to be on advanced technologies such as layer manufacturing, surface engineering, MIM etc which are still expanding. 

The new web-site has provided each of the committees with the opportunity of a micro-site of the same functionality as the divisional micro-sites. It is hoped that, in due course, the potential of the web-sites will be fully exploited by the MSTD committees. However, to date, time pressures and competing priorities have limited the content development of the sites.

The Institute has been awarded a further contract for management of the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), which will continue to provide opportunities for increased collaboration, but are also further competition for members’ time. The Institute has undertaken to look for ways in which the KTN and the Institute technical communities may work together. 

The ongoing strategy of the MSTD is to work with the funded networks, either jointly organising or co-sponsoring meetings, even though this means that the number of specifically Institute events may continue to drop. 

4.  Technical programme

A full list of events is given in the Appendix; highlights for the period included:

•    ‘European Rolling Congress (ERC5)’, London, June 2009. This was run very successfully as a down-sized and relocated event due to the economic downturn.
•    ‘Processing of Thin and Thick Films’, Cranfield, September, 2009. This was the first event organised by the newly formed Functional Materials committee. It was very successful and will provide the model for the ongoing workshop programme.
•    ‘Grain Boundaries at High Temperature’, Riverside Centre, Derby, April, 2009.   A well attended and well received one-day conference at a venue new to the Division.
•    ‘Towards a Low Carbon Innovation Revolution’, Farnham Castle, October 2009. A joint event with the Centre for Sustainable Design. IOM3 awarded the prize for the best paper

5.  Technology Foresight developments.

Members of HTMC have been involved in implementation of the Strategic Research Agenda for Energy Materials.

The Materials Chemistry Committee, with input from the Structure and Properties of Materials Committee, is preparing a strategy document concerning the low current state of Materials Chemistry research and teaching in the UK, specifically from the point of view of thermodynamics. This will be targeted at stake holders in the sector with a view to identifying a programme of action to address the situation.

The Chair of the NNC is taking part in the BIS mini-IGT on nanotechnology.

6.  Professional membership developments

Most, but not all, committee members are Institute members at various levels except where they have been invited as representatives of other organisations.  Non-members are being encouraged to join the Institute as part of the current membership drive. Members are also being encouraged to apply for Fellowship where appropriate and a number have done so.
The MSTDB fully supports the professional development of Institute members. Many committee members are engaged with their local branches but more interaction is still needed. MSTD Committees continue to offer speakers to Local Societies.
The focus of the newly formed FMC is on early stage researcher development and a successful inaugural workshop was held during the year.
Automatic updating of members’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) records by bar code scanning of name badges was introduced at the European Rolling Congress organised through the Rolling Committee.  

7.  National and international linkages with other Societies /Institutes

The committees of the Division continue to benefit from strong national and international links, examples include:

•    SPC has a very strong association with the French Superplasticity Group with whom it organises the Euro SPF series of meetings.
•    The Materials Chemistry Committee provides the UK representative on the Alloy Phase Diagram International Commission (APDIC)
•    HTMC co-operates with TMS through website links and joint meetings.
•    The chair of the Mats UK Energy Materials Working Group is a member of the HTMC; other members also participate.
•    The Director of NAMTEC, is a member of the HTMC
•    The Rolling Committee maintains strong links with the Rolling Guild with several members of the committee being active members of that group.
•    The Particulate Engineering Committee continues to provide a number of key members to the former PowdermatriX Faraday Partnership, which is formally represented on the PEC.
•    SMASC contributes several members to the board of the Smart Materials sector of the Materials KTN.
•    SPC is recognised as a BSI committee for superplastic forming.
•    The MSTDB Chair sits on the IMechE Structural Technology and Materials Group.
•    NNC has representatives from RSC, IOP, Nanotechnology KTN and EPSRC on the committee and also some members are also members of IEEE and RMicroS. The major international link is with the Tyndale Institute in Ireland
•    SMASC has links through its chair with the Piezo Institute and the IOP Dielectrics Committee.
•    The Chair of the Advisory Board for the ICSAM Conferences is a member of the SPC.
•    Several members of the Materials Chemistry Committee are heavily involved with COST Action MP0602 (high melting temperature lead-free solders).

8.  Government interfaces

The Divisional board and most of the technical committees have representatives from EPSRC.

Two members of the Division are members of the Technology Strategy Board.

The HTMC has strong links with the Advanced Power Generation Task Force Materials Sub Group and the Mats UK Energy Materials Working Group.

The PEC continues to provide a number of key members to the former PowdermatriX Faraday Partnership research committee and PowdermatriX is formally represented on the PEC by one of its Technology Translators, Steve Harmer. The Executive Director of the European Powder Metallurgical Association (EPMA), is also a member of the PEC.

The Thermodynamics and Phase Equilibria work of the Materials Chemistry Committee is regarded by NPL as an integral part of the National Measurement System.

Industry / Academia programmes, such as LINK and the Materials KTN, provide potential sources of income for collaborative projects. A number of committees and individual members are involved in such projects and it is felt that there is further scope for this, particularly through the Materials KTN.

9.  Publications

a.    Websites

Efforts are underway to set-up a repository for information/material outside the MCC microsite that can be easily be accessed via the Institute pages.

b.    Materials World

•    Next Generation Energy. April 2009, Martin Kemp, NNC.
•    Setting the Agenda, May 2009, Derek Allen, HTMC.
•    Piezo Promises, July 2009, Markys Cain, SMASC.
•    Future for Fossils, August 2009, Rachel Thomson, HTMC & SPMC.
•    Processing Materials off to a Great Start, November 2009, FMC.

c.    Other publications

The Chair of the PEC, John Dunkley, is editor of Powder Metallurgy.

10.  Awards/prizes

The Hume-Rothery Prize in recognition of distinguished achievements concerned with phase relationship in metallic materials or non-metallic materials of metallurgical interest, was awarded to Dr Philip Spencer.

The Kroll Medal and Prize in recognition of a significant contribution which has enhanced the scientific understanding of materials chemistry as applied to the industrial production of materials, normally inorganic, was awarded to Professor Mohan Edirisinghe, University College, London.

The Dowding Medal and Prize in recognition of a major contribution to the invention, development or design of metallurgical plant, particularly rolling and finishing, leading to improved economy, yield or quality in metal production was awarded to James Hogg of Siemens.

The Bessemer Gold Medal for outstanding services to the steel industry was awarded to Mr Giovanni Arvedi.

The Ivor Jenkins Medal in recognition of significant contribution which has enhanced the scientific, industrial or technological understanding of materials processing or component production using particulate materials, was awarded to Peter Brewin, past Chair of the Particulate Engineering Committee.

The Sir Andrew Bryan Award, for services to the Institute, was awarded to Professor Andrew Strang, a former chair of the High Temperature Materials Committee.

The Verulam Medal in recognition of distinguished contributions to ceramics was awarded to Dr Markys Cain of the National Physical Laboratory, current chair of  the Smart Materials and Systems Committee.

IOM3, through SMASC, awarded the prize for the best paper at the 2009 Sustainable Innovation Conference, held in Farnham, Surrey, October 2009. The award went to Professor Black’s group at the London College of Fashion for their work on Design Innovation.