Jim King, Principle Inspector at the Health and Safety Executive in Northern Ireland, UK, discusses the implications of REACH legislation on the materials and manufacturing sectors dealing with chemical substances.
In every year of the millennium so far, more steelplant has been commissioned than was put to work in the whole of the previous decade. The design and manufacturing techniques for steelplant engineering that were previously neglected are now being realised, leading to reenergised blast furnaces, slab casters, rolling mills and mechanical shearing.
A look at glazing and decoration methods for clay roof tiles including uniform coating with rotary atomisation, spraying, and application of powders, sands and granulates.
A new dry powder impregnantion technique involves charging powder particles which are then impregnated into different materials to enable the creation of new products thus reducing the cost and the ecological footprint.
Computer technology developed for the production of solid gun and rocket propellants has been tailored to enable pharmaceutical pills to be released in multiple applications.
The Surface Engineering Group at Rolls-Royce, has developed a freestanding coating test process. This method for producing thermally sprayed coating data is designed to show how materials science can be applied to the 'black art' of abradable coatings.
The PowdermatriX Faraday Partnership leveraged its familiarity with the technological terrain and the concerns and capabilities of its members to lead teams building technology roadmaps for four main sectors,advanced ceramics, hard metals, powder metals and magnetics. The roadmaps have established priorities which help to align research to business drivers.
