Materials World all features

Exciting raw materials potential meets the financial centre of the mining world. IOM3 and the St Petersburg Mining University hosted the 2nd Russia–UK Dialogue in London.

Professor David V Edmonds, University of Leeds, UK, explores a novel heat treatment concept for quenching and partitioning.

Dr Nigel Cooke, Director of the UK Quality Ash Association (UKQAA), talks to Gary Peters on his career and the fly ash industry.

Decommissioning the ever-growing number of end-of-life abandoned or orphaned mines and oil and gas wells is proving an increasingly costly and technical problem for companies, regulators and policymakers. Nicholas Newman investigates.

Dr Bernie Rickinson, departing CEO of IOM3, speaks to Ellis Davies about his time at the Institute, his career, and plans for the future.

Sumitomo (SHI) Demag’s UK packaging expert Kevin Heap talks through the commercial and ecological benefits of injection compression moulding and how the technique compares with traditional moulding of ultra-thin plastic packaging.

Professor Stephen Donnelly, Director of the Ion Beam Centre at the University of Huddersfield, UK, talks to Ellis Davies about his career, and the creation and purpose of the facility.

Stuart Lyon, AkzoNobel Professor of Corrosion Control in the Corrosion and Protection Centre at the University of Manchester, UK, and Simon Gibbon, AkzoNobel Corrosion Community of Practise, discuss their strategic research partnership.

Iain Wood, Regional SHE Manager at Element Material Technology talks to Ellis Davies about the health and safety involved in materials testing.

Qualifications in metallurgy are increasingly diminishing in the UK. Richard Brown of M&C Educational Training Services Ltd discusses the current situation and how metallurgy training can be saved.

Determining material hardness is a process that has been around for over 250 years, and it shows no signs falling down the pecking order. Materials World speaks to Sean Malloy who examines some of the most common tests being used in materials development.

Idha Valeur talks to Dr Rebecca Boston, research fellow, about her career and how she secured five years of funding for her research into controlling crystal growth in materials.

Trevor Wright , MTM Technical Specialist at analytical instruments company Shimadzu UK Limited, talks through the USF-2000A system and how it can be used to test metal samples.

Atomic Weapons Establishment scientists  Giles Aldrich-Smith  and  Nicholas Bazin  describe the development and validation of compact room scale fast neutron imaging capabilities.

Ellis Davies  speaks with Dr Kerim Sener, MD of Ariana Resources, about the challenges of establishing a gold mining company in Turkey

Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials and Society at University College London, and Director of the Institute of Making, talks to  Ellis Davies  about his career and the future of materials science.

Henniker Scientific Ltd, UK, explain the advantages of using plasma treatment to maintain microscopy equipment.

Paula Sonne of manufacturing company Wärtsilä, Finland, examines white metal laser technology and its applications across the metals industry.

Dr Kirsten Dyer, Senior Materials Engineer, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult explores the testing and projects needed to avoid blade edge erosion through the development of advanced coatings.

Professor Steve Dunn, Head of Chemical Engineering, London South Bank University, UK, examines the potential of waste heat energy and the technology that could be used to harness it.

There are few sectors where academia and industry work so effectively in unison – horology is one. Ledetta Asfa-Wossen caught up with innovation and development expert Senad Hasanovic* at Ceramaret, Switzerland, to talk about the changing face of watchmaking.

A mausoleum and example of Indo-Islamic architecture, the Taj Mahal has become synonymous with India. However, it faces threats from pollution and tourism. Kathryn Allen takes a look at its history.

Kathryn Allen talks to Laura Jones CEng CEnv FIMMM about her career and chartership.

 Phil Webb, Cranfield University, UK, looks at automation and the potential of humans collaborating with robots.

Tim Outteridge, Secretary-General, International Molybdenum Association looks into the recycling of gold from e-waste. 

Dr Karen Alvey and Dr David Scurr explore the analysis of nanoscale materials and the work carried out at the University of Nottingham’s Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre, UK.

Beth Harlen looks at the technology helping doctors and medical device developers make better use of materials information to help engineering enterprises use them creatively in their products. 

Biobanks and resources have opened up a whole new way of performing research with big cohorts of patients. Anna Perman investigates.

In 1997, the current land speed record was set following a race to Mach 1. 

Peter Morgan, Technical Product Specialist at Elementar UK, discusses how 3D printing works, the role of metals and plastics in the process, and what techniques can be used for quality control. 

 Since Adam Waugh joined BlueRock Diamonds as CEO, the company has undergone a mini revolution, following a number of issues, including poor machinery. He tells Gary Peters what has changed and why the future now looks a lot brighter. 

Ion adsorption type deposits (IOA) are two faced. They supply much of the world’s most critical rare earths (REE), but their mining process has led to the destruction of agricultural areas in South East China. Now, the search is on to find similar deposits outside the country – and to learn how to mine and process them in an environmentally friendly way, as Martin Smith, Eva Marquis, and Frances Wall* report.

Alastair Marsh, University of Bath, UK, Cecilia Isvén, Senior Technical Consultant at IBM, and Peter Gates, Associate Structural Engineer at Giraffe Engineering, UK, talk about how engineers can support the greater good. 

Espen Storkaas, ABB’s Vice President of Industry Sector Digital Lead, Upstream Oil, Gas, and Chemicals, is a man in the know when it comes to technology in the energy sector. As he tells Gary Peters, the key hurdle to overcome is how it is used in the field.

Professor Steve Dunn, University of Hertfordshire, UK, dissects the electric change in automotive transport. 

Kathryn Allen takes a look at recent reports on the apprenticeship levy.   

Kathryn Allen talks to Dr Lilian Hodgson FIMMM about choosing a career path and maintaining a work–life balance. 

Andrew Pollard and Dr Ravi Sundaram outline the growing potential of 2D materials, such as graphene and molybdenum disulphide, and how they can make their way into everyday life.

Deep coal mining in the UK might have ceased, but landscapes are still dominated by its legacy. Eric Burgess, from the Coal Authority, examines how to keep environments safe.

Rowena Sellens is CEO of Econic Technologies, a company that uses captured CO2 in the production of plastics. Here, she tells Gary Peters how the technology works and the potential impact on CO2 emissions.

The UK government is keen to burnish its low carbon credentials and has unveiled a variety of measures for doing so over the past two years. But, Rhiannon Garth Jones asks, is it all just (the wrong kind of) hot air? 

Joakim Fagerlund*, Senior R&D Engineerat steel solutions company Ovako, Sweden, talks about the company’s new online heat treatment guide.

Over the past 17 years, the amount of PVC recycled annually in Europe has jumped from around 0 to 600,000 tonnes. Brigitte Dero explains how.

Mali is climbing the ranks of the mining world. Michael Schwartz explains how.

Guglielmo Carra, who leads Arup’s Materials Consulting team in Europe, tells Gary Peters why organic waste should be used as a vital resource in the future.

Kathryn Allen talks to Dr Nan Li, Lecturer at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, UK, about her career to date and the importance of mentoring. 

Materials World talks to Nigel Flowers, UK Managing Director at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, about injection moulding with bio-plastics.

Only in Las Vegas, USA, could you get a brain clinic that has an alter ego as an events venue, the Lou Ruvo Clinic for Brain Health. Ines Nastali investigates the materials used to build the hospital with a twist.

Alexandra Mitchell, Alison Allen and Edvard Glücksman compare the EU environmental directives and the World Bank’s IFC Performance Standards, and how these assist in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in relation to infrastructure projects.

An EU-backed project has developed a set of best practices to analyse short- and long-term environmental risks of shale gas exploration, as Dr Catherine Isherwood explains.

Historically, battery development has focused on energy density and thermal stability. However, researchers are now becoming interested in measuring the thermal properties of the active materials and the electrodes that incorporate these materials, as Sharon Dalton-Castor, Brad Hammond, Suresh Sriramulu, and Peter Ralbovsky explain. 

Sharon Ann Holgate investigates the developments allowing scientists to go to the next level at some of the most advanced physics facilities ever built. 

Tim Norman* explains what to consider when inspecting and assessing the condition of cast iron water pipes.

Leslie M Shore examines the legacy of William Menelaus, a renowned engineer-industrialist who played a role in the creation of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, 200 years since his birth.

Stronger, high-temperature steels are being developed in an effort to improve the efficiency of conventional power plants and reduce CO2 emissions. Professor Scott Lockyer, Dr Mark Jepson and Dr David Allen discuss the potential of MarBN steels to meet these requirements.

Professor John L Provis and Dr Susan A Bernal look at the possibility of producing environmentally friendly cements.

Hybrid steel is, according to Ovako’s Patrik Ölund, Jan-Erik Andersson and Fredrik Lindberg, set to open up new possibilities for highly stressed components.

Luxembourg has passed legislation to enable private companies to mine in space. Is it a fantasy worthy of science fiction or the future of the mining industry? Rhiannon Garth Jones investigates.

Kathryn Allen speaks to Abbie Hutty about her career and transition from university to industry. 

Cement is created by a complex process involving multiple ingredients, testing is therefore essential to ensure compliance with specification and application requirements. Alfonso Rivera, Technical Department and Field Service Manager for materials testing ELE International, UK, reports.

Bruce Madu, of Geoscience BC, talks to Gary Peters about developing techniques that use snow, soil and trees to identify buried mineral deposits.

Gary Peters speaks to Jon Schwantes about the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group (ITWG) and how to respond to incidents of nuclear and radioactive materials out of regulatory control.

Dr Salah Rahimi and Stuart Laidlaw investigate the advances in technology to detect, measure and control residual stress.

Mike Unsworth is the director of engineering and construction at Tidal Lagoon Power. Here, the mechanical engineer tells Ines Nastali what materials will be used to build the planned tidal power lagoons in Wales and explains how to maintain them.

At the western point of Hamburg’s HafenCity, Germany, stands Europe’s largest inner-city development, Elbphilharmonie, which is set to become a centre for culture and social life, as Ellis Davies reports.

Dr Harriet van der Vliet*, Quantum Engineer at Oxford Instruments, Dr George Lengel at SPECS-TII Inc. and Dr Alessandro Pioda at SPECS Zurich GmbH explain how quantum transport measurement systems, such as the Nanonis Tramea, facilitate research in device characterisation.

Kathryn Allen talks to Peter Winebloom, Technical Training Director at EEF – The Manufacturers’ Organisation, UK, about his career to date, technical training and the apprenticeship levy.

In the 1930s, during a time of global depression, the Hoover Dam project brings work to the western American states and valuable lessons for future dam engineering. Ines Nastali reports.

In the last ten years, the number of local authorities collecting beverage cartons at kerbside has jumped from 10% to 67%. Mandy Kelly, from The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, outlines how it was done.

Professor Jacqueline Glass looks at what can be done to ensure organisations are sourcing materials from ethical and responsible suppliers.

Markus Mannström, Executive Vice President Biomaterials at packaging and pulp company Stora Enso, tells Gary Peters why wooden biomaterials
need to be put on the map. 

Crossrail’s boring machines excavated 42km of tunnels for the new train line that will run through the south east of England in 2019, but what happens to the excavated material? Ines Nastali investigates.