Surface Pre-treatment of AM Aluminium Alloys

Webinars 23 October 2024

When:

23 October 2024

11:00 - 12:30 BST

Venue:

Webinars 23 October 2024

Joint Industry Product Launch Meeting: Sustainable Approaches to Surface
Pre-treatment of Additively Manufactured Aluminium Alloys

There is a crucial need for environmentally responsible, corrosion-resistant treatments for additively manufactured (AM) aluminium alloys which are widely used in aerospace, defence, automotive, and other industrial applications. Chemical conversion coatings are widely used surface pre-treatments, but the restriction on use of hexavalent chromium (Cr VI) and replacement of phosphate coatings means suitable alternatives need to be found.

On 23 October, 2024, from 11:00 BST, TWI will be launching a new Joint Industry Project on Sustainable Approaches to Surface Pretreatment of Additively Manufactured Aluminium Alloys. During the launch meeting there will be an opportunity to go through the JIP work programme in detail with a dedicated session for questions and comments from attendees that could be taken into consideration in the final shape of the technical proposal.

Speakers

Kranthi Maniam

Senior Project Leader
TWI

Kranthi is a Senior Project Leader-Technology in Surface Corrosion and Interface (SCI) Engineering. With a PhD in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras, India, and extensive industry experience, he specializes in developing products and processes from lab to industrial scale. His areas of expertise include REACH-compliant surface treatments, anodization, coating deposition technologies such as electrodeposition, sol-gel, ionic liquids, corrosion, and fuel cells. Kranthi holds 3 patents and has published over 15 papers. A recipient of prestigious awards like the Marie Curie Fellowship, he is a Chartered Scientist (CSci), Chartered Engineer (CEng), and an active member of RSC, IET, IST and contributor to the scientific community.

Sofia Sampethai

Joint Industry Programme Manager
TWI

Sofia is Joint Industry Project Manager at TWI in the Business Develoment section. She is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Welding Institute. She has studied Chemical Engineering and her MSc was carried out at ETH Zurich in the department of Process Engineering. Sofia manages funded collaborative projects, including Innovate UK, FP7 and H2020, and the majority of them are in the areas of condition monitoring, sensor development targeting composites failure, and integrity monitoring for casings used in oil and gas industry. She has also been involved in proposal writing for European and national funded projects, and in developing partnerships within industry. Sofia’s work is focused on the research and development of innovative solutions in the area of condition and structural health monitoring.

Ben Robinson

Section Manager

Dr Ben Robinson joined TWI as a Project Leader in 2015, becoming a Section Manager of the Surface, Corrosion and Interface Engineering (SCI) team in 2024. Ben’s technical focus is coating systems for improved functionality with experience in thermal spray, cold spray, electroplating and conversion coatings. Ben has worked with TWI Industrial Members to develop and evaluated coating systems across a range of industry sectors including defence, aerospace, renewable energy, Oil & Gas, rail, automotive and nuclear.

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