EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Liquid Metal Engineering

英国金属铸造业是全球市场的关键参与者。它每年为英国经济增加26亿英镑，直接雇佣约30,000人，生产11.4亿吨金属铸件，其中37%用于直接出口(来源：英国CMF)。它巩固了英国制造业各个领域的竞争地位，涉及汽车、航空航天、国防、能源和一般工程。然而，它的500家公司主要是中小企业，它们往往无法进行在全球市场保持竞争力所需的最高质量的研发。目前的EPSRC IMRC产品组合没有涵盖这一重要的研究领域，也没有解决这一明确的、令人信服的业务需求。我们建议建立IMRC-LIME，这是一个凝固研究的三方卓越中心，以填补IMRC产品组合中这一独特而明显的空白。IMRC-LIME将在布鲁内尔大学、牛津大学和伯明翰大学已经建立的强大的金属铸造中心及其国际领先的能力和专业知识的基础上，与供应链上的主要工业合作伙伴密切合作，进行基础和应用凝固研究。它将支持并为英国金属铸造业及其客户提供机会，向价值链上游移动，提高他们的商业竞争力。IMRC-LIME的主要研究主题是液态金属工程，其定义为在凝固过程之前，通过控制内源(自然发生的)和外源(外部添加的)成核颗粒的化学和物理性质，以化学或物理手段处理液态金属，以增强异质成核。液态金属工程的一个主要目标是生产出组织细小均匀、成分均匀、铸造缺陷最少的凝固金属材料，从而提高工程性能。我们的基础(平台)研究主题将集中在了解成核过程和开发成核控制的通用技术；我们的用户主导的研究主题将专注于在各种铸造工艺之前通过液态金属工程来提高铸造质量。最初的重点将主要放在轻金属上，长期而言将扩展到广泛的结构金属和合金，最终包括铝、镁、钛、镍、钢和铜。从长远来看，IMRC-石灰将提供：1)一种以成核为中心的凝固科学，它代表着从传统的以生长为中心的凝固科学的根本转变。2)一系列创新的凝固加工技术，能够提供高性能的金属材料，几乎不需要固态变形加工，代表着从目前的基于固态变形的材料加工向以凝固为中心的材料工程的范式转变。3)优化的冶金工业，其中对金属材料的需求可以通过现有金属材料的有效循环来满足，方法是采用创新的再利用、再制造、直接回收和化学转化技术，同时有限地增加原生金属以维持循环循环。这将大大节约自然资源，减少能源消耗和二氧化碳排放，同时满足经济增长和财富创造对金属材料的需求。

The UK metal casting industry is a key player in the global market. It adds 2.6bn/year to the UK economy, employs directly around 30,000 people and produces 1.14 billion tons of metal castings, of which 37% is for direct export (Source: CMF, UK). It underpins the competitive position of every sector of UK manufacturing across automotive, aerospace, defence, energy and general engineering. However, its 500 companies are mainly SMEs, who are often not in a position to undertake the highest quality R&D necessary for them to remain competitive in global markets. The current EPSRC IMRC portfolio does not cover this important research area nor does it address this clear, compelling business need. We propose to establish IMRC-LiME, a 3-way centre of excellence for solidification research, to fill this distinctive and clear gap in the IMRC portfolio. IMRC-LiME will build on the strong metal casting centres already established at Brunel, Oxford and Birmingham Universities and their internationally leading capabilities and expertise to undertake both fundamental and applied solidification research in close collaborations with key industrial partners across the supply chain. It will support and provide opportunities for the UK metal casting industry and its customers to move up the value chain and to improve their business competitiveness. The main research theme of IMRC-LiME is liquid metal engineering, which is defined as the treatment of liquid metals by either chemical or physical means for the purpose of enhancing heterogeneous nucleation through manipulation of the chemical and physical nature of both endogenous (naturally occurring) and exogenous (externally added) nucleating particles prior to solidification processing. A prime aim of liquid metal engineering is to produce solidified metallic materials with fine and uniform microstructure, uniform composition, minimised casting defects and hence enhanced engineering performance. Our fundamental (platform) research theme will be centred on understanding the nucleation process and developing generic techniques for nucleation control; our user-led research theme will be focused on improving casting quality through liquid metal engineering prior to various casting processes. The initial focus will be mainly on light metals with expansion in the long term to a wide range of structural metals and alloys, to eventually include aluminium, magnesium, titanium, nickel, steel and copper. In the long-term IMRC-LiME will deliver: 1) A nucleation-centred solidification science, that represents a fundamental move away from the traditional growth-focused science of solidification. 2) A portfolio of innovative solidification processing technologies, that are capable of providing high performance metallic materials with little need for solid state deformation processing, representing a paradigm shift from the current solid state deformation based materials processing to a solidification centred materials engineering. 3) An optimised metallurgical industry, in which the demand for metallic materials can be met by an efficient circulation of existing metallic materials through innovative technologies for reuse, remanufacture, direct recycling and chemical conversion with limited additions of primary metal to sustain the circulation loop. This will lead to a substantial conservation of natural resources, a reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions while meeting the demand for metallic materials for economic growth and wealth creation.