EPSRC and SFI Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Metallic Systems: Metallurgical Challenges for the Digital Manufacturing Environment

金属材料是现代人类生活中不可缺少的材料。从铝饮料罐等日常用品，到喷气发动机涡轮机叶片和核反应堆压力容器等先进应用，金属的积极社会影响很难被夸大。然而，尽管我们对金属的制造和性质的理解取得了重大进展，但仍然存在重大挑战。建造下一代电动汽车需要改进的轻质合金和连接技术。聚变发电厂的发展将提供近乎无限的无碳能源，这将需要开发能够在反应堆内的极端环境中生存的先进合金系统。对于下一代高超音速航空航天飞行器，我们需要能够超过5马赫的推进系统。合金需要在1800摄氏度下生存，制成复杂的形状，并且在不失去任何特性的情况下连接。通过改进现有的金属材料、开发新的金属材料和调整制造方法来克服这些挑战，那么收益将是巨大的。现在是参与冶金研究和制造的特别令人兴奋的时刻。这不仅是因为上述各种紧迫的挑战，而且还因为新的先进制造技术的出现所带来的机遇。3D打印等创新技术使新的形状和设计概念得以实现，而最新的固态工艺允许设计和生产传统液体铸造技术无法制造的定制合金。工业4.0，或第四次工业革命，通过使用材料和工艺数据以及先进的计算技术，为优化新兴和成熟的技术提供了机会。为了充分利用这些机会，我们需要了解材料的加工、结构、性质和性能之间的复杂关系，并将其与数字化制造环境联系起来。为了提供未来的工厂，这对英国plc的未来实力和更广泛的经济至关重要，工业将需要更多对金属材料科学和工程有透彻理解的专家。这些专家还应具备专业和技术领导技能，以利用新兴的计算和数据驱动的方法，并精通平等和多样性最佳做法，以便他们能够对工作场所文化产生积极的影响。EPSRC先进金属系统博士培训中心将通过招募和培训高水平科学家和工程师来帮助提供这些目前短缺的专家。通过与工业界的合作，以及基础材料科学和计算方法，专业技能，平等和多样性最佳实践的全面培训，我们的毕业生将有能力成为未来的研究领导者和行业领袖。

Metallic materials are indispensable to modern human life. From everyday items such as aluminium drinks cans, to advanced applications like jet engine turbine blades and the pressure vessels of nuclear reactors, the positive social impact of metals is difficult to overstate. Yet despite major advances in our understanding of the manufacture and properties of metals, significant challenges remain. Constructing the next generation of electric cars will require improved lightweight alloys and joining technologies. Development of fusion power plants, which will provide near-limitless carbon-free energy, will require the development of advanced alloy systems capable surviving the extreme environments found inside reactors. For the next generation of hypersonic air and space vehicles, we require propulsion systems capable of over Mach 5. Alloys will need to survive 1800 degrees Celsius, be made into complex shapes, and be joined without losing any of their properties. Overcoming these challenges by improving existing metallic materials, developing new ones, and adapting manufacturing methods, then the benefits will be substantial.Now is a particularly exciting time to be involved in metallurgical research and manufacturing. This is not only because of the kinds of compelling challenges specified above, but also because of the opportunities afforded by the emergence of new advanced manufacturing technologies. Innovative techniques such as 3D printing are enabling novel shapes and design concepts to be realised, whilst the latest solid-state processes allow for the design and production of bespoke alloys that cannot be made by conventional liquid casting techniques. Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, provides opportunities to optimise emerging and established technologies through the use of material and process data and advanced computational techniques. In order to fully exploit these opportunities, we need to understand the complex relationships between the processing, structure, properties and performance of materials, and link these to the digital manufacturing environment.To deliver the factories of tomorrow, which will be critical to the future strength of UK plc and the wider economy, industry will require more specialists with a thorough understanding of metallic materials science and engineering. These metallurgists should also have the professional and technical leadership skills to exploit emerging computational and data-driven approaches, and be well versed in equality and diversity best practice, such that they can effect positive changes in workplace culture. The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Metallic Systems will help to deliver these specialists, currently in short supply, by recruiting and training cohorts of high level scientists and engineers. Through collaboration with industry, and a comprehensive training in fundamental materials science and computational methods, professional skills, and equality and diversity best practice, our graduates will be equipped to become future research leaders and captains of industry.