First symposium on combinatorial metallurgy confirms its high potential

Metals and alloys have influenced human life so profoundly that without them the modern world would be inconceivable and could not function successfully. The study of metallurgy is the oldest branch of physical science − over millennia, it has evolved to become a highly sophisticated research field that influences almost all the sectors of industry.

To maintain this strategic industrial strength, it is imperative that the scientific and industrial communities continue to make new metallurgical discoveries. OCAS currently has some running projects demonstrating that combinatorial methodologies significantly accelerate the pace of material discovery and optimisation.
The sophisticated research field of metal synthesis using combinatorial principles results in extremely valuable input for breakthrough projects. OCAS believes that this disruptive methodology will lead to the accelerated discovery of novel higher-performance alloy formulations.
OCAS and Flamac have a proven track record in the experimental part of this type of miniaturised metallurgy research. OCAS’s developed and validated methodologies for small scale bulk metal processing via casting, rolling and heat-treatment have huge potential. Flamac’s experience in combinatorial set-ups and data-mining facilitated the characterisation of samples produced.
We furthermore succeeded in finding rapid first characterisation methods to narrow down the huge number of potential compositions of interest. Only the alloys with potential are then further characterised in detail.
For breakthrough product developments where limited reference data are available, a massive number of compositional ranges need screening prior to selecting the interesting chemistries. Therefore, combinatorial methodologies including combinatorial set-ups and data-mining significantly accelerate the pace of material discovery and optimisation.
In order to exchange knowledge in this field, OCAS and its partner Flamac jointly organised the first international symposium on “Accelerated exploring of novel metal systems”, 26-27th September 2017, in Ghent. This 2-day seminar consisted of 11 presentations dedicated to combinatorial research in the field of metallurgy, given by various European institutes that are active in combinatorial synthesis, accelerated characterisation and/or computational research. The 50+ participants all gave positive feedback and confirm the high potential of this combinatorial metallurgy.

”It’s exciting how this disruptive breakthrough in high throughput methodology accelerates bridging the gap from knowledge to market in the field of metallurgy”

Nele Van Steenberge, Senior Researcher Metallurgy, OCAS