Our use of metals is so important that it defines periods of human civilisation - from the Bronze Age (c. 3600 BC) to the Iron Age (c. 1100BC). With our present-day mastery of metals and alloys, the mounting emphasis is now on resources and the environment. The metals industry is looking at new ways to produce lighter, stronger materials in a sustainable, economical and pollution-free manner. Ultrasonic cavitation treatment offers a route to meet these goals. Ultrasonic treatment of the second commonest structural metal, aluminium, causes degassing through the evacuation of dissolved gases that lead to porosity, grain refinement to assist formability, dispersion and distribution of solid or immiscible phases to improve mechanical properties during recycling etc. In spite of the benefits, transfer of this promising technology to industry has been plagued by difficulties, especially in treating large volumes of liquid metal typical in processes such as 'Direct Chill' continuous casting for ingot production. Fundamental research is needed to answer the following practical questions: what is the optimum melt flow rate that maximises treatment efficiency whilst minimizing input power, cost, and plant complexity? What is the optimum operating frequency and acoustic power that accelerates the treatment effects? What is the optimum location of an ultrasonic power source in the melt transfer system in relation to the melt pool geometry? Answering these questions will pave the way for widespread industrial use of ultrasonic melt processing with the benefit of improving the properties of lightweight structural alloys, simultaneously alleviating the present use of polluting (Cl, F) for degassing or expensive (Zr, Ti, B, Ar) grain refinement additives. Capitalising on the unique expertise gained by the proposers during the highly successful UltraMelt project (22 publications), this research aims to answer the challenge of efficiently treating large liquid volumes by developing a comprehensive numerical model that couples all the physics involved: fluid flow, heat transfer, solidification, acoustics and bubble dynamics. Greenwich will lead the development of an improved cavitation model, based on the wave equation and conservation laws, and applied to the two-phase problem of bubble breakup and transport in the melt, and its interaction with solid inclusions (e.g. the solidification front of an aluminium alloy or of any intermetallic impurities present). To improve the efficiency of the ultrasonic cavitation treatment in flowing metal, a launder conduit will be used. The sensitivity of the process with respect to different adjustable parameters (source power, frequency, time in the cavitation zone, baffle location ...) will be examined with parallel computations in a 3D model of melt flow in the launder. This computer model will be validated by experiments in both transparent liquids and aluminium. Water and transparent organic alloy experiments will use a PIV technique by Oxford Brookes University to measure the size, number and positions of bubbles and compared these with the numerical predictions. Mechanisms of intermetallic fragmentation and particle cluster breakup will be observed in real time using a high speed camera at Brunel University and X-ray radiography at the Diamond Light Source facility. Mechanical properties of intermetallic impurities at temperatures relevant to melt processing will be measured using unique nano-indentation technique in collaboration with Anton Paar Ltd. Cavitation pressure measurements in launder conduits will be conducted at Brunel University and the empirical observations will be compared with model predictions. The fully-developed model will be used to optimise the ultrasonic melt treatment in melt flow during direct-chill casting and verified using pilot-scale facilities at AMCC (Brunel, with support of Constellium) and industrial-scale facilities at Kaiser Aluminum.

Additive manufacturing (AM) makes net-shaped, highly precise, and cost-effective components of intricate design with minimum waste. However, the AM industry faces many technical challenges in the production of high-quality parts due to intrinsic defects, e.g. pores, cracks, distortions and anisotropy. These microstructural discontinuities are related to the material properties and solidification behaviour upon the AM processing conditions, i.e. rapid melting and cooling. The current developments of AM focus mostly on the printing processing, mitigating intrinsic material's deficiencies by process control, such as laser power and scan speed, and much less on the material side, with a majority of the alloys being originally designed and tailored to suit other manufacturing routes, e.g. casting. The quality of AM parts is dominated by the properties and characteristics of the alloy feedstocks - vital aspects that are currently largely overlooked. As a consequence, there is a limited number of materials that are designed specifically for manufacturing high-quality AM components. The synergetic approach in this project is three-fold and aims to (a) develop a new class of hierarchically structured Al-based alloys with fine-tuned structures and compositions at both the nano- and micro-scale, which satisfy the requirements for cracking resistance, structure uniformity, reduced residual stresses and porosity, enabling a unique combination of properties and dimensional precision for AM; (b) test and optimise their performance upon AM using in situ and ex situ high precision characterisation methods; (c) validate the approach by manufacturing AM test parts with enhanced product quality and, hence, with improved properties and performance. Combining these three advances, we will deliver a new class of high-quality AM materials with lightweight, uniform structure and properties, high rigidity, thermal stability, and designed functionality; combining the best processing features of existing diverse alloy groups. While addressing the challenges of AM through dedicated material development, this proposal has a strong and credible pathway to impact other manufacturing processes, e.g. casting and powder metallurgy using the same alloy design paradigm.

The Materials Made Smarter Centre has been co-created by Academia and Industry as a response to the pressing need to revolutionise the way we manufacture and value materials in our economy. The UK's ability to manufacture advanced materials underpins our ambitions to move towards cleaner growth and a more resource efficient economy. Innovation towards a net zero-carbon economy needs new materials with enhanced properties, performance and functionality and new processing technologies, with enhanced manufacturing capability, to make and deliver economic and societal benefit to the UK. However, significant technological challenges must still be overcome before we can benefit fully from the transformative technical and environmental benefits that new materials and manufacturing processes may bring. Our capacity to monitor and control material properties both during manufacture and through into service affect our ability to deliver a tailored and guaranteed performance that is 'right-first-time' and limit capacity to manage materials as assets through their lifetime. This reduces materials to the status of a commodity - a status which is both undeserved and unsustainable. Future materials intensive manufacturing needs to add greater value to the materials we use, be that through reduction of environmental impact, extension of product life or via enhanced functionality. Digitalisation of the materials thread will help to enhance their value by developing the tools and means to certify, monitor and control materials in-process and in-service improving productivity and stimulating new business models. Our vision is to put the UK's materials intensive manufacturing industries at the forefront of the UK's technological advancement and green recovery from the dual impacts of COVID and rapid environmental change. We will develop the advanced digital technologies and tools to enable the verification, validation, certification and traceability of materials manufacturing and work with partners to address the challenges of digital adoption. Digitisation of the materials thread will drive productivity improvements in materials intensive industries, realise new business models and change the way we value and use materials.

Forming components from light alloys (aluminium, titanium and magnesium) is extremely important to sustainable transport because they can save over 40% weight, compared to steel, and are far cheaper and more recyclable than composites. This has led to rapid market growth, where light alloys are set to dominate the automotive sector. Remaining globally competitive in light metals technologies is also critical to the UK's, aerospace and defence industries, which are major exporters. For example, Jaguar Land Rover already produces fully aluminium car bodies and titanium is extensively used in aerospace products by Airbus and Rolls Royce. 85% of the market in light alloys is in wrought products, formed by pressing, or forging, to make components. Traditional manufacturing creates a conflict between increasing a material's properties, (to increase performance), and manufacturability; i.e. the stronger a material is, the more difficult and costly it is to form into a part. This is because the development of new materials by suppliers occurs largely independently of manufacturers, and ever more alloy compositions are developed to achieve higher performance, which creates problems with scrap separation preventing closed loop recycling. Thus, often manufacturability restricts performance. For example, in car bodies only medium strength aluminium grades are currently used because it is no good having a very strong alloy that can't be made into the required shape. In cases when high strength levels are needed, such as in aerospace, specialised forming processes are used which add huge cost. To solve this conundrum, LightForm will develop the science and modelling capability needed for a new holistic approach, whereby performance AND manufacturability can both be increased, through developing a step change in our ability to intelligently and precisely engineer the properties of a material during the forming of advanced components. This will be achieved by understanding how the manufacturing process itself can be used to manipulate the material structure at the microscopic scale, so we can start with a soft, formable, material and simultaneously improve and tailor its properties while we shape it into the final product. For example, alloys are already designed to 'bake harden' after being formed when the paint on a car is cured in an oven. However, we want to push this idea much further, both in terms of performance and property prediction. For example, we already have evidence we can double the strength of aluminium alloys currently used in car bodies by new synergistic hybrid deformation and heat treatment processing methods. To do this, we need to better understand how materials act as dynamic systems and design them to feed back to different forming conditions. We also aim to exploit exciting developments in powerful new techniques that will allow us to see how materials behave in industrial processes in real time, using facilities like the Diamond x-ray synchrotron, and modern modelling methods. By capturing these effects in physical models, and integrating them into engineering codes, we will be able to embed microstructure engineering in new flexible forming technologies, that don't use fixed tooling, and enable accurate prediction of properties at the design stage - thus accelerating time to market and the customisation of products. Our approach also offers the possibility to tailor a wide range of properties with one alloy - allowing us to make products that can be more easily closed-loop recycled. We will also use embedded microstructure engineering to extend the formability of high-performance aerospace materials to increase precision and decrease energy requirements in forming, reducing the current high cost to industry.

The UK has fallen significantly behind other countries when it comes to adopting robotics/automation within factories. Collaborative automation, that works directly with people, offers fantastic opportunities for strengthening UK manufacturing and rebuilding the UK economy. It will enable companies to increase productivity, to be more responsive and resilient when facing external pressures (like the Covid-19 pandemic) to protect jobs and to grow. To enable confident investment in automation, we need to overcome current fundamental barriers. Automation needs to be easier to set up and use, more capable to deal with complex tasks, more flexible in what it can do, and developed to safely and intuitively collaborate in a way that is welcomed by existing workers and wider society. To overcome these barriers, the ISCF Research Centre in Smart, Collaborative Robotics (CESCIR) has worked with industry to identify four priority areas for research: Collaboration, Autonomy, Simplicity, Acceptance. The initial programme will tackle current fundamental challenges in each of these areas and develop testbeds for demonstration of results. Over the course of the programme, CESCIR will also conduct responsive research, rapidly testing new ideas to solve real world manufacturing automation challenges. CESCIR will create a network of academia and industry, connecting stakeholders, identifying challenges/opportunities, reviewing progress and sharing results. Open access models and data will enable wider academia to further explore the latest scientific advances. Within the manufacturing industry, large enterprises will benefit as automation can be brought into traditionally manual production processes. Similarly, better accessibility and agility will allow more Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) to benefit from automation, improving their competitiveness within the global market.