Topic: Research on the extrusion technology for aluminium and magnesium alloys

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Jie ZHOU

　　　　　Department of Biomechanical Engineering,

　　　　  Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

Time: 9:30~11:30AM, Tue., 27 Dec., 2011

Venue: Room 403, R&D building, IMR CAS

Abstract: The presentation will start with an overview of the standing of China’s aluminium industry in the world and the standing of China’s aluminium extrusion industry in particular. It is meant to acknowledge the spectacular developments of the industry in the last 33 years and in the meantime recognize technological gaps between typical Chinese extrusion companies and European extrusion companies. Comparative data and views of European extrusion professionals will be given to indicate the challenges that China’s aluminium extrusion industry is facing and the opportunities that are presented to researchers in China to help China’s extrusion industry to narrow these technological gaps.

The second part of the presentation will be dedicated to the research on the extrusion technology for aluminium and magnesium that has been carried out in the Delft University of Technology in the past 23 years. It will describe the research topics in every aspect of extrusion, including billet metallurgy, die technology, process control, process simulation and structure/performance of extruded products. While each of these aspects is important for the extrusion process measured by the production rate of sellable extrusions per hour, the total performance approach should be taken to address individual issues in extrusion with overall considerations on the upstream processes (casting and homogenization) and downstream processes (coating or painting, forming, machining, welding, etc).

Examples will be given about how academic research can help an extrusion company or die designer/manufacturer to solve problems that are encountered in practice. Further examples will be given about pure academic research to advance the understanding of fundamental issues in aluminium and magnesium extrusion, for example, the evolution of microstructure during extrusion. The take-home-message is that to lead the research in this field, the researcher needs creativity to turn innovative ideas into scientifically significant findings, by making best use of existing computational, experimental and analytical tools.

The presentation will be given in Chinese and sheets will be in English.　　　　　

Welcome to attend!