July - August 2001
By joining Group Sponsored R&D Projects TWI Industrial Members gain access to substantial programmes at low cost, with the opportunity to steer work undertaken into areas of specific interest. The following GSPs have been, or are about to be, launched.
For a full list of proposed, active and closed projects see here
Validation of Keronite® - a novel hard coating for light metal alloys
Launched July 2001
Duration two years
Cost per sponsor £10 000 pa
Project leader: A Sturgeon
Keronite® is a new surface treatment for aluminium, magnesium, titanium and other light metal alloys that transforms the metal surface to form a well bonded layer of hard dense ceramic. The process offers an environmentally friendly process for enhancing the wear, tribology and corrosion properties of a component surface, including restricted access surfaces, whilst retaining initial component dimensions. This project will demonstrate the application of novel Keronite® coatings to components selected from industry, including aerospace, automotive and hydraulics, and validate improved surface performance compared to conventional surface treatments such as hard anodising, hard chrome plating and thermal sprayed coatings.
Weld quality and service performance of laser welds in zinc coated steel sheet
Launched April 2001
Duration two years
Cost per sponsor £12 500pa
Project leader: A Woloszyn
Existing standards for laser welded steel sheet only give guidelines on the quality levels for weld imperfections, and could well be unnecessarily stringent. This project aims to investigate weld quality requirements, in particular tolerance to porosity, for laser welded zinc coated steel sheet, so that design and performance targets can be met at lower cost.
Delayed cracking of titanium alloys under sustained load
Launched July 2001
Duration two years
Cost per sponsor £30 000pa
Project leader: L Smith
Titanium is largely immune to many of the potential corrosion problems that can affect other metals used, for example, in offshore applications, but several service problems have still been encountered, particularly delayed failure (sustained load cracking, or SLC) at a constant load. Comprehensive generic data on SLC in titanium alloys (in particular Ti-6Al-4V) is required to ensure that structures can be designed successfully in titanium and to evaluate existing structures using an appropriate fitness-for-purpose approach. This project will: assess the sustained load cracking behaviour of Ti-6Al-4V alloys with a range of microstructure and compositions; determine and validate a methodology with which titanium components can be designed to avoid SLC; determine appropriate testing methods to establish the threshold stress intensity factor, KISLCISLC, below which SLC will not occur.
Procurement of welding fume exposure data
Started April 2001
Phase I duration three months
Cost per sponsor £3 500 for Phase I
Project leader: G J Carter
Sponsors International Chromium Development Association, International Iron & Steel Institute, International Manganese Institute, Nickel Development Institute, EUROFER, Health & Safety Executive
Data on exposure to welding fume is necessary both for adverse health effect studies and for organisations to carry out risk assessments adequately for employees, but very little easily accessible data currently exist. The project aims to correct this by gathering all available data (Phase I), critically reviewing it (Phase II) and generating data where insufficient is available (Phase III). This will assist in establishing causative links between adverse health effects and exposure and in the conduction of risk assessments.
