SKF Roundtable On “Materials Of The Future”

Material "Steel will certainly continue to be the predominant material in industry," says Steve Lane from SKF. The manager of the Metallic Materials and Ceramics division at SKF was one of the participants in a discussion round in which everything revolves around the topic of "materials of the future" - and thus the question of how it meets the requirements of industry (e.g. reduction in weight and size and costs of a product).

The other participants in this panel discussion were Harry Bhadeshia, Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy at Cambridge University; Martin Rawson, steel technology specialist at Rolls-Royce and Professor Theo Dingemanns from the Department of Applied Physics at the University of North Carolina.

"Today over 1.7 billion tons of steel are used worldwide every year," Lane said. “By 2050, that number is likely to grow to 2.8 billion. New grades are already being developed, albeit in small steps. The same applies to advances in striving for more environmentally friendly steelmaking processes; for example the reduction of CO ₂-Emissions by using more recycled scrap metal. However, the relationship between weight and strength of a material is becoming increasingly important for designers. In this respect, new possibilities through the use of ceramics, composites, polymers and light alloys are extremely interesting - provided that they represent a real alternative to steel in both technical and economic terms."

In the "Let's Talk" series for knowledge exchange, SKF addresses current topics such as "industrial ecology", "smart robotics" or "counterfeit security". (ud)