The Prologue

 The prologue

Once upon a time I should have been a solider, but fate decided differently and guided me to academia instead, and so I became a METALLURGIST. Actually, fate wanted me to be civil engineer, but a recently graduated Jedi master in the mysterious arts of Materials Science was able to show me the light. I graduated from university, having bashed, mashed and examined many chunks of shiny metal, and after slightly more than 3 years picked up a Ph.D to boot (not Dr Marten's boots, though I think I may have had a pair back then, very high ones too). Along the way I also got to play with some LASERs, and study alongside some very cool people. Let's face it, as a kid growing up in the 70s, with lasers in James Bond's Goldfinger, Star Wars in the Cinema, and they were made from ultra-pure RUBY crystals, who wouldn't jump at the chance to study with lasers?

So moving on - well taking a step back actually, because you need to understand what drives my enthusiam for all things additive manufacturing (and yes, there'll be plenty more on this subject in days to come) - The 1980s saw a lot of work carried out in laser engineering, and this spawned a huge amount of R&D into laser materials interactions, right through that decade and into the 90s. It was on this wave that I got my first break, when I started to study blown powder laser surface cladding (as it was known in those days), as a tool for rapid alloy sythesis (there may be more on this subject in future posts), to try and invent new higher corrosion resistant steels, or alloy coatings. Just imagine how many alloys could be cooked up with half-a-dozen, or more, single metal powders, being mixed and melted in a continuously varaible powder feed system. Yep, you guessed right, it's a very big number! In fact, such a big number it became very obvious that my Ph.D project was in fact at least 1000 Ph.D projects (I might be prone to a little bit of exaggeration from time to time, but who the heck cares!). Nowadays, clever scientists have even more clever software to help eliminate so much of the leg work, and they can zero in on highly desirable alloy compositions at a few taps of their index finger!

My second break came with the start of a new project, to be run in parallel and half-way through the 2nd year of my existing Ph.D project, using the same lasers to alter the surface structure of 2xxx and 7xxx alloys to increase corrosion resistance. This was either by just melting and re-melting the surface (Laser Surface Melting), or by adding to the surface layers different metal powders (Laser Surface Alloying). We felt quite adventurous, so plunged right in to try Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni), and Iron (Fe) (and I'll pretend we didn't really try pure Magnesium (Mg)), but also some really difficult ones, with virtually no solubility in aluminium - Tungsten (W), and Molybdenum (Mo). There was a lot of zapping, the occasional bit of flashing, and a whole lot more bashing, and we created some super sexy intermetallics, and wierd structures that gave us reason for many nights of head-scratching.

There you have it, there couldn't have been a better way to get hooked on science and enineering than, getting to study new materials, that no one had ever thought of, in ways no one had previously tried, and being able to use nearly all the analytical equipment in one of the UKs best equiped Materials Science departments (that was at the University of Liverpool by the way, and there were also many other adventures in that great city - different blog, perhaps, as well as being partnered up with the gorgeous people of The Instituto Superior Technico in Lisbon, Portugal). All I had to do was switch projects, and figure out how to cram in 3 years worth of R&D, be able to write up a thesis and then submit it for final review, all in just 2 years!

Believe me, you don't want to hear about those crazy days, but I managed it and not without the support of some great friends (the ones that have stood by me now for many decades, and to whom I owe a lifetime of gratitude and love.) The one thing I'll share of that specific time, as it still resonates to this day, and I'll have to paraphrase, but some of the parting words from the Prof. were, "it's all very Star Trek, so what are you going to do now in real industry?"

So to the last part of my first steps on the road that ultimatey brought me to where I am now. Undetered by the Profs little dig (I'm not sure he was ever a great fan of laser, he dabbled in even more mysterious things involving electron beams and wierd green imaging magic), I headed off to Europe to spend yet more of the generous EU funding, on yet another project involving lasers. Lasers to melt, cut, weld, and alter precious metals; more to the point, Gold and Platinium! However, there was an additional twist to the use of laser, as I also dreamt of being able to use high-frequency pulsed laser generated sound waves to carry out inline process monitoring and quality control (some might be thinking right now, "that's an interesting idea", and some might be thinking, "hold on, isn't that what so and so are trying to do right now?"). You'd be forgiven for thinking that some of this might seem more than just a little bit current. What can I say, sometimes it takes a while for the rest of the world to catch up with visionary thinkers 😏.

There I was in southern Italy, in one of the best equiped research facilities in Europe, at that time. You name a bit of equipment, available in the early 90s, and they had it. Even a mini-particle accelerator ring. Another great time spent with great people, but alas not such great politics, administration, or guidance from Brussels. The centre effectively went down the pan, and my research project along with it. So, putting the bit about a certain  love interest to one side, I was forced back to the UK, and into the darker world of INDUSTRY.

Until the next time, cheers!