As part of the main department of Materials Engineering, the working group established in 2021 focusses on the upstream processes in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering. This extends the research possibility in alloy design and completes the entire process chain in metal production and fabrications of the institute.

The research theme of the newly founded group will initially focus on liquid metallurgy […]. With the aid of a new vacuum induction plant (to be in operation Q4/2022), laboratory melts with a maximum volume of 20 liters can be produced in the rising and falling casting process, allowing multiple casting as well as intermediate alloys. It enables even more synergy work with other departments, including Melt Atomization and Spray Forming, as well as Heat Treatment, Lightweight Materials and Mechanical Properties.

Further equipment for the physical simulation of the industry-related thermomechanical forming processes, such as hot rolling of bar steel and sheet, is being conceptualized. It is planned that industrial intermediate slab and billets can be studied here for the effect of various parameters. Also, the group serves intermediate products for the in-house gear and bearing fabrication and heat treatment. In parallel, the microstructural evolution during thermomechanical-control processes is also investigated by other cutting edge research techniques at other departments at IWT as well as by means of thermokinetics calculation.