Bluescope Steel Metallurgy Centre Bluescope Steel Metallurgy Centre was created by an alliance between BlueScope Steel and the University of Wollongong in 1995, fosters research collaboration between academia and industry. The Centre focuses on research outcomes, development of research capacity, and the fostering of an awareness of steel research in the national and international arena. In this capacity it provides opportunities for academic staff to play a greater part in supporting the local steel industry, and for technologists from industry to contribute to academic development. It also gives students access to the industry, as well as giving them advanced educational opportunities in steel products and processes. Since 1997 the Centre has conducted research on 42 competitive grant projects with a total budget of $8.92 million.
Research activities have been conducted in several key areas focussing on the changing needs of BlueScope Steel as the company has responded to changes in its commercial environment. The Primary Processing Program has focussed on iron and steel making processes as well as associated process technologies. The Casting and Rolling Program has concentrated on thin strip continuous casting technology, thermo-mechanical processing, and steel product development. The casting part of this program contributed to the development of the recently commercialised thin strip casting process and will now focus on the physical metallurgy of thin strip cast steel. The Coatings Technology Program investigates the basic scientific and technological issues underpinning future advances in metal and polymer coating of steel. The Centre is multidisciplinary, encompassing physical and process metallurgy, mechanical engineering, polymer science, chemistry, and mathematical modelling. It has established strong and focussed research groups and has attracted a talented staff not only to the Centre, but also to the associated teaching disciplines. THE ADHESION OF PAINTS
AND LACQUERS These teams have built a specialised equipment infrastructure, which is specifically tailored to the needs of the steel industry. The infrastructure is unique in Australia and is shared by both university and industrial researchers.  Two major applications of flat rolled steel are building materials (galvanised steel and pre-painted steel) and packaging products (tinplate). In these applications, polymer coatings - paints and laquers - are used for decorative purposes and to protect the metal substrate from corrosion. Reliable adhesion of the organic coating to the substrate is therefore very important. For example, a consumer would be unimpressed if the paint on their new steel roof began to peel off or if they opened a can of food to find the lacquer in the food rather than on the inside of the can. The Bluescope Steel Metallurgy Centre is conducting a research program on polymer coatings, which is focused on improving our understanding of the mechanical properties of the coatings, with particular emphasis on adhesion. The research team is concerned not only with the question of adhesion to the metal substrate, but also with the adhesion of contaminant particles to a painted surface. Such contamination tends to discolour buildings very rapidly, particularly in tropical areas, so contamination-resistant paint formulations are an important feature of their research. < Back to Contents | Next Article >
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