Milan, a well-known capital of art, design and science, played host to this year’s Euro PM2017 Congress & Exhibition, 1-5 October 2017. The annual Euro PM Congress & Exhibition, organised and sponsored by the European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA) created an international hub for participants to discuss, develop and distribute the latest industry trends and techniques the powder metallurgy sector has to offer.
Following on from last year’s very successful World PM Congress & Exhibition, Milan has proved an incredible international draw with no less than 42 countries represented at this year’s event, with participants attending from across the globe, including the Far East, Africa and the Americas. The interest of the Euro PM2017 has meant that it attracted over 200 Oral and Poster presentations and a strong attendance in excess of 1,000 participants.
The event also included a sell-out exhibition with over 125 booths covering companies from all parts of the PM supply chain, making it one of, if not the largest Euro PM Exhibition to date. Lionel Aboussouan, EPMA Executive Director said “Milan was an exceptional event, being well located within Europe and providing a diverse technical content has made for a productive 5-days. We would like to thank all the EPMA supporters and stakeholders who have assisted in making this event a success!”
Mr. Philippe Gundermann, EPMA’s President, opened the Plenary Presentations with an ‘Overview of the Status and Trends in the European PM Industry’. This was followed by an update on EPMA activities and recent initiatives. Eng. Massimo Giannozzi, Senior Engineering Manager - Materials Science and Engineering Baker Hughes a GE Company – Turbomachinery Process Solutions, provided a thought provoking presentation on how powder metallurgy is providing components for BHGE gas turbine and compressors.
Following on from the key speakers was the EPMA Distinguished Service Award that was presented to Mr. Thomas Lambrecht (Dorst Technologies) and four special keynote paper awards to those papers selected as having the highest merit were presented to:
- Dipl.-Ing Julia Ureña, University Carlos III Of Madrid, Spain
- Dr Torsten E M Staab, Fraunhofer ISC Wuerzburg, Germany
- Prof Dr Luis Llanes, Universitat Politecnica Catalunya, Spain
- Dr Gian Filippo Bocchini, PM Consultant, Italy
The annual EPMA Theses Competition also featured in the Opening Session with the winning theses from:
- Doctorate category - Dr Bey Vrancken, Study of Residual Stresses in Selective Laser Melting, KU Leuven
- Masters category - Dipl-Ing Silvia Baselli, Shrinkage Kinetics Model of Uniaxial Cold Compacted Green Iron, University of Trento
Over the past year the EPMA Board and Council decided to create a Fellowship Award to recognise the significant contribution to PM industry development from the scientific/academic community. The EPMA Fellowship Award not only provides a fantastic recognition from the PM community for such tremendous work, but also looks to exemplify the continued involvement in PM science and technologies. The first Fellowship Awards were presented to:
- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Broeckmann, RWTH Aachen University
- Prof. Alberto Molinari, University of Trento
- Prof. José Manuel Torralba, Universidad Carlos III Madrid
For the fourth successive year the EPMA’s Young Engineers Day enabled students from seven Universities to attend Euro PM Event and gain an understanding of what a career in the PM industry can offer undergraduates, through an intensive 2-day programme. The Congress Dinner on the Wednesday evening allowed attendees to experience the flair and heritage of one of Italy’s more famous motorsport marques, with a tour and dinner at the Alfa Romeo museum.
Euro PM2017 also gave the opportunity to EPMA Sectoral Groups to innovate in their meetings: The EuroHM presented EurIng Kenneth J A Brookes, FIMMM, CEng a special “Lifetime Service Award in the Hardmetal Industry” for his longstanding commitment to hardmetals industry, the EuroPress&Sinter welcomed for the first time the full ferrous structural part supply chain members for a special business meeting, the EuroAM welcomed the first presentation of the new EU funded full PM project SUPREME and finally the EuroHIP presented the first intersectoral EPMA club project proposal “AM and HIP”.
The technical programme also included strand relevant Special Interest Seminars, which in a change to previous years, were contained within the overall programme schedule. The Special Interest Seminars programme covered the following topics
- Additive Manufacturing – Developments in Metal AM – Materials, Powder Handling
- Hard Materials - Diamond and Superhard Materials, Manufacturing and Applications
- Hot Isostatic Pressing & Additive Manufacturing – Thermal Post Treatment for AM Parts
- Metal injection Moulding – MIM & Aerospace Applications
- PM Structural Parts – Industrialisation of Powder Metal Process Simulation
A special one off ‘PM for Beginners’ by Dr Volker Arnhold, Powder Metallurgy Solutions Wuppertal, was presented to some 50 participants who wanted to learn more about the basics of powder metallurgy. The 90-minute presentation looked at the key topics of powder metallurgy, including the variety of materials, processes and applications covered by the PM industry today.
A further modification to this year’s event saw the exhibition open for an additional ½ day, on the Wednesday, which provided additional networking opportunities between exhibitors and visitors.
