This evening , as High Sheriff of Belfast, I was delighted to welcome delegates to the 14th Conference on Metal Forming in the Great Hall of my Alma Mater, the Queens University of Belfast, organised by ESTAFORM. I spoke of Belfast's great tradition in Mechanical Engineering, of the Linen Industry, the Port, the Shipyards, the Ropeworks and Mackie's Engineering and the continuation of that tradition through the University.
ESAFORM is a European association formally created in 1997 with a mission to stimulate the applied and fundamental research in the field of Material Forming. It is a non- profit making originally French scientific organisation.
ESAFORM's main goals are:
•Spreading scientific and technological information within academic and industrial communities.
•Establishing communication between industry and research laboratories.
•Promoting the teaching of material forming sciences in universities.
•Promoting and facilitating collaborative projects and European networking in the field of material forming.
•Strengthening cooperation between national, European and international organisations.
•Encouraging interdisciplinary research in the area of material forming.
ESAFORM publishes an offical journal and organises many scientific activities. The flagship event is this annual conference on Material Forming, where ESAFORM members and other participants meet to discuss their research.
ESAFORM awards annual prizes to the distinguished researchers/designers who have made an outstanding contribution to the field of material forming.
Conference Goals
The purpose of the conference was to facilitate the communication between specialists in various fields of material forming sciences. Presentations concerning all the steps of material forming processes are welcome: from fundamental studies to applied aspects, from experimental to numerical research.
Approximately 250 – 300 international delegates attended.
ESAFORM originates from the thematic network NUPHYMAT, Numerical and Physical Study of Material Forming Processes, built within the frame of the “Human Capital and Mobility ” European Programme.
The originality of this network was to gather laboratories from Western and Eastern Europe involved in metal forming as well as in polymer processing, and to combine mechanical, physical and numerical approaches.
During the final meeting in Sophia Antipolis (June, 1996), it was suggested by Jean-Loup Chenot to continue and to amplify such a fruitful scientific collaboration by creating a European Scientific Association for Material Forming.
As any association, young ESAFORM had first to get organised. A Board of Directors was constituted and renewed at the General Assembly of March 1998. One of its first decision was to institute a Scientific Committee, with represenatives of the different European countries. This committee, which is the natural link between ESAFORM and the countries, has an advisory function for all scientific and technical matters and a role of promotion of ESAFORM.
To reach its goals, ESAFORM also needed communication tools. Therefore were created:
• a Web server;
• the International Journal of Material Forming (Springer), the official journal of ESAFORM;
• a bulletin, in order to establish a concrete link between ESAFORM and its members. It intends to provide information on the life of the Association, on different European laboratories, on scientific and technical topics, and on specific events (conferences, courses, theses).
ESAFORM has also developed activities in the field of education, e.g., by organising a round table on this subject during the first conference. The most salient result in that field is the organisation of short courses within the frame of the Conferences.
The Conference Chairman was Dr. Gary Menary. The international audience of scientists, and industry representatives shared their research, knowledge and expertise, in discussing the key topics relating to the challenges and progress in material forming.
The conference was organised into 21 mini symposia with over 300 papers presented in 10 parallel sessions covering various aspects of material forming. Metals, polymers and composites forming processes were all covered in the conference. Papers dedicated to understanding how these materials behave at multiple length scale during complex forming conditions were presented as well as novel numerical and experimental techniques for process characterisation and optimisation.
There were 2 academic keynote speakers, Prof. Roy Crawford from University of Waikato, New Zealand and Prof. Paul Dawson from Cornell University, USA who are world renowned experts in their respective fields of Rotational Moulding and Mechanics of Materials and Processing. Prof. Crawford was a former Head of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at Queens University Belfast. I spoke about my friend Eddie Irvine's association with this Department at Queen's. I will try to facilitate a continuation of the link.
In a new feature to the conference this year there were also 2 industrial keynote speakers. Dr. Serge Batkam from Danone gave an industrial perspective on the challenges in manufacturing applied to packaging and Gino Duffett from Aperio Technologies who presented his ideas on the future use of numerical simulation in optimisation of manufacturing processes.