Dr Amir Shirzadi

CASE Charter Studentship with Rolls Royce

Cobalt Melt Spinning (CMS) Background: The welding wires, in which the metal sheath is made of a thin cobalt strip (ribbon), are currently manufactured by Welding Alloys using the cobalt strips supplied by a company in the USA. Objectives of the industrial sponsor: The in-house production of the cobalt ribbon is of great interest to Welding Alloys because it would (1) reduce the materials costs substantially, (2) eliminate their dependency to an external supplier and (3) enable them to produce metal sheaths with various compositions and properties. A new manufacturing process: Melt Spinning (MS) is a relatively low-cost and certainly more suitable process for a small to mid volume production of thin strips. During Melt Spinning, a thin stream of molten metal is injected onto a rotating copper wheel, which acts as a quenching media resulting in the rapid solidification of the molten metal. Project partners: Given the nature of this project, having access to a melt-spinning rig is essential. Following informal discussions with Dr Marina Galano in University of Oxford and Professor Peter Schumacher in the University of Leoben (Austria), both in charge of advanced melt spinners, they have agreed to participate in this innovative and exciting research work. Project budget: The OU will be the sole receiver of the fund and all other suppliers and collaborators will be paid through the OU’s finance department. Timeline: Six months starting from 1st February 2013 (excluding reporting and publishing times). Intellectual property: The industrial partner will comply with the OU’s standard research contract terms and conditions as well as the IP related regulations. Publications & dissemination: Outcome of this project will be published in international journals and conference proceedings. Also it will be deposited on the Open Research Online (ORO).

Research collaboration between the OU and BARC on diffusion bonding of “unweldable” dissimilar alloys within the Phase 1 of JOINT project has been highly creative and already delivered 2 journal articles plus 2 conference papers. Dr Amir Shirzadi’s contribution to this partnership has been funded by the OU as his time was not costed into the original EPSRC contract. A 12 month extension to JOINT is requested (by both the OU and our Indian partner Dr Dey) in order to complete experimental work in this area and prepare/submit 3 to 4 further journal articles that will deliver high impact from the project. As Dr Shirzadi now has a high teaching load at the OU, EPSRC funding is requested to “buy-out” approximately 0.2 FTE of his time over the next 12 months

Reimbursement for processing 10 samples. The funder will provide all materials and process parameters. This is not a R&D project and there will no liability to the OU regardless of process outcome. The generated income will be used to cover my other research costs.

Reimbursement for consumables paid for from HEIF used in collaboration that led to sale of technology by AF Pipes.