The School had an incredibly successful start to 2020 with 4 new ARC grants which included a range of exciting collaborations with industry partners! The grants cover a range of research areas including novel ceramics and alloys, conductive oxides and high load powder dispersion of aerosols. Read more about each of these grants at the stories below 

Grant: Advanced hard metals: microstructure-property-processing relationships 

Summary: A team of researchers from the University of Sydney (Professor Simon Ringer), UNSW and Ceratizit (Austria, Dr Christoph Czettl ) will guide the design and development of new WC-Co based hard metals, paying special attention to the structure and chemistry of the Co binder. Hard metals are used in industrial-scale turning, milling and drilling processes to cut other materials into finished parts with precise tolerance and surface finish. They are high-value tooling materials that underpin the manufacture of critical precision parts in a range of nationally strategic industry segments including aerospace, biomedical, construction, mining, oil & gas, post-processing of additively manufactured parts, and more. "I am thrilled to do research in a multi-university team with University of Sydney and Austria High Technologies Company contributing significant funding on top of the ARC" A/Prof Primig stated. Full story here.

UNSW

Grant: New Ceramic: Fully Stabilised Monoclinic ZrO2

Summary: The project is undertaken recently during the decade-long industrial funding from Vecor Australia Pty. Ltd.  The technology involves the discovery of an unprecedented form of zirconia, which is fully stabilised monoclinic zirconia.  The significance of this technology is that the product utilises waste and inexpensive raw materials while avoiding the universal transformation from the commonly produced partially stabilised tetragonal/cubic zirconia.  The product will have widespread uses in the chemical, refractory, and mining industries. Other team members is Prof. Mike Swain (University of Sydney). Full story here.

UNSW

Grant: High-performance metal oxide inks for printable memory arrays

Summary: This program will be built upon solid collaboration between UNSW and Australian Advanced Materials Pty. Ltd in the field of data storage materials since 2015. The team have developed a programmable printed memory array which can be used as an “electronic key” for smart doors (see the following video: https://vimeo.com/386335109/5a8d162249(link is external)). Full story here.

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Grant: High-load powder dispersion and aerosol delivery: an integrated approach

Summary: It is estimated more than 200 million people worldwide suffer from asthma and other respiratory-related diseases such as COPD. Recent bushfire in Australia and the current COVID-19 pandemics pose a further risk to those people. This project will allow us to continue the long-term and fruitful collaboration (including two ARC DPs and an FDA fund) in this area and keep Australia as a leader in the international community of inhalation research. The support ($210K) and strategic alliance with Singmed, which has significant experience in liaising with inhalation aerosol product clients, will lead to new IPs and hence pull in significant commercial benefits to Australia" Runyu stated. Full story here.

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