New Alloys, Materials and Processes for Components Working in Energy Equipment

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, energy equipment represents a challenge both for design, materials and manufacturing. The critical aspects of these types of equipment and high added value imply daily research efforts. Turbines, combustion engines, compressors, cogeneration equipment, oil and gas facilities are critical systems.

On one hand, new materials and alloys with improved characteristics (structure, properties and applications) are of great interest in this field. In fact, the evolution of the energy sector is constant, so, efficient machining of difficult-to-cut materials and complex geometries is key to perform the final operations to achieve the precision required. Industry is all time making big efforts in daily continuous improvements. In many cases the evolution is lineal, only from time to time breakthrough advances are expected. In the latter the additive manufacturing is introducing new possibilities.

Machining technology is rich in aspects, aiming at quality and productivity. In fact, cutting tool substrate grades and new coatings to improve quality and productivity are launched to the market in a daily basis. In the same line, new superalloys and composites bring extra challenges to manufacturing industry, Additionally, sustainability is also a concern, and green approaches are proposed, such as reduction of coolant, energy consumption reduction, and recycling of chips and even recycling of  cutting tool substrates. Tungsten for instance is a critical raw material, and alternatives based on ceramics or extra-hard materials are defined.

The special issue is open to new findings and approaches, taking into account the following points:

• New superalloys and materials used in energy equipment
• Surface integrity and damage by manufacturing methods
• Intermetallic alloys (structure, properties and applications)
• Benchmarking of machining processes
• Solutions for difficult-to-cut alloys
• Machine tools for high performance machining
• Coatings and new grades for tool materials
• Tool wear and tool life
• New lubricoolant approaches
• Sustainability in machining: green machining
• Additive manufacturing in energy equipment

New design and reliability methods for the full system life cycle

Dr. Amaia Calleja-Ochoa
Prof. Norberto López de Lacalle Marcaide
Prof. Anselmo Eduardo Diniz
Guest Editors

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