The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : The new material of innovation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 04, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

The new material of innovation

K. Ramachandran

educationplus

FUTURISTIC: An administrator at the RMIT Gallery in Melbourne inspects a lighting installation which plunges dozens of electric bulbs and brightly coloured coils of leads under water. The installation is part of the exhibition `Great Brits: The New A lchemists' that showcases a new generation of British designers with a passion for experimentation with new materials and technologies with an alchemical bent. - Photo: AFP

A NEW breed of civil engineering professionals is in short supply, Anna University Vice Chancellor, D. Viswanathan admits.

This spectre may slowly but soon descend on more core engineering branches, he feels.

But then the impending danger has already been picked up by early warning systems in industry and academia.

Summing up their lament was R. Seshasayee, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, who wanted young men and women in engineering studies to look at the "great opportunities emerging" in the manufacturing sector.

The country, according to him needs to make rapid strides in building the knowledge base to meet challenges in the sector. And the sectors he identified for work were automobile and automotive manufacturing segments.

The context he spoke in was more exciting. It was the inauguration of a conference organised by the University's Mechanical Engineering Department on "Advances in Materials Processing and Characterisation."

The deliberations of the conference provided an opportunity for students and researchers to present the latest advances in materials processing evaluation, focussing specifically on the latest advances in light weight and advanced metals, porous and cellular structured materials, plastics, composites, synthesis and processing characterisation of mechanical, structure and tribological properties of different materials and their various applications.

Vice Chancellor Viswanathan, a mechanical engineer himself, noted that the meeting had a special significance for the university as this year a new programme in Materials Engineering had been introduced at the undergraduate level. "It is a vital area for both research and application," he noted on the eve of the conference.

One aspect that brought out the significance of materials engineering for the present was a message from the conference chairman K.A. Padmanabhan, Jawaharlal Nehru Chair Professor.

He said processes and products drive the industry. There are `structural materials' which carry loads in service. Strength, structural integrity, service life and toughness decide the fate of such materials.

"In contrast we have the functional materials, which are selected because of special properties they possess...

These materials too will have to be processed into shapes; and the stability of these structures and components at different, micro-, meso- and macro-levels have to be ensured over a very long time. The heavy cost of investment in infrastructure has created a situation where plants and utilities are working beyond the design life.

New materials are now needed and are being developed for applications in a variety of areas. In civil smart and tensile materials are most urgently needed.

In mechanical engineering, research into characterising materials to serve for longer periods without fatigue or losing efficiency is vital for industries such as automobile sector.

Dr. Viswanathan noted how worldwide the emphasis today is on producing cars that are built with more lighter materials, but last longer and remain tough in different road conditions.

Similarly in the widening computer sciences field, new materials are being tried everyday to improve computing power at lesser cost, but at the same time can be more environmentally benign.

Defence sector, of course, is looking at different types of composites that can produce lighter but tougher vehicles and weapons systems.

However, the largest number of applications of new materials will be in the area of nano technology and human health sciences.

To quote Dr. G. Sundararajan from the International Advanced ResearchCentre for powder metallurgy and new materials, the fast expected products with nano materials come in the areas of energy, health, and environment, besides building materials, ceramic filters for drinking water disinfection, nano tungsten catalysts for fuel cells.

In terms of applications in health sciences, research into new materials focuses on producing bone composites and using titanium and steel in human body.

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