Every alloy design project starts with our metallurgists, who dive into the details of the problem to understand the fundamental metallurgy governing the system at hand. A comprehensive understanding of the relevant metallurgical mechanisms is critical for computational modelling, as these are the foundations for reliable and widely applicable models. Careful steps are taken to ensure and verify that our models capture the underlying physical metallurgy, and every term is scrutinised and rationalised before a model is incorporated within our Alloys By Design (ABD®) platform.
At the core of our alloy design approach is the prediction of microstructure ahead of performance. The fraction, type and size of the phases that form, as well as the grain size, orientation and morphology at the micro-scale determine performance at the macro-scale. Our metallurgists are experts in understanding the evolution of microstructure and using this to predict the performance of materials.