In December 2019, I had the opportunity do a placement in Mexico at “Cemuisa remolques”. Their company focuses on the steel manufacturing and processing of different steel alloys (e.g. machining, joining, surface coating, heat treatment, steel characterisation, etc). I was interested to take part in this placement because the company is interested in research and academic collaborations, as they want to find solutions to complex manufacturing, economic and application challenges that they are presented with.
So I thought, “well now that I am almost at the end of my PhD and with all my experience acquired, I may have a little bit of a chance to do from this experience a high-level impact long-term project.
The main objective of this placement was to meet prospective partners and clients to present different projects proposals and initiate connections for academic collaboration in its industry.
At the placement, I was fortunate enough to share my ideas with a range of specialists, technicians, business management team and directors. During these conversations, they expressed to me the problems and challenges that they are facing in different sectors of their company in which I proposed possible long-term projects and short-term solutions.
During weeks 2 and 3 of the placement, I decided to review my advances and make amendments to my project proposal based on the talks and comments I received during my first meeting. I focused on redesigning the verification and monitoring plan, as this was a vital aspect of their concerns they expressed to me. I found the source of the problem.
Firstly, the equipment and techniques used presented certain limitations for mechanical properties analysis. Secondly, the heat treatment setup was inadequate because it generated overheating and nonuniform heating at levels of production. Knowing this, I started to think how I could overcome these challenges. I dedicated the following weeks to completing the new project proposal and paperwork required by the health and safety office. I performed an evaluation for the project where I had to indicate the resources (e.g. equipment and materials) that I will use during the project. I found it useful for two reasons: it helped me to plan the next stages of the project plan and it made me aware of the resources available and limitations of the company. Also, to ensure that the technicians and I are aware of the procedures.
In those final weeks, I met with different technicians so I could receive training in different equipment’s and explain the proposal design and procedure of the project. We agreed to it and also decided to modify the process conditions in order to simplify even more the setup.
I was able to identify potential opportunities for short- and longer-term collaboration between Cemuisa and The University of Sheffield. These opportunities include industry-sponsored PhD programs, placements for future students, develop cutting-edge research, pushforward to launch materials, process and ideas from the laboratory to the industry, tackle industrial challenges that Cemuisa is facing such as steel surface treatments, quality control, manufacturing process, efficiency, innovative models and design for enclosed lorries.
As an outcome to my visit at Cemuisa, I will be seeking through the established strong relationships between different researchers, suppliers and academic personnel in materials science area to propose different solutions, applications, and projects that could move forward to a future academic collaboration in which both sides can benefit from it. Finally, the most valuable thing that I gained from this experience was to be able to challenge myself, apply the skills and knowledge obtained during my PhD journey and get project management and industry experience.
Aldo Fernando Sosa Gallardo PhD student in Dept of Materials Science and Engineering
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