We are delighted to announce that this year's Jeremy Laskowski prize for excellence in PhD research has been awarded to Osama el Sherif

Sheffield Hallam University is pleased to announce that, in partnership with TWI (formerly The Welding Institute) and Ionbond UK Ltd, it has won a collaborative research project supported by Innovative UK to developer coatings for friction stir welding (FSW) tools.

The project involved the development of a nitriding process to work at low pressures, achieving high plasma densities and degree of activation of nitrogen

Understanding the fundamentals of HIPIMS plasma

As part of an ongoing programme of fundamental studies, the plasma produced during the coating cycle is being studied in an attempt to link plasma properties to physical film properties

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) has been developed on rotating PVD magnetron sources for uniform deposition on 200mm single wafer tools for barrier and seed layer deposition in through silicon vias (TSV)

To meet continuous demands for improved performance of the state of art hard coatings for tribological applications it is necessary to incorporate novel plasma assisted deposition technology into the present coating equipment providing better control over the energy of film forming species

This 'Innovatial' project focuses on the development of protective coatings for a new generation of lightweight titanium gamma aluminide materials that are in high demand in modern aircraft and cars

Ti-Al-Si-N and Cr-Al-Si-N are high-temperature resistant coatings for cutting tool applications, created in collaboration with University of Freiberg, Germany

From 1999-2002, the Raman Spectroscopy of PVD Coatings project aimed to develop a Raman based method of monitoring the quality of coatings produced by the Surface Engineering Group and monitor stress and wear induced changes in hard coatings