• IMDEA Materials researcher, Venkatesh Kumaran, has been awarded the AMES-Joan Antoni Bas Prize at this year’s VIII Spanish Congress III Ibero-American Powder Metallurgy Congress, CEIPM2023.

• Kumaran was recognised alongside Dr. Juan Alberto Meza and Prof. José Manuel Torralba for his research into new methods for turning metal scrap into powders capable of producing high-entropy alloys.

IMDEA Materials Institute researcher Venkatesh Kumaran is this year’s winner of the prestigious AMES-Joan Antoni Bas Prize for the best research in R&D powder metallurgy.

Kumaran was recognised for the publication ‘Development of high-performance powder metallurgy alloys from ‘commodity’ powders’, co-authored by fellow IMDEA Materials researchers Dr. Juan Alberto Meza and Prof. José Manuel Torralba.

The publication demonstrates that the so-called ‘commodity’ route for the manufacturing of advanced alloys through powder metallurgy is feasible, and can offer significant advantages compared to traditional processing routes (such as casting) or even powder metallurgy using elemental or fully pre-alloyed powders.

The term ‘commodity powders’ refers to commercial Ni, Fe and Co-based pre-alloyed powders, widely available in large quantities and at competitive prices.

The advantages of being able to use these materials in the development of high-performance, high-entropy alloys (HEA) relates to their wide availability, their ability to substitute the use of critical raw materials, and the design flexibility they offer.

The commodity route also allows for addressing not only compositions within the framework of multicomponent or high-entropy alloys, but also paves the way for the development of other alloy families (such as high or ultra-high alloy special steels, copper-based alloy families, or titanium-based alloys).

Furthermore, it creates opportunities for improved sustainability as the powders used can be directly manufactured from scrap, minimising the use of critical raw materials from the beginning of the cycle.

Read more about Kumaran’s recent research into high-entropy alloys, here.

The AMES-Joan Antoni Bas prize is open to research studies that have not been the subject of commercial transactions and that represent an advancement or technological progress in the field of powder metallurgy.

Kumaran, Dr. Meza and Prof. Torralba were on hand for the award ceremony at CEIPM2023 in Donostia – San Sebastian with other members of IMDEA Materials’ Sustainable Powder Technologies research group. Other papers were also presented in oral sessions as a result of research carried out in the field of powder metallurgy, developed at IMDEA Materials.

Kumaran said that the award had come as a surprise, but that he welcomed the recognition of his research into the fast-emerging field of HEAs. 

“It’s always nice to be recognised for your research efforts, and to be reminded that your work is making an impact in the wider scientific community,” he said. There´s always a need for new engineering materials to meet the technological demands of our society and research on high entropy alloys is one such effort.

“Next generation materials like High-entropy alloys offer vast potential in the future of manufacturing in a number of fields, so it’s quite exciting to be at the forefront of research in such a dynamic field of scientific investigation”.