The Scientific Technical Committee (Electro-Physical & Chemical Processes) STC E held two meetings in 2016: Paris, France, February 19 and Guimaraes, Portugal, August 26. The meetings were chaired by STC E chairman Prof. A.P. Malshe.

The scientific/technical presentations and discussions at the Paris meeting included “An experimental study in direct metal selective laser melting of Inconel 625 powder alloy” (T. Özel), “Electrochemical Additive Micro Manufacturing” (M. Sundaram), “A novel method for metal-diamond composite coating deposition with cold spray and formation mechanism” (R. Lupoi), “Additive Manufacturing of embedded and smart devices” (E. Ferraris), “Laser-processing for surface engineering of dies and molds” (A.J. Malshe), “Fatigue Performance of a Biodegradable Magnesium-Calcium Alloy Processed by Laser Shock Peening and its Future in Additive Manufacturing” (M.P. Sealy) and “Electroplating of plastic for advanced electrical applications” (A. Islam).

During the August meeting (Guimaraes), the following presentations were given and discussed: “Advanced Technology Development for Sinking EDM of Titanium Alloys” (A. Klink), “Localized modification of freeform surfaces using magnetic fluids in spatiotemporal fields” (S. Bukkapatnam), “Chemical Process Intensification for Nanoparticle-Assisted Metals Joining” (B. Paul), “In process monitoring for Additive Manufacturing” (A. Clare), “On-line laser balancing system of rotative parts” (D. Axinte), “Quasi-CW Fibre Laser Trepanning Drilling of Aerospace Alloys” (S. Marimuthu), and “A Temperature-Thread Multiscale Modeling for Efficient Prediction of Part Distortion by Selective Laser Melting” (Y. Guo).

During the Paris and the Guimaraes meeting, the progress of the given and up-coming keynote papers were discussed: Keynote 2016 “Shaping of engineering ceramics by electro, chemical and physical processes” (E. Ferraris, J. Vleugels, Y. Guo, D. Bourell, J.-P. Kruth, B. Lauwers), Keynote 2017 “Materials for Additive Manufacturing” (D. Bourell, J.-P. Kruth, M- Leu, G. Levy, D. Rosen, A. Clare, P. Bartolo) and Cross-STC Keynote 2017 “Laser Based Additive Manufacturing in Industry and Academia” (M. Schmidt, M. Merklein, D. Bourell, D. Dimitrov, T. Hausotte, K. Wegener, L. Overmeyer, F. Vollertsen, G. Levy).

During both meetings, the progress on the organization of ISEM XIX (to be held in Bilbao, April 2018) was given.

During the STC E paper session at the GA in Guimaraes, 13 papers were presented followed by discussions (questions and answers). All 13 papers were included in Vol. 1 of the CIRP Annals. Paper contents were related to the following fields: Additive Manufacturing (5), ECM/EDM (4), Laser Beam Machining (3) and Arc Manufacturing (1). The keynote paper “Shaping of engineering ceramics by electro, chemical and physical processes” was also presented by E. Ferraris during the STC E paper session.

During the Guimaraes meeting, a new STC E board has been elected. The following persons were elected for the coming three years:
Chairman: Paulo Bartolo,
Vice-chairman: Michael Schmidt  
Secretary: Frank Pfefferkorn


Report prepared by Prof. Michael SCHMIDT (CIRP STC E Secretary)