The Scientific Technical Committee (Electro-Physical & Chemical Processes) STC E held two meetings in 2019: Paris, France, on February 22 and Birmingham, United Kingdom, on August 23. The meetings were chaired by STC E chairman Prof. Paulo Bartolo.

The technical presentations and discussions at the Paris meeting included: Buttonhole Welding - Laser Deep Penetration Welding with a Stable Melt Pool Cavity (P. Woizeschke); Direct Carbon Fiber Composite 3D Printer for CFRP Repair (S-H Ahn); Urban Farming and 3-D Printing of Food (S. Bapat); Novel Implementation of Three-Dimensional Bioprinting (Y. Huang); Additive Manufacturing of FeCoNiCrMn High Entropy Alloy (HEA) with Selective Laser Melting and Cold Spraying: initial results and comparison” (R. Lupoi); Process Monitoring for Temporal-Spatial Modeling of Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing (T. Ozel); Suppression of Metal Structure Variation in Directed Energy Deposition of Inconel 625 by Applying a Coolant System (R. Koike); Combined Wire and Powder Laser Metal Deposition Process to enhance Local Properties of Tools and Dies (T. Bergs); Defining Structural Integrity Enabled by Hybrid Additive Manufacturing (M. Sealy).

During the August meeting (in Birmingham), the following technical presentations were given and discussed: Human-centric Industry 4.0: Learning from Biology [A. Malshe]; Machining of Curved Holes by Actuated EDM Tool Head with Integrated Sensors for In-process Control [F. Bleicher] ; Additive Manufacturing of Soft Silicone Foams and Actuators [A. Shih] ; Paradigm Shifts in ECM and EDM Process Technology Design Approaches [A. Klink] ; Directly Printed Low-cost Nanocomposite Sensor for Vibration Measurement of Workpiece during Milling Process [S-H Ahn] ; A CPS System Utilizing Thermal Cameras for Quality Assessment in Laser-based Processes [P. Stavropoulos] ; Fabrication of Transparent Superhydrophobic Surface on Glass using Laser Beam Machining and Heat Treatment [D-M Chun].

During the Paris and the Birmingham meetings, the progress of this year’s and up-coming keynote papers were discussed: STC E Keynote Paper 2019 “Visualization of Electro-physical and Chemical Processes,” Organizers: M. Kunieda, L. Overmeyer, A. Klink; STC E Keynote Paper 2020 “Space Manufacturing,” Organizers: K.K.B. Hon, L. Overmeyer, L. Li, A. Malshe, J. Duflou, J. Vickers, H.C. Chao; STC E Keynote Paper 2021 “Ultrafast Laser Manufacturing: from Physics to Industrial Applications,” Organizer: L. Orazi, L. Romoli, L. Li, M. Schmidt ; STC E Keynote Paper 2022 “Bioprinting: Materials, Processes, and Applications,” Organizers: P. Bartolo, A. Malshe, E. Ferraris, B. Koc. Proposals for STC E Keynotes were presented: STC E Keynote Proposal for 2023 “Digital Twin for Additive Manufacturing,” Yuebin Guo ; STC E Keynote Proposal for 2023 “Process Chain Advances in Metallic Additive Manufacturing,” Rocco Lupoi, Adam Claire, Jean-Pierre Kruth, Wessel Wits ; STC E Keynote Proposal for 2024 “Dynamic Beam Shaping in Laser Processes,” Michael Schmidt, Frank Vollertsen, Joost Duflou.

During the Paris and Birmingham meetings an update on the Collaborative Working Group on “Additive Manufacturing” was presented and contributions from STC E discussed.

During the Paris meeting the 4th CIRP Biomanufacturing Conference (11-14 December 2019, Hong Kong) was approved. During the Birmingham meeting LANE 2020, the 11th CIRP Conference on Photonic Technologies (6-10 September 2019, Fürth, Germany) was approved.

During the STC E paper session at the General Assembly in Birmingham, 21 papers were presented followed by discussions (questions and answers). All 21 papers were included in Vol. 1 of the CIRP Annals. The papers covered the following topics: Additive Manufacturing (8), Electro-Chemical Machining (6), Electral-Discharge Machining (2), and Laser-based Manufacturing (5).

The STC E Keynote Paper “Visualization of Electro-physical and Chemical Processes” was presented by M. Kunieda during the STC E session on August 20, 2019.

During the Birmingham meeting, a new STC E board was elected. The following persons were elected for the coming three years:
Chairman: Michael Schmidt
Vice-chairman: Frank Pfefferkorn
Secretary: Adam Clare.

Prof. Frank PFEFFERKORN (CIRP STC E Secretary)
13 November 2019