On August 31st, the full consortium gathered at Tata Steel Netherlands in IJmuiden for the kick-off event of the DEPMAT Perspectief program. With 35+ people attending the event, ranging from the PhD and PostDoc researchers and supervisors, to the industrial representatives of the various companies, the event was a success.
The event was opened by Ton van den Boogaard, program leader of DEPMAT. During the morning sessions, representatives of industry presented their expected Impact Pathways to highlight the importance of this program for their companies. Furthermore, the various Work Packages were introduced by their respective WP leaders, after which we broke out into separate sessions focused on this packages. During these sessions, the involved parties discussed the research within, and aligned views on how to proceed.
During the day, many opportunities presented itself for further alignment between different parties, and discussions on the work content allowed for improved understanding of the way forward. Furthermore, the event gave ample chance for everyone to get to know each other. This promotes interaction between the various parties (universities and industry) during the coming years.
After a successful first day, the second day of the kick-off focused on bring all new researchers up to speed with the various steel production processes, from rolling and annealing, to forming processes at steel “users” (i.e. companies such as Geerts Metaalwaren, SKF and Bosch Transmission.). This way, all students have a basic understanding of how steel is made and processed.
