The Busan․Gyeongnam Branch winter academic lecture of the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials was held on February 28th (Tuesday) at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT located in Changwon City, Gyeongsangnam-do. This lecture, co-hosted by the KIMS and the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials, and jointly organized by the Busan․Gyeongnam Branch of the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials, Metal Material Test-Bed of the KIMS, and the effective power Unit, was held to examine the trend of ‘Metal Material Manufacturing Demonstration and Reliability Improvement’.

The lecture was divided into two thematic sessions, each dealing with the research trends of ‘Manufacturing Demonstration’ and ‘Reliability Improvement’ of metal materials. In the ‘Manufacturing Demonstration’section, △Extreme materials empirical research foundation creation project and research trends (Director Young-soo Yoo of the Extreme Materials Institute at KIMS), △Manufacturing, microstructure, mechanical properties, and applicability of metal materials using additive manufacturing processes (Professor Kee-ahn Lee at Ina University), and △Research trends on crack characteristics of ultra-high strength steel and aluminum weldments applied with E-Mobility (Professor Yeong-do Park at Dong-eui University) was presented. In the ‘Reliability Improvement’ section, △Introduction to environment-assisted fracture (Sang-shik Kim at Gyeongsang National University), △Small-scale analysis on brittle-to-ductile transition behavior of W as a plasma facing material (Professor Heung-Nam Han, Seoul National University), △Prediction of a high-temperature structural material lifetime (Professor Yoon-suk Choi, Pusan National University), △Development and utilization of design data for aviation materials (Director Yong-nam Kwon of Materials Digital Platform Division at KIMS) was announced.

President Jung-hwan Lee of KIMS, who delivered a congratulatory speech at this event, said “ Material R&D is recognized for its effectiveness and value when it leads to commercialization in the market through demonstration and reliability evaluation,”. He continued, “I hope that the useful information shared in this lecture will suggest a direction for future development of metal materials in Korea to demonstrate manufacturing and improve reliability,”.