Omer Music, a fourth-year PhD student in the Department's Low Carbon Materials Processing group, has won the first International Karl-Kolle Prize for Metal Forming. The prize, awarded by the German Metal Forming Association (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Umformtechnik) is presented to young researchers in recognition of their "application oriented innovative outstanding research achievements in the field of metal forming" and aims to support young researchers in their career.
Omer's research has focused on flexible sheet metal forming. This can broadly be defined as shaping metal sheets using relatively simple tools under computer control. This approach avoids using specialised tools and allows production of low-volume, custom made components or prototypes. The main output of Omer's research has been the invention of a novel flexible forming process - Flexible Asymmetric Spinning. He has also designed a prototype machine for this process. Flexible Asymmetric Spinning is very similar to the art of pottery using a potter's wheel. It shapes sheet metal (instead of clay), using a set of computer-controlled rollers. To explore the process, a prototype machine has been built in the Department's workshops.
The award ceremony took place at the 10th International Conference on Technology of Plasticity, a major international conference on metal forming, which was held in September in Aachen, Germany.
Omer's PhD is supervised by Dr Julian Allwood.
