Phone 0114 225 3894
E-mail a.h.jones@shu.ac.uk
Dr Hywel Jones of MERI and Dr Anthony Pick of KeramTech in Barnsley have been awarded the Armourers and Brasiers Venture Prize for their work on a new lighter weight ceramic body armour material. To find out more, read the full story here.
Hywel is responsible for the coordination and management of MERI's consultancy activities. He is also an active senior researcher with a number of ongoing research projects (see below).
Hywel recently managed the 'Routes to Innovation' (R2i) programme run by MERI and funded by Yorkshire Forward and ERDF. R2i was a project worth £1 million and was delivered in 12 months with the aim of providing materials and engineering advice and services to South Yorkshire industry in order for them to innovate and grow their businesses. The project was highly regarded and has been instrumental in raising MERI's profile in the region.
Skills and expertise
Hywel is experienced in a wide range of analysis methods, including
- Environmental Scanning electron microscopy (ESEM)
- Elemental Analysis using Energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX)
- x-ray diffraction (phase id, crystallite size)
- macro, micro and nano hardness measurements
- wear testing (including micro-scale abrasive testing)
- wear metrology methods
- fracture toughness measurement
- density measurement
- element depth profiling by Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy (GDOES)
- Infinite Focus Microscopy (IFM), 3D optical colour profiling of microscopic features
- experience of ceramics, metals, glasses and polymers and composites.
Consultancy
Hywel worked as a consultant since 2000 and has carried out over 400 jobs for a wide range of industrial partners, saving or generating millions of pounds for those companies.
His particular fields of expertise are
- the analysis of materials via SEM and EDX
- the analysis of materials via XRD
- metallic and ceramic microstructures
- the failure of metallic and ceramic materials
- wear of materials
Some examples of work Hywel has carried out for industry are
- the cause of failure of furnace crucibles in Al production
- finding the cause of blockage in Endoscopy AERs
- identification of stress corrosion failures in brasses (gas supply industry)
- fatigue failures in automotive components (automotive and HGV industry)
- corrosion failure of aluminium heat exchangers (gas and oil industry)
- premature failure of zirconia bio-materials (bio-medical implants industry)
- the wear performace of cobalt-chromium alloys for hip prosthesis (bio-medical implants industry)
- erosion/corrosion wear of aluminium heat exchangers (food production industry)
Research activities
Hywel also carries out research and development in several areas in collaboration with industrial partners. These include
- ceramics and ceramic composites
- tribology (friction and wear)
- the development of new technology for knife edge production (EPSRC CASE Award 2008)
- the synthesis of high value metals by the FFC Cambridge process
EPSRC CASE Award 2005 with Metalysis Ltd Wath-upon-Dearne, Rotherham - hard facing coatings for agricultural applications
EPSRC CASE 2004 PhD with Chapmans Agricultural Ltd, Sheffield - development of anti-tarnish silver alloys
European project (£1.8 million) with seven partners including Siemens, Munich, CEA, Grenoble and Carrs Silverware, Sheffield - the development of surface mount technology pick and place nozzle. Metro Technologies Ltd, Doncaster
- the development of new electro-conductive zirconia composites. Dynamic Ceramic Ltd, Crewe
Background
Hywel is the Consultancy Manager and a Senior Consultant in the Materials and Engineering Research Institute.
His first degree was in Physics from the University of Warwick ('88-'91). This was followed by a MSc in Physical Methods of Materials Characterisation ('92-'93) and a PhD in the 'Synthesis and Tribology of Sialon/TiB2 Ceramic Composites' ('93-'97) both of which were completed at the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick. In 1997 he was appointed as a post doctoral research fellow for 3 years to work on the European funded project 'Ultratribo' to work on Ultra-hard Composites for Tribological Applications.
In 2000 he moved to Sheffield to take up a permanent position in the Materials and Engineering Research Institute. In 2004 he was promoted to Senior Consultant. He was a member of the Materials UK, Education and Skills Working Group, a committee which provided a report to influence government with regards the UK's strategy for materials for the next 20 years. He also continues to compile and analyse student numbers data on materials courses at UK HEIs and was a contributor to the National Student Profile for Higher Education Programmes in: Materials, 2008.