E-Archive

Interview

in Vol. 21 - January Issue - Year 2020
ICSP14 is Rapidly Approaching, Save The Date!
Mario Guagliano, Full Professor at Politecnico Milano and Chairman of ICSP14

Mario Guagliano, Full Professor at Politecnico Milano and Chairman of ICSP14

The ICSP14 organizing team

The ICSP14 organizing team

Milan is an exciting city with many opportunities for visitors: here is a view of its best-known historical monument, the Gothic Cathedral, also called Duomo

Milan is an exciting city with many opportunities for visitors: here is a view of its best-known historical monument, the Gothic Cathedral, also called Duomo

This month MFN interviewed Mario Guagliano, Full Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, a very well-known university in a top position in the international rankings for Engineering, Architecture, and Design. He is one of the academic leaders in shot peening. We met him in his office and we had the opportunity to talk about the next 14th International Conference on Shot Peening, which he will chair, hosted at Politecnico di Milano on September 7-10, 2020.

(?) MFN: Hello Mario, how are you doing?

(!) M. G.: I’m doing well, thanks! And, first of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity for this interview. Indeed, I am quite busy since I have to advance the research projects and contractual research studies with companies and SMEs and, of course, I have to teach my students. But, let me say, I am spending more and more time on the organization of the 14th International Conference on Shot Peening, usually called ICSP14, which I have the pleasure and the honor to chair. I think that in the next months till the conference this will be my main task.

(?) MFN: Could you tell me something more about ICSP conferences?

(!) M. G.: ICSP is a series of conferences started in 1981, in Paris, France, and since then it has been taking place every three years around the world: after Paris, Chicago, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Tokio, Oxford, San Francisco and so on, till Montréal, where the ICSP13 was hosted by Prof. Martin Lévesque at the Ecole Polytechnique in 2017. Thanks to the success of the previous editions, the ICSP conference series is now one of the calendar’s most important events on the science, technology, and applications of mechanical surface treatments. It offers a unique forum for scientists and engineers to deepen and update their knowledge on all aspects of mechanical surface treatments.

(?) MFN: It is not easy to find a series of thematic conferences that dates back to 40 years ago. Times are always changing and technologies with them. What is the secret of the ICSP series?

(!) M. G.: I think there is not any secret but some important points. The first is that shot peening is still widely used (probably from more than 40 years ago) in many industrial sectors. This makes it attractive to engineers working in the automotive industry as well as in aerospace and many other fields. But what is most surprising to me is the never-ending interest of academia toward shot peening. If you look at the scientific papers published in the last ten years on shot peening and related treatments, the number and the quality is always increasing. I think that this is due to the complexity of the physics of the process, which is strongly nonlinear (think of the contact condition, the plastic deformation, the high strain rate): to completely understand what happens during shot peening is not trivial and still exciting to academic researchers. And, let me say, today, with the recent technological developments,  the so-called "Industry 4.0 revolution", strictly related to the digitalization of industrial production, and the need to have not only a deep understanding of the shot peening treatment but also how to implement it in the new industrial reality, is highlighted. This completely justifies the interest in the new edition, ICSP14, which my team and I are organizing in Milan.

(?) MFN: So regarding ICSP14, could you tell me something about that?

(!) M. G.: ICSP14 is a unique opportunity for researchers and industry representatives to present their scientific and technological developments on shot peening and surface treatments and to listen to the recent developments and achievements in the field. With respect to the previous editions, while we are maintaining the traditional structure of the conference, we are giving special emphasis to the application of shot peening as a post-treatment for the new manufacturing technologies. I am thinking about the additive manufacturing (AM) of metal parts, which is a new paradigm of the industrial production but is nowadays strongly limited by the surface state of the AM parts. Here,  surface treatments like shot peening can play a critical role to get the desired surface state, both in terms of roughness and morphology, and in terms of residual stresses. And…

(?) MFN: And…..what?

(!) M. G.: …. And, let me say that while the name of the conference is focussed on shot peening, the conference is open to the so-called “allied processes”, characterized by a peening action but using different media: water jet peening, ultrasonic shot peening, cavitation peening, laser-based peening, burnishing, deep rolling, flap peening and so on. Special sessions are planned on these treatments.

(?) MFN: What is the response you have got so far?

(!) M. G.: The response is excellent in each of these fields! We have received numerous abstracts about the different areas covered by the conference. And I expect we will receive many more since we are approaching the deadline for the submission of the abstracts; as usually, most of the contributions are sent at the very last minute! And we have already got the agreement of many international exhibitors that will show up at ICSP14 with dedicated booths to present their services and products. To summarize, we expect more than 300 people to attend and more than 20 exhibitors.

(?) MFN: What is the subject you are receiving more contributions about?
 
(!) M. G.: Well, the contributions we are receiving are uniformly distributed among the areas of interest of the conference; processes, experimental techniques, numerical simulations, new applications. No need to say that fatigue is a primary topic, but the abstracts we are receiving consider this subject from different points of view: materials, process parameters, comparison of different processes, experimental techniques to assess the fatigue behavior, and so on. There is also an increasing number of abstracts that deal with I4.0 aspects, such as sensors for surface processes digitalization, real-time process control, process modelling and simulation, and data-driven approaches. This gives me the opportunity to underline the great effort that is on course to digitalize shot peening and the allied processes and to make them attractive in this globalized and digitalized world. But what is more interesting is the attention given to the application of shot peening to AM parts, a new field of application that is particularly attractive in high-tech sectors such as aerospace or bio-med where shot peening can play a crucial role to improve the characteristics of the AM elements that otherwise are strongly limited by the surface state of the as-built parts.

(?) MFN: I think that AM will be more and more important in the future.

(!) M. G.: I am convinced of that, especially for high-tech sectors rather than mass-production sectors, at least with the current technological limits. Indeed with AM, you can design and produce light parts, materials with tailored properties and optimized elements, but the key is to be able to conveniently post-treat the surface that, in the as-built condition, is of very poor quality. And for this purpose, as I said, the peening treatments are very attractive, and we will discuss that at ICSP14 also with special sessions.

(?) MFN: In every conference, there are a number of plenary lectures, given by leaders in the respective fields of interest. Have you anyone in mind for that?

(!) M. G.: Yes, we sure have. We have already got the acceptance of the plenary lecturers, internationally recognized leaders in the field, who are quite balanced between academia and industry, treatment of interest, and geographical area. I can anticipate that Prof. Martin Lévesque (Ecóle Polytechnique Montréal), president of the International Scientific Committee on Shot Peening (ISCSP), will give a talk on simulation of shot peening and peen forming, discussing the recent activities of his group. Prof. Emmanuelle Rouhaud (University of Technology of Troyes, France) will talk about an attractive shot peening-based treatment to get grain refinement and superior properties, the SMAT, and how to model it. Yongxiang Hu, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has accepted our invitation to give a lecture on laser peening. Then we have two plenary lectures from industry experts: one from Boeing, Dr. Dan Sanders will describe the experience at Boeing concerning cavitation peening and its comparison with other treatments, while Dr. Pierangelo Duò will discuss how surface modification processes are implemented at Rolls-Royce Deutschland.  We have also different keynote speakers that will open single parallel sessions.   
 
(?) MFN: I think it is not easy to organize and manage a conference like this. Could you explain how are you proceeding in the development of the conference?

(!) M. G.: You are right when you say it is not an easy task! But I am doing that with enthusiasm. And I am not alone, as I have a group of co-workers that are helping me a lot, and without them, it would not be possible to come this far. Everyone has a specific task: the emails, the website, the abstracts and paper allocations, the social events and so on! In particular, I would like to mention and thank both Dr. Sara Bagherifard, assistant professor, and Stefano Monti, who is finishing his PhD, for dedicating a lot of their time to the success of the conference. And I would also like to thank Peenservice, partner of the conference, and Dr. Michele Bandini, General Manager of Peenservice, who is strongly contributing to ICSP14 organization.
 
(?) MFN: Some words about social events?

(!) M. G.: We are working on that. I can anticipate that we will have a welcome reception in the center of the city at the end of the opening day while the gala dinner is expected in the courtyard of the historical castle in Milan. We are also organizing a social program for accompanying persons as well as cultural visits and post-conference tours.

(?) MFN: And how about Milan, the city where the conference will be held?

(!) M. G.: Milan is the second-largest and the most important financial and economical city in Italy. Milan is an international capital of fashion and design, a city with many opportunities for shopping. But Milan is also rich in historical monuments and buildings, with many museums and art exhibitions. For example, in Milan it is possible to visit "The Last Supper", the famous wall painting masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci. I am sure that everyone will enjoy a walk in the center of the city or around the historical castle but also in the new districts with innovative "green" buildings. In the evening as well, one can enjoy an aperitif or dining along the channel "Naviglio".

(?) MFN: Finally, a message for our readers.

(!) M. G.: For sure! I hope to see them all in Milan at ICSP14. The ICSP14 Organizing Team and I are ready to welcome you and to do our best to let you have a pleasant and fruitful time at ICSP14. Please take a look at the website (www.icsp14.org) for updated info and do not hesitate to contact us for any information or request you could have about ICSP14, and we will be happy to help you. Save the date!…I am looking forward to meeting you all in Milan, ciao!

MFN would like to thank Mario Guagliano for this interview!

For Information:
ICSP14
Politecnico di Milano Campus Bovisa Sud
via La Masa 1, 20156 Milano, Italy
Tel. +39.02.23998206
Fax +39.02.23998202
E-mail: info@icsp14.org
www.icsp14.org