PhD Studentship: NSF Swarf: A Novel Forging Processes for Closed Loop Recycling of Metallic Swarf

Overview

This PhD studentship at the University of Warwick tackles the waste produced by machining. Many components lose 60 to 90 percent of their material as swarf during machining, and this swarf is usually collected and discarded, mixing with other grades and losing much of its value.

Warwick has recently secured a patent for a forging technique in which pre-compacted swarf is heated to just below its melting point and then deformed, so that the material fusion bonds. Waste swarf can be forged straight back into blanks before it is scrapped and mixed, allowing high-purity swarf to be reused with a minimal carbon footprint. Companies could buy less raw material, initially using the blanks for components that are not safety critical, and high-value materials such as nickel superalloys and stainless steels could be forged into briquettes and fed into lower-value markets, for example aerospace-grade swarf used far more cheaply in rail or naval applications.

The student will establish the process window for the technique across several materials and test how far the patented material properties are achieved. Forging dies will be designed for different shapes, temperatures and forging rates. The project runs alongside commercialisation of the process and will also support metallurgical assessment of commercial products. The work covers forging microstructures, hands-on near-solidus forging of swarf, microstructural and mechanical assessment, and possibly modelling of strain pathways. The student joins the Advanced Steel Research Team.

What you get

The stipend is 21,805 pounds per year.

Key dates

The studentship starts on 1 March 2027 at the latest, and the closing date is 25 November 2026.