Industrial Applications

Due to the unparalleled diversity of metallic materials, metal-based industries will remain of outstanding importance for the competitiveness of Europe's economy in the 21st century.

However, in order to remain successful, metals have to stand up against their competitors, like polymers and ceramics, and they must fulfil the conditions of sustainable development. Of the two possible strategies to respond to these challenges, i.e. improvement of known materials or tapping entirely new systems, the applying institutions suggest the second one.

At a time where the great majority of possible metallic systems have not even been looked at, hopes are justified to find among these systems new alloys with properties offering superior solutions with respect to the market demand for outstanding properties at competitive cost combined with environmental harmlessness and low energy consumption during production, service and recycling.