Authorized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, National Engineering Research Center of Near-Net-Shape Forming for Metallic Materials was founded in February, 2009. The research center consists of 2 Level-1 Discipline of National Key Discipline; 2 Level-1 Discipline Doctoral Degree Program (Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering); 2 Post-doctoral Research Station (Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering). The Center is involved in various disciplines, including casting, powder metallurgy and machine manufacturing. It is an important base for R&D of metallic material near-net-shape forming technology, its products and manufacturing equipment; for innovation and industrialization of near-net-shape forming technology; for talent gathering and training; and for domestic and international academic and technological exchange. The Center was established on the basis of The Engineering Research Center of Metallic Materials Processing and Equipment, Ministry of Education (category B), Guangdong Key Laboratory for Advanced Metallic Materials Fabrication and Forming, and Guangzhou Non-ferrous metal Casting Engineering Technology Research Center.

The Center devotes itself to conducting frontier research in near-net-shape forming technology of metallic materials, and to resolve basic technical problems encountered in the advanced near-net-shape forming and its products for the demand in industry and national defense. Research and development are focusing on highly efficient, clean, energy and material saving parts and components forming technology, key engineering parts design and its manufacturing equipment. Research directions of the group include: 1) highly efficient near-net shape casting; 2) highly efficient near-net shape forming of powder materials; 3) highly efficient precision plastic forming; 4) equipment for near-net shape forming of metallic materials.

The Center consists of 30 staff members, among these, 14 Professors, 9 Associate Professors and Senior Engineers. In addition, there are 5 Postdocs and more than 100 students pursuing Doctor and Master Degrees. Recently, more than 100 projects that assigned by the governments at different levels were undertaken by the research group of the Center with a total research funding exceeding 80 million RMB. A total of 12 prizes were awarded by governments at different levels, including 2 Second Prize of The National Science and Technical Progress Award, 9 provincial and ministerial Awards (4 First Prizes, 3 Second Prizes, 2 Third Prizes), 1 Chinese Patent Outstanding Awards. More than 700 research papers were published, among these 315 papers were cited by SCI, EI and ISTP. 119 patents were applied for (99 invention patents and 20 utility model patents), of which 73 were granted, including 56 invention patents. In addition, there are 3 computer software copyright registrations.

Taking advantage of the “211” Project and “985” Project of South China University of Technology, the Center made vigorous progress in the base construction and platform construction. In order to provide a better environment for the rapid technology transfer, the basic research sector occupied a floor space of 3000 m², the pilot plant has a floor space of 2000 m² and an industrialization base has a floor space of 30000 m². The Center possesses a variety of equipment for material processing and characterization. A total asset valued over 55 million RMB, including 58 sets of experimental equipment that valued higher than 100 thousand RMB, including equipment for: CAD/CAE design and simulation platform; materials fabrication, forming and processing platform; materials characterization and property measurement platform; and materials forming equipment design and manufacturing platform. The Center is upgrading its processing and characterization capability continuously to enhance its innovation ability and open to the society.

The Center maintains long-term collaborative relationships with international corporations, institutes and renowned universities such as Osaka University, Tohoku University, Iwate University, Kumamoto University of Japan, University of Glamorgan, UK, University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University of U.S.A. Through exchanging scholars and students, collaborating on research, and holding and participating in international conferences, the research and development capacity of the group is enhanced and keeps pace with frontier research. By establishing an “International Cooperation Laboratory” and taking advantage of the research and development platforms, the high-quality personnel of the Center take responsibility for key projects concerning near-net-shape forming technology of metallic materials. Actively assimilating and mastering advanced technical knowledge and managerial experience from abroad enables the Center to become an influential R&D organization. The Center also introduces international information involving new progress, new trends and demands in the field of metallic materials near-net-shape forming to domestic enterprises. These efforts enable the Center to provide high-quality services to related businesses for their market expansion and technological innovation.