XII International Symposium
on Explosive Production of New Materials:
Science, Technology, Business, and Innovations
(EPNM-2014)

Final report

Photos...

The XII International Symposium on Explosive Production of New Materials: Science, Technology, Business, and Innovations (EPNM-2014) held in Cracow on May 25–31, 2014 was organized by Institute of Structural Macrokinetics and Materials Science (ISMAN, Russia), and Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science (IMIM, Poland) under support from Division of Chemistry and Materials Science, Russian Academy of Sciences; Scientific Council on Combustion and Explosion, Russian Academy of Sciences; and Committee on Materials Science, Polish Academy of Sciences. Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs RUSNANO acted as Partner General. Honorable patronage came from Jacek Majchrowski, Cracow Mayor, and from Marek Sowa, Marshal of Malopolska Region. Media support was provided by Radio Cracow.

The symposium was financially supported by Polish Explomet Co. as a main sponsor which also bore travel and accommodation expenses for some foreign participants. More than once, the event was supported by Nobel Clad (DMC) Co. (USA), Energo  Metall, and Supply Steel (both of Russia). For the first time, sponsorship was provided by such companies as Cap. Co (Italy), Union Ocel (Czechia), RTR Complete Solutions (Poland), and City Handlowy (Poland).

EPNM-2014 set records in the number of participants—130 experts from Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Czechia, Slovakia, Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Georgia, USA, Turkey, Japan, Korea, and China—and in the scope and number of submitted papers—70 oral and 32 poster presentations. Another noticed trend was an increase in the number of junior researchers and engineers.
The Symposium was greeted by Academician V.E. Fortov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Prof. Michaі Kleiber, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences as well as by Prof. Ehrenfried Zschech, President of the Federation of European Materials Societies for 2011/2012.

The EPNM-2014 forum was dedicated to memory of Prof. Yu. A Gordopolov, who enthusiastically resumed the tradition of such international meetings, and Prof. W. Walczak, father-founder of explosive technologies in Poland. Respective in memoriam presentations were delivered by Prof. M.I. Alymov (Russia) and Dr. S. Kokot (Poland).
The number and scope of materials presented at EPNM-2014 are indicative of ever-growing interest in explosive processing of materials: nowadays such technologies are being used by more than 90 manufacturers all over the world.

Of current interest was a presentation by V.V. Silvestrov and co-workers who suggested wide use of emulsion high explosives instead of conventional powdered explosives in welding applications. A.A. Deribas and co-workers explored the feasibility for fabrication of copper–fechral exploclad metals for use in combustion chambers of liquid-propellant jet engines. D. Ostroushko and E. Mazancova attempted to establish the structure of the contact zone on an atomic level. Of special interest are the cases of immiscible pairs that do not form chemical compounds. A success in this direction would give much for deeper insight into the mechanism of explosive welding.

V.S. Vakin reported on successful fabrication (by explosive welding) of special steel–Cu alloy clad metal for use in the international nuclear reactor.
I.S. Gordopolova and co-authors theoretically overviewed the role of gas in a stand-off distance on the process of explosive welding and seam quality.

P. Chen and join authors analyzed the state-of-art in rapidly developing applications of explosive welding in China. P. Zieba et al. and Z. Szulc with co-authors presented detailed information on the intermetallics formed during explosive welding in the Ti–Al system. An interesting work by R. Mendes et al. was devoted to investigating the near-seam zone in the Al–Cu exploclad bimetal.

K. Hokamoto et al. reported new results obtained in their systematic studies on underwater explosive welding. V.P. Efremov et al. reported interesting results on the dynamics of laser-induced shock wave in silica fibers.

A. Peikrishvili presented interesting results on explosive synthesis of precursors and tugsten nanopowders. N. Thadhani described in detail the synthesis of NiAl intermetallic, both experimentally and theoretically. K. Keller et al. performed the synthesis of superhard spinel-like germanium nitride. N.V. Shevchenko and co-workers investigated the influence of nanodiamond additives on the combustion of rocket propellant anosite.

New approaches to deposition of protective coatings by centrifugal SHS and production of clad metals by explosive welding combined with SHS were suggested in presentations by O. Yücel and S. Silyakov.
An authoritative jury—Prof. N. Thadhani, Prof. M.I. Alymov, and Prof. R. Mendes—was charged to carry out competition among 32 poster presentations. And the prizes went to: Eugeny Petrov (ISMAN, Russia), Wojciech Skuza (IMIM, Poland), and Denis Ikornikov (ISMAN, Russia).

For the first time, selected presentations at EPNM-2014 will be published (after peer-viewing) in Archives of Metallurgy and Materials issued in English by the Polish Academy of Sciences: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/amm

The social program included a visit to the Wawel Castle, a boat trip to Wieliczka salt mine and a banquet 100 m deep underground. For accompanying persons, there was a trip to Zakopane, a winter-sports resort in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland, and a guided tour of the Cracow Old City.

Below are the members of the concerted international team who contributed greatly to organizing EPNM-2014: P. Zięba, M.I. Alymov, Z. Szulc, H. Paul, О.О. Likhanova, P. Czaja, А.Е. Sytschev, А.А. Deribas, Yu.B. Scheck, L.B. Pervukhin, О.V. Amelina, J. Wojewoda-Budka, M. Miszczyk, M. Janusz, D. Fronczek, and H. Kazimierczak.

In conclusion, we would like to underline the hospitality of the receiving party. Our Polish colleagues did all they could in order all participants felt as if at home. And we really felt so!

A host country of the next XIII EPNM Symposium will be selected, out of five candidates, by the International Advisory Committee in the nearest future.

A. Deribas
O. Likhanova