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“Research centre to develop supermaterials for the aerospace industry”

Supermaterials?, you heard that right!. The Canadian government and some Universities are extremely serious about Canada’s position in the Aerospace world. So, where do they go from here? The government has joined with a University in order to create extremely resistant materials to meet the high demands of the Aerospace cluster.

“The Honourable Michael M Fortier, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, on behalf of the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for National Research Council Canada (NRC), officially opened the McGill Aerospace Materials and Alloy Development Centre at the NRC Industrial Materials Institute in Boucherville, Quebec today.”

This is where it all takes place, at the McGill Aerospace Materials and Alloy Development Centre. And you guessed correctly, McGill is the University that is responsible for developing a collaborative joint venture with the NRC (National Research Council Canada) to start the movement towards supermaterials. Other than just manufacturing supermaterials, resources will be allocated towards research and development with respect to manufacturing procedures and surface treatements also.

In my opinion, this was a very smart move done by the NRC and McGill University, by creating such collaboration, the Canadian Aerospace is heightened with its unique features and developments. In this case, the uniqueness emerging from the development of new materials and manufacturing procedures. By partnering, these institutions are now able to use the research capabilities of the NRC and the educational background and databases that the University has access to, and not to mention the qualified personnel produced by the McGill University. The collaboration can also take advantage of the Cold Spray facilities and Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition with their unique competitive advantages.

As stated in the article, here is the main focus of this implementation,

“Our new centre provides a great opportunity for Canada to take the lead, internationally, in research into high-value materials for aerospace,” said Dr. Stephen Yue, McGill’s Principal Investigator and leader of the team of researchers that won the CFI grant. “Given the considerable industrial activity in aerospace in Quebec, this centre will become a hub to support the regional aerospace materials sector.” (NCR, 2008)

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And here is an insert from a different article about the same topic, describing the focus in a different stand point:

“One objective of this collaboration is to show the viability of this technology for industry,” says Dr. Moreau. “We’ve set up one of the best cold spray labs worldwide. Now that we have the equipment, we expect to attract a lot of interest from aerospace companies.” (NCR, 2008)

No matter how the focus is described, this facility is a great asset to the Aerospace on Canada. As of now, the centre is based in Quebec, benefiting the emerging Montreal Aerospace, adding the same facilities to the GTA Aerospace Cluster can not only strengthen the GTA, but also strengthen Canada’s Aerospace as a whole.

Link 1:http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/newsroom/news/2008/aero08-nr_e.html.

Link 2:http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/2008/0801mat_e.html