Materials and Manufacturing
State-of-the-art capabilities
Working with both defence and key industrial partners, Monash’s materials knowledge base is already making major contributions to AUKUS Pillar 1, which requires a significant national effort to build an ecosystem and workforce that can build, operate, house and maintain a nuclear-powered submarine fleet. Our world-recognised expertise is inputting knowledge on areas including materials performance in irradiated conditions, as well as advanced manufacturing and welding processes.
Australia’s broader submarine and naval fleets require enhanced corrosion protection to enhance their performance and protection in continuous operation in saltwater environments. Aerospace capabilities, meanwhile, are hugely optimised by enhanced, lightweight materials which consistently maintain their physical properties in extreme hot and cold environments.
Stronger, lighter, performance-improved and more cost-effective components for a range of defence applications are designed and built using state-of-the-art additive manufacturing capabilities, including the Monash Centre for Additive Manufacturing. These, and other materials systems, are rigorously performance tested and characterised using platform capabilities including the world-renowned Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy and the Monash X-Ray Platform.
Research focus
Monash expertise spans materials performance, structural integrity, corrosion, powder and additive manufacture, and improving materials behaviour in nuclear and other demanding environments. Research reaches across the value chain, including engineering design, process control, alloy design and processing, surface finishing, and qualification and testing.
