Andrej Šalak

Ing. Andrej Šalak Dr.sc., one of the most experienced powder metallurgists and in particular a pioneer of ferrous powder metallurgy and sintered steels, passed away on 6 January 2018, at the age of 93.

Andrej Šalak was born on 20 October 1924 in Kamenica nad Cirochou in Eastern Slovakia. His father was a farmer but a far-sighted man who took care that his sons got as profound an education as possible. Andrej passed primary school and then secondary school at the Gymnasium in Michalovce, graduating in 1944. After the turmoils of the Second World War, he studied Mechanical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He graduated there in 1949 and then worked in several companies until joining the Institute of Experimental Metallurgy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (UEM-SAV, now: Institute of Materials Research) in Košice. Here, Andrej worked on deep drawing of steel sheet, earning his Ph.D. on this topic in 1965, but he also did pioneering work in virtually every field of ferrous powder metallurgy, e.g. powder manufacturing – he tried oil atomisation long before such powders were on the market – induction sintering and sintered alloy steels. In the latter area, Andrej thoroughly studied manganese as an alloy element in sintered steels and recognised its peculiar homogenisation behaviour during sintering as well as the ‘self-getter’ effect caused by the Mn vapour shell generated around the compacts in the course of the sintering process.

However, despite his excellent performance at UEM-SAV, Andrej was ousted from the institute in 1978 due to political reasons. Andrej could not even find any other employment in the city of Košice, therefore he approached the management of the ZVL bearing company in Dolny Kubin, North Slovakia, and convinced them that powder forged bearing rings would exhibit load-bearing capacity superior to that of wrought steels. After getting their OK, he joined ZVL-VURAL, the ZVL research facility in Žilina, and within one year produced the first specimens on the newly established powder forging line. The bearing rings manufactured on Andrej’s production line were highly successful; they had about double the lifetime of wrought steel rings at 20% lower cost.

After the fall of communism, in 1990, Andrej was rehabilitated. At that time he initiated the acquisition of a small part of ZVL by MIBA from Austria, which developed into what is now MIBA Sinter Slovakia, with about 1200 employees, i.e. Andrej’s initiative resulted in a true success story. He once more joined UEM-SAV in Košice and continued work on sintered steels. In 1997, at the age of 73, he obtained the ‘big’ doctorate, the Dr.sc. (equivalent to the Habilitation in the German-speaking countries) on his favourite topic, manganese-alloyed sintered steels.

Andrej is the author or co-author of more than 450 publications in scientific journals and proceedings and of 33 patents. In 1995 he published his book ‘Ferrous powder metallurgy’, the first monograph on this topic since the ‘Kieffer-Hotop’ of 1948. This was followed by the books ‘Machinability of Powder Metallurgy Steels’ in 2005 and ‘Manganese in Powder Metallurgy Steels’ in 2012, at the age of 88! Andrej was also active in organising the Powder Metallurgy Congresses in Czechoslovakia between 1973 and 1992 and from 1996 the International Conferences on Deformation and Fracture in Powder Metallurgy. His international cooperations included scientific institutions in Germany, Austria, Great Britain and Bulgaria.

In 1995, Andrej was awarded the Gold Medal of the Praesidium SAS for his scientific achievements. In 2004, in the course of the Powder Metallurgy World Congress in Vienna, he received the Distinguished Service Award of the European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA).

Andrej is survived by his wife Helena, daughter Marcela and son Zdenko, two grandchildren (Marek and Boris) and four great-grandchildren. All of us who had the opportunity to meet Andrej and get to know him personally will gratefully remember his profound knowledge in powder metallurgy and precise scientific thinking, which made him an excellent partner for discussions, but also his kind and open mind and hospitality as well as his friendly manner and encouraging way in particular to young and less-experienced scientists. Thus, he helped ensure that powder metallurgy will make progress also in the future. Andrej Šalak will remain in our memory as a true pioneer of powder metallurgy, as an impressive personality and as a good friend.