Development of Ir-based alloy tool for FSW paper wins the inaugural Science and Technology of Welding and Joining Best Paper Prize

We are pleased to announce the winner of the inaugural 2013 Science and Technology of Welding and Joining (STWJ) Best Paper Prize. The prize was presented to Dr T. Miyazawa, Dr Y. Iwamoto, Dr T. Maruko and Professor H. Fujii at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Publications Award Ceremony on Tuesday 12th November 2013 for their paper ‘Development of high strength lr based alloy tool for friction stir welding’ (Sci. Technol. Weld. Join., 2012, 17, (3), 213-218).1

Established in 2013, the STWJ Best Paper prize is awarded annually to recognise the paper published in the volume that makes the greatest contribution to the field of welding and joining. The winning paper is selected by the journal editors based on the originality of the research, contribution to the science or technology of welding and joining, and the quality of the article. We kindly thank TWI for their sponsorship of the inaugural award; the authors received a joint award of £500, certificate and a one-year subscription to the journal, and the support of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

It was extremely difficult to select one paper from the many high-quality research papers published in STWJ. The winning paper was selected because it is a well-designed study that has made a significant contribution towards the commercial use of friction stir welding for the welding of steel and other hard alloys. By focusing their research on this important problem the authors have made a significant contribution to high temperature processing, although the high cost of iridium and its scarcity remain important concerns. We are pleased that the lead author, Dr T. Miyazawa, is now working at the Furuya Metal Co. Ltd. to develop the research and we look forward to seeing further papers on this topic in future.

The paper can be freely downloaded from: http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/1362171811Y.0000000097.

We look forward to evaluating papers for the next award and hope to announce the next winner in early 2014.

H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia,University of Cambridge, UK (Editor)

S. A. David, USA (Editor-in-Chief)

T. DebRoy, Penn State University, USA (Editor)

E. Leighton, Maney Publishing, UK (Managing Editor)

Professor Jon Binner, President of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining presenting Professor H. Fujii (Osaka University, Japan) and Dr T. Miyazawa (Furuya Metal Co. Ltd., Japan) with the award. [left] Dr Ian Norris representing TWI, UK with the winners. [right]