Innovative R&D team awarded IChemE medal for 3D printing article
10th December 2020
An innovative R&D team from Air Liquide has been presented with the Hanson Medal by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). Raphael Faure, Matthieu Flin and Marc Wagner based at Innovation Campus Paris, and Pascal Del-Gallo leading the Innovation Campus Frankfurt, were awarded the medal for their article ‘Add It Up!’ which was featured in The Chemical Engineer magazine.
The Hanson Medal is awarded to the author or authors of the best article to appear in IChemE’s magazine, The Chemical Engineer, each year and is named after a past chair of the Editorial Advisory Board. The editor of The Chemical Engineer initially nominates suitable candidates for the medal and the final decision is made by the Publications Medals Panel before being approved by the Medals and Prizes Committee.
The topic of the team’s article was Additive Manufacturing technology (AM), or 3D printing as it’s more commonly known, a technology which has advanced at a tremendous pace since it was introduced in the 1980's. Originally associated with industrial parts manufacturing and tooling, the techniques have since been applied in areas as diverse as manufacturing, medicines, food and clothing. The Air Liquide team has been using the technique to find ways to improve traditional chemical manufacturing processes, particularly regarding process intensification concepts.
The medal was presented to the team by Professor Nilay Shah, Chair of the Publications Medals Panel, at a webinar given by the team about their project this morning (10 December). The webinar gave a short introduction of process intensification principles and introduced the main 3D printing technologies that can be used today to achieve this aim.
On receiving the medal, Raphael Faure said:
“We are very proud to have been awarded the Hanson Medal by IChemE. Manufacturing and chemical engineering are not always so closely associated. With our Air Liquide colleagues, we succeeded in considering new possibilities as offered today by Additive Manufacturing, bridging the gap between the limitations of traditional manufacturing processes and what we can dream of by process intensification concepts. This project has been really interesting, challenging and satisfying to work on and so we were delighted to be able to share some of our thoughts in this article. Given the quality of articles included in The Chemical Engineer, we are honoured to have been selected for this award.”
Shah said:
“I am honoured to present this IChemE medal to Raphaël, Matthieu, Pascal and Marc for their fascinating article on additive manufacturing technology. 3D printers are an incredible tool for chemical engineers to use in industrial and academic applications, and the team’s article describing their use of the technique to look at ways to improve traditional chemical manufacturing processes was hugely interesting and inspirational to chemical and process engineers across the world. I would like to congratulate the team for their work in this area and for bringing this application to the forefront with their article in The Chemical Engineer.”
For more information on IChemE 2021 medals and prizes, please visit www.icheme.org/medals.
Image
(Left to right) Raphael Faure, Matthieu Flin; Marc Wagner (top right) and Pascal Del-Gallo (bottom right)
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Contact
For more information please contact:
Lucy Cook, Communications Manager, IChemE
t: +44 (0) 1788 534454
e: lcook@icheme.org
Rachael Fraser, Communications Executive, IChemE
t: +44 (0) 1788 534435
e: rfraser@icheme.org
Ketna Mistry, Communications Executive, IChemE
t: +44 (0) 1788 534484
e: kmistry@icheme.org
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Chemical, biochemical and process engineering is the application of science, maths and economics in the process of turning raw materials into every day, and more specialist, products. Professional chemical engineers design, construct and manage process operations all over the world. Oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, food and drink, synthetic fibres and clean drinking water are just some of the products where chemical engineering plays a central role.
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The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) advances chemical engineering's contribution worldwide for the benefit of society. We support the development of chemical engineering professionals and provide connections to a powerful network of around 35,000 members in 100 countries.
We support our members in applying their expertise and experience to make an influential contribution to solving major global challenges, and are the only organisation to award Chartered Chemical Engineer status and Professional Process Safety Engineer registration.