Contact Dr Luis Isern Arrom

Areas of expertise

  • Surface Engineering

Background

Dr Luis Isern Arrom is a Senior Research Fellow in High Temperature Surface Engineering at SEPC currently working on coatings for extreme environments.

Luis graduated from Industrial Engineering and Materials Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain. His degree in Industrial Engineering covered a wide range of engineering disciplines, from fluid dynamics, transportation and project management, to mechanics, electronics, and materials. His further degree in Materials Engineering gave him a broad understanding of polymers, metals and ceramics. In his degree thesis, Luis worked in the tomographic reconstruction of corrosion attack on Co/WC cemented carbides.

After a brief stay in the automotive industry as analyst of the Metallic Materials Laboratory of SEAT, he started his doctoral studies at Cranfield University in 2014. During his PhD, sponsored by SIFCO ASC, Luis developed metal matrix composite coatings deposited by brush electroplating (selective plating) such as Ni/WC, Ni/PTFE and Ni/Cr3C2. After graduation in 2018, he joined SEPC on a post-doctoral position and became Senior Research Fellow in April 2023.

Research opportunities

Dr Luis Isern Arrom is a materials scientist with experience in ceramic, metallic and composite coatings, as well as in cemented carbides and diverse metal alloys. His main interests are the design, development, deposition/manufacturing, characterisation and performance testing of coatings and materials for extreme environments. In particular:

For coating deposition and material manufacturing, his main focus is:

Electron-Beam Physical Vapour Deposition (EB-PVD).

Electroplating (including brush plating / selective plating).

For materials characterisation, Luis is particularly interested in:

Nano-indentation.

Erosion testing.

Wear testing.

Thermal cycling.

Tomography.

Testing in high water vapour, such as hydrogen combustion applications.

Current activities

Luis is a materials scientist with experience and interest in:

Ceramic coatings.

Metallic coatings.

Composite coatings.

Cemented carbides.

Metal alloys.

His main activities cover the design, development, deposition, characterisation and performance testing of coatings for extreme environments. In particular, his main focus has been on Thermal Barrier Coatings for gas turbine engines produced by EB-PVD.

He actively works with diverse coating deposition techniques such as:

Electron-Beam Physical Vapour Deposition (EB-PVD).

Electroplating (including brush plating).

Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD).

Materials characterisation covers also a big part of his workload. Apart from more traditional techniques (microscopy, spectrometry, hardness testing ...), his expertise includes:

Nano-indentation.

Erosion testing.

Thermal cycling.

Tomography.

Abrasion testing.

Testing in high water vapour, such as hydrogen combustion applications.

Clients

Sponsors and partners in current and previous projects include:

SIFCO ASC.

Rolls-Royce plc.

Welding Alloys Group.

Archer Technicoat Ltd (ATL).

Innovate UK and EPSRC.

Micro Materials Ltd.

Thin Metal Films (TMF).

Publications

Articles In Journals