Based on the National Engineering Research Center of Die & Mold CAD and National Digital Manufacturing Technology Center, the IFTE has integrated the advanced plasticity technology with digital manufacturing technology effectively, and formed a multi-disciplinary and multi-level research team. The IFTE currently has 34 full-time faculty and staff including 11 full professors, and 15 associate professors and senior engineers. In addition, more than 10 international and domestic famous scientists in plastic forming field are honored as the visiting professors and adjunct professors of IFTE. Some professors are serving as editor-in-chief, associate editor, and member of the editorial board of academic journals such as Journal of Materials Processing Technology, as well as the members of international academic organizations such as International Cold Forging Group (ICFG).
IFTE has carried out extensive and in-depth international collaborations and academic exchanges with famous institutions in academia and industry from United Nations, Europe, North America, Japan and other countries, the Cold Forging Technology Chair of UNESCO is also located here
The IFTE faculty and staff specialize in new forming technologies of light-weight and/or high-strength materials such as AHSS, aluminum alloy, titanium alloy and carbon fiber materials, precision bulk forming and heavy ingot hot forming, injection molding and micro forming, theory of plasticity and multi-physics and multi-scale numerical simulation, digital manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing including knowledge-based design, multi-disciplinary optimization, and enterprise information integration etc. The faculty and staff have been funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industrialization and Information Technology, local governments and many company partners from global industries.
Main Research Fields:
- Sheet metal forming, such as stamping of advanced materials, sheet metal forging, incremental forming, superplastic forming, and diffusion bonding;
- Cold, warm, and hot extrusion and forging of metals;
- Extreme forming and manufacturing, for instance, heavy forging, micro-forming;
- Forming of non-metallic materials, including injection molding and forming of carbon fiber composites;
- Mechanical models, multidisciplinary numerical simulation, and design optimization for metal forming;
- Intelligent design, automated design, and information integration of metal forming processes, dies and molds;
- Digital technology and interdisciplinary research of medical-engineering interdisciplinary.