Keynote Speakers

The Ninth International Conference on Operating Pressure Equipment (OPE) incorporating the Biennial AINDT Conference is a must-attend event showcasing the latest in new technology and techniques.

One of the most successful conferences of its kind, the eight previous conferences attracted hundreds of delegates from Australia and around the world.

Next year the Gold Coast will play host to this much anticipated conference from 26-28 August 2009.
With the aim of updating and expanding research cooperation and industrial knowledge in the wide area of piping, pressure vessels, valves and non-destructive testing, and engineering analysis, the conference will include industry/research interaction with important international contributions and an emphasis on practical applications.

In a coup for organisers, they have managed to secure some outstanding speakers for the event in the following areas:

Non-destructive testing

Dr Beldav Raj is an honoured OPE colleague and was chair of the 2006 OPE Conference in Chennai which attracted 1000 delegates. Dr Raj is the Director of the Indira Ghandi Centre for Atomic Research Kalpakkam Tamil Nadu, India where he leads the work responsible for the design of India’s 500 MWe fast reactor. Widely recognised as one of the most distinguished scientists in India, being a science adviser to the Prime Minister of India, he will speak on advanced non-destructive examination for pressure vessels and piping.

Gas pipelines

Professor Sonja Felber is a Professor at the Institute for Building Construction and Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Austria. An expert on the welding of high strength pipeline steels and about to publish a book on pipeline engineering, her key note address will consider the now common pipeline-steels X65 and X70, the steel X80 which is now used in some large projects and X100 and X120 where there are a few sections already installed. The properties and uses of these pipeline-steels will be discussed in detail.

Power industry update

Dr Bilal Dogan is Senior Project Manager at the Electric Power Researcher in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.  Formerly a professor at the Institute for Materials Research at GKSS in Hamburg, Dr Dogan is a leading international expert on materials selection, microstructural characterisation, mechanical and fracture mechanical testing, and structural assessment for the life estimation of material. He will speak on the key issue of creep-fatigue interaction and assessment of plant components which is a critical issue for new and aging plant.

Repairing old material

Dr Steve Brett is a Corporate Engineer in Materials and Welding at RWE Npower, Swindon, UK.  He is renowned for his work on the high temperature steam pipework systems in older coal-fired power plant made from ½CrMoV steel welded with 2¼Cr1Mo weld metal. These units first entered service in the 1960s and many have now operated for more than 200,000 hrs, well beyond their original design life. Structural integrity issues have historically been dominated by weld cracking problems, ranging from reheat cracking in the early part of service life to creep driven Type IV or IIIa cracking and thermal fatigue driven bore cracking later in life.

Fitness for service

Dr Mustafa Koçak is at the GKSS Research Centre, Institute for Materials Research, Department of Joining and Assessment, Geesthacht, Germany.  He was the co-ordinator of the European Fitness-For-Service Procedure FITNET which was part of the EU's Framework 5 research program. FITNET was developed by over 60 experts from 16 European countries for the assessment of metallic structures with and without welds containing flaws.  He will speak about the features of the program and its applications to the welded structures.

Design of advanced vessels

Dr S.C. Chetal is the Director, Reactor Engineering Group for the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) which is under advanced construction at Kalpakkam, India. The vessels are large diameter thin walled, so construction involves extensive manual welding. The design and economics demand stringent tolerances on the vessels, as compared to the design codes, and long term integrity against small leaks is of the utmost importance.  Dr Chetal will speak on the design and manufacturing aspects of components of this globally important project.

Tubular materials

Dr Augusto Di Gianfrancesco is the Senior Metallurgist at Metallurgy for Energy and Mechanical Application Department, Centro Sviluppo Materiali S.p.A., Rome, Italy.  This company is a reference research centre producing innovative materials and related technologies. In the last twenty years, TenarisDalmine and CSM have worked together to develop tubes and pipes of ASTM Grade 91 steel and more recently the grades 23, 24, 911 and 92 for high temperature boiler components for the new high efficiency Ultra Super Critical power plants. Dr Di Gianfrancesco will speak on these developments.

Weld failures

Dr Peter Mayr is an Assistant Professor Graz University of Technology Institute for Materials Science and Welding, Graz, Austria. One of the new generation of European engineers entering the pressure vessel world, he was awarded a PhD Degree in 2007with distinction from Graz University of Technology (TU). Dr Mayr has been employed as Senior Researcher and Head of the Creep Laboratory at the Institute for Materials Science and Welding (IWS), TU Graz, since 2003.  He will speak on the critical failure modes in weldments of martensitic heat resistant steels and their possible prevention.

Speakers Include:

Dr John Farley

Dr Farley is a member of the recently formed Energy Research Partnership, the UK Trade Investment’s Power Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) and, in Scotland, Chairman of the Industrial and Power Association (IPA).  He is Chairman of the Trades Union Congress Task Group on Clean Coal, and represents the company on the Technical Committee of the European Power Plant Suppliers’ Association (Vice President) and the Advisory Committee of the European Technology Platform for Zero-Emissions Fossil Fuel Power Plant.
He represents Doosan Babcock Energy Limited on the Advanced Power Generation Technology Forum and is a member of the Government’s Advisory Committee on Carbon Abatement Technology.  (Both these groups were very active in the preparation of the UK government’s Carbon Abatement Technologies Strategy for Fossil Fuel Power Generation.)
Dr Farley continues to represent the company and the UK on major Nondestructive Testing bodies in the UK, Europe and internationally, and is a regular speaker on the importance of reliability in NDT.  He was elected Chairman of the International Committee for NDT in October 2008, having previously served as General Secretary for eight years. He was President of EFNDT from 2003 until January 2009.

Chris Smallbone

Chris Smallbone is Executive Director of the WTIA. Formerly, he built up the successful Southern African Institute of Welding (SAIW) and the South African Skills Foundation and was President of the International Institute of Welding (IIW) 2005–2008. He is a Fellow of Engineers Australia, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (U.K.), The Welding Institute (U.K.), SAIW, and WTIA. In 2006 the American Welding Society awarded him its International Meritorious Certificate Award and he was named amongst the 100 most influential engineers in Australia by Engineers Australia. Chris Smallbone has been awarded the IIW 2009 Edstrom Medal for his remarkable and distinguished contributions to the IIW and the international community.

John Thompson

John Thompson qualified in aerospace mechanical and production engineering, and served 22 years in the Royal Air Force, during which time he regularly applied all of the main NDT methods and was a member of the RAF NDT R&D section. He took up his present position with the British Institute of NDT in 1988, as head of the Certification Services Division.

John is a member of many national, international and European standards committees, and has contributed to the development of numerous NDT personnel certification standards, including ISO 9712 and EN 473. He is also a regular contributor to the activities of the European Federation for NDT (EFNDT) and the International Committee for NDT (ICNDT), and is the Secretary of the Forum for national Aerospace NDT Boards.

His current position is Director of International Affairs at the British Institute of NDT.

For more information email events@materialsaustralia.com.au