News

On Monday, 4 May 2026, as part of the Metallurgy 2 course, our students, accompanied by Prof. Annalisa Fortini, had the opportunity to visit the Pasello Trattamenti Termici plant in Calderara di Reno.

Experiencing the industrial environment firsthand is essential to complement academic training. During the visit, the students were able to closely observe atmosphere and vacuum heat treatment furnaces, quenching, carburizing and quench-and-temper processes, as well as quality control systems and metallographic analysis.

Special thanks to Pasello for their hospitality and for sharing with the future engineers of the University of Ferrara the innovation and expertise that characterize this sector of excellence in our region.

On April 14, the seminar “Steel Standards in Action” was held at the Department of Engineering as part of the Metallurgy 2 course taught by Prof. Annalisa Fortini. The event provided a valuable opportunity to bridge academia and industry, thanks to the participation of Eng. Mattia Alemani and Dr. Angela Galluccio from ArcelorMittal, a global leader in steel production.

During the seminar, the speakers highlighted the strategic role of technical standards in the steel industry, emphasizing that they should not be seen merely as formal requirements, but rather as a structured framework guiding material design, production, and qualification. From this perspective, standards emerge as key tools not only for ensuring quality and safety, but also for enabling technological innovation.

Special attention was given to sustainability, a central pillar of current European industrial policies. The discussion underlined how regulatory evolution is increasingly aligned with the transition toward lower environmental impact processes, promoting energy efficiency, emissions reduction, and the development of advanced steels consistent with the objectives of the European Green Deal.

The seminar ultimately provided students with a more informed understanding of the role of standards: no longer static elements to be memorized, but dynamic instruments that connect research, industry, and policy, actively contributing to innovation in the field of metallic materials.

On March 6, 2026, Professor Annalisa Fortini organized an educational visit to MECSPE for students enrolled in the Metallography and Failure Analysis course within the Mechanical Engineering degree programme.

The initiative included visits to the stands of leading suppliers of instrumentation and consumable materials for metallographic sample preparation and for the mechanical testing of metallic materials. This gave students the opportunity to engage directly with industry experts, explore advanced technological solutions, learn about new techniques, and gain deeper insight into the latest developments in a field of growing importance for industry.

Participation in MECSPE 2026 once again proved to be a valuable opportunity for discussion and professional growth, further strengthening the link between academic research and industrial innovation in the field of Metallurgy.

On March 20th, the University of Ferrara celebrated Università Svelate, a day of events promoted by CRUI to share the most current and strategic research lines developed at the University with the community. In this important context of scientific dissemination, the Ferrara Metallurgy Group also actively participated, opening the doors of metallurgy to the general public with a practical and engaging demonstration.

FMG researchers proposed a laboratory activity aimed at showing in real time the influence of the cooling rate on the final properties of metallic components. For the occasion, samples of heat-treatable steel were examined and subjected to two contrasting thermal paths: some were water-quenched, undergoing drastic cooling, while others were left to air-cool gradually.

Visitors were able to analyze the "behind the scenes" of material behavior. Through the use of optical microscopy, the evident microstructural variation generated inside the specimens by the two different types of cooling was shown. Subsequently, these visual variations were translated into concrete engineering data through Rockwell hardness tests, allowing the audience to numerically verify how heat treatment radically modifies the mechanical properties of the material.

Participation in the initiative confirmed our research group's commitment to bringing citizens closer to science, making the fundamental role that metallurgy plays in everyday life tangible and accessible to everyone.

On Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 January 2026, Prof. Mattia Merlin participated as a speaker at the Additive Metallurgy Workshop, organized by the Italian Association of Metallurgy (AIM) at the Bovisa Campus of the Politecnico di Milano.

The event was dedicated to presenting the most recent developments in powder metallurgy and metal additive manufacturing, with the aim of providing an up-to-date overview of the main innovations along the entire value chain, highlighting both research advancements and industrial applications. The program covered a wide range of topics, from the production and characterization of metal powders to additive manufacturing processes, as well as post-processing, finishing technologies, and methods for improving mechanical properties. Significant attention was also devoted to numerical modeling of materials and processes, the development of innovative alloys, and solutions for advanced applications in the biomedical, aerospace, energy, and tooling sectors.

The Ferrara Metallurgy Group actively contributed to the workshop through Prof. Merlin’s presentation entitled “Combined Effect of HIP and Shot Peening on Microstructure and Fatigue Behavior of L-PBF AISI 316L Stainless Steel", within the departmental project FIRD 2024. The aim of the project is to investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties—particularly rotating bending fatigue strength—of AISI 316L stainless steel produced by L-PBF technology, evaluating the individual and combined effects of Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) and shot peening, treatments designed to improve the material’s fatigue performance.