Introduction to ISMA (Innovative Structural Materials Association)
Innovative Structural Materials Association (ISMA) was established on October 25th, 2013 in order to promote technologies necessary for developing innovative joining technologies and to enhance the strength of main structural materials for transport machines, such as steels, aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, magnesium alloys, carbon fibers and carbon-fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). ISMA is financially supported by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan, and its budget is 3,534 million yen (approximately 27 million euro) in fiscal year 2017.
The framework of ISMA is shown in Figure 1. 39 major Japanese structural materials manufacturers including three major steel companies, more than 50 universities and Japanese national institutes join this project. Figure 2 summarizes the developments of medium and high carbon steels (more than 0.3% of carbon contents) with high strength and high ductility, and the steels with the tensile strength of 1.5GPa and the elongation of 20% have been developed. Two new steel research projects regarding hydrogen embrittlement and corrosion of high tensile strength steels were started in 2017.
T. Hyodo
Project Manager
Technical Planning Division
Innovative Structural Materials Association (ISMA) 1-9-4, Yurakucho,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006, Japan
| T. Hyodo |