Prof. Kenneth Stanton, University College Dublin, Ireland

Title 
CoBlast as a technique for coating and treating metals in biomedical devices
Abstract
CoBlast is a recently developed manufacturing technique that uses a simultaneous stream of abrasive and coating media to treat metal surfaces to give thin, highly adherent coatings. This can be achieved under ambient pressure, atmosphere and temperature and uses no toxic or controlled chemicals. It works by depassivating metal surfaces with the abrasive powder whilst making reactive coating particles available for immediate reaction with the dangling bonds of the metal surface. Active bioceramics are ideal for use with this technique: for example, hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH2)), presents anionic phosphate groups that easily chelate to the cationic metals. It may also be used to deposit lubricious fluoropolymers to metals. The technique has been used to coat substrates such as Ti and Ti alloys, Al, Mg alloys and steel with apatitic and PTFE coatings to confer a range of behaviours such as bioactivity, corrosion modulation or lubricity. The technique has also been found to further promote adhesion of coatings by formation of a high energy ultra-fine-grained worked region close to the metal surface.
Biography
Kenneth Stanton obtained a BSc in Materials Science from the University of Limerick in 1995. This was followed by an MSc in Physics Research from Royal Holloway University of London before he returned to UL for doctoral study on phase formation of biomedical glass-ceramics in Prof. Hill’s group in the Department of Materials Science and Technology. He then joined the academic staff as a Junior Lecturer in UL in 2000 and became a PI in the Materials and Surface Science Institute. He subsequently became a Lecturer and then Research Scholar at UL before moving to UCD in 2004. He is now a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and the Head of the UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. 
His diverse research interests in biomaterials, space materials, nanomaterials and industrial materials have ceramic, glass and glass-ceramic inorganic materials as a central theme. In 2017, he won the Engineers Ireland Excellence Award for Technical Innovation and in 2018, he won the Knowledge Transfer Ireland Award for Collaborative Research. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (UK) and a Chartered Engineer.