In most senses it was a traditional lunch to lunch meeting, where most of Day one was allocated to presentation of status and research highlight as well as a brief overview of research plans from each of the 5 research areas. At the end of Day one we had an interesting presentation of ‘The Hangarbrua project’, presented by Principal Engineer Cato Dørum from Norwegian Public Roads Administration. The Hangar Bridge is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge in Trondheim, Norway, which was earlier this fall. It is made of recycled aluminium from the decommissioned oil platform Gyda, making it the first of its kind in the world. The bridge has been created as a result of a research project in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration in close collaboration with Leirvik AS, COWI, Norsk Hydro, Aker Solutions, Nordic Crane, Stena Recycling, SINTEF and NTNU. It is an excellent example of aluminium recycling and circularity in practice. Some parts of the bridge has also been welded by Laser-arc Hydrid Welding, which is also an important research topic in SFI PhysMet. Day 1 ended with an excellent 3 course dinner at the hotel.

Closely linked to the topic of welding and joining Day 2 started with a very nice and interesting presentation by Professor Øystein Grong: Fundamentals of Extrusion-Based Aluminium Welding and Additive Manufacturing:  A Retrospective Review of the HYB Process Development. The presentation was very well received by the audience.

The presentation by followed by a poster session, with the presentation 13 posters, many of them presented by project students projects (based on summer job projects and ongoing Specialization projects). The poster session gave ample room for the students to present themselves to the industry partners and for lively discussions both at the posters and between the Consortium meeting participants.
1.    Advanced characterization, recycling and alloy development 
2.    Multiscale modeling and digital tools 
3.    3D printing and innovative joining methods 
4.    Spin-off / new project initiatives 
5.    Recruitment (MSc / PhD / industry)
 

The participants were divided in 5 groups , which rotated between the different thematic topics,  each of which had 3 ‘hosts’ (mainly from the research partners) who leaded the discussions and took notes. The idea was partly to provide input and comments to the ongoing work with the work plans for 2026 as well as addressing topics and recommendations that was addressed in the NFR Underway Assessment that was completed earlier this year. The way it was organized was also to facilitate and promote cross-(research)-area interactions and between and among the different partners.