2009 NACE International F.N. Speller Award Recipient

Bruce Hinton, an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Department of Materials Engineering was awarded the 2009 NACE International F.N.Speller Award at the annual conference, CORROSION 2009, on March 25, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Each year the NACE F.N. Speller Award recognizes significant contributions to corrosion engineering. Recipients of this award have made an international contribution through education or work promoting development or improvement of a method, process, and type of equipment or material that facilitates control of corrosion or makes the process more economical.

Bruce was honoured for his sustained and insightful application of corrosion science and engineering to the solution and prevention of corrosion problems on Australian Defence Force aircraft over a period of 40 years. During that period Bruce has also provided a very high level of academic leadership through his co-supervision of many graduate students at several Australian universities.

Over his long career, Bruce has conducted research in numerous areas including atmospheric corrosion, corrosion inhibition, conversion coatings, stress corrosion cracking, corrosion sensors, corrosion fatigue, and hydrogen embrittlement. This work was carried out not only at the Australian Government’s Department of Defence, Defence Science and Technology Organization (DSTO), but also through collaborations with both industry and academia in Australia and overseas.

Among his more notable achievements are the identification of the rare earth metal salts as excellent corrosion inhibitors for aluminium alloys, steel and zinc coatings, and their mechanism of inhibition; and the development of conversion coatings based on the oxides of the rare earth metal Cerium. He identified certain surfactants as strong corrosion inhibitors for aluminium alloys, which has lead to the widespread use of aircraft washing detergents containing such surfactants not only as cleaners but also as a means of applying inhibitors to airframes. Bruce has provided much of the scientific basis to enable corrosion inhibiting compounds to be used not only for the prevention of corrosion, but also for arresting the growth of existing corrosion on Australian Defence Force aircraft. This work has saved many maintenance hours and dollars, and increased aircraft availability. His development and deployment of environment monitors and corrosion sensors for use in airframes has helped to prevent corrosion in aircraft through proactive management practices. More recently with colleagues from the CSIRO and BAE Systems he led a team of scientists which developed a model to predict the development and propagation of corrosion in aluminium alloy structural components.

Bruce has published over 50 papers in refereed journals, several book chapters, a large number of industry reports, and has contributed over 100 presentations at many international and local conferences.

The value of his research has been recognized over many years by the Australasian Corrosion Association (ACA), the Institute of Materials Engineering Australia (IMEA), the Australasian Institute if Metal Finishing (AIMF), and the Institute of Metal Finishing  UK , through numerous best research paper awards.

In 1995 Bruce was awarded the Florence Taylor Medal by the IMEA for his achievements in materials research and his contributions to the materials community, and in 1996 he received an ACA Medal for his contribution to corrosion research in Australia. Bruce was also appointed the P.F. Thompson Memorial Lecturer by the ACA in 1999, in recognition of his contribution to corrosion research and the corrosion community. In 2002, a team led by Bruce was awarded the BAE Systems Chairman’s Gold Award for Innovation in the development of a corrosion prediction model for use in maintaining the integrity of aircraft structures. He was also the recipient of the 2004 Achievement Award from the International Technical Co-operation Program (Defence Treaty with  USA ,  UK ,  Canada ,  Australia  and  New Zealand) for corrosion prevention on welded nickel aluminium bronze, and received the 2007 Minister’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Defence Science for his outstanding contribution to the durability, maintenance, and safety of Defence Force aircraft.

Bruce is a past president and served as treasurer of the IMEA Victorian Branch, and is currently the Associate Editor – Technology, for the ACA journal Corrosion and Materials. He received a B.S. in Metallurgy from the  University  of  Queensland ,  Australia , and a Ph.D. in Corrosion Engineering from the  University  of  Manchester ,  Institute  of  Science  and Technology ,  U.K.  He is an Institute of Materials Engineering Certified Materials Professional.