Maria Asuncion Valiente Bermejo

Research interest

I am a researcher in the Welding Technology group. Welding runs through my veins! When I was born my father worked as a welder and soon afterwards he ran his own welding company, so during my childhood it was easy to catch me behind the welding mask peering the performance of new welding machines and trying to help my father, when at that time I was more a nuisance!! But it was so amazing to discover how two solid metals under the sparks were able to be a single solid one! That curiosity and interest for metals made me drive my way from my Chemistry studies at university, the Master in welding, the International Welding Engineer, the PhD in welding of stainless steels and up to my current my research work at Högskolan Väst.

My research has focused on the welding metallurgy of austenitic stainless steels, looking into the solidification modes, the prediction of ferrite content and the solidification cracking risk when using low energy welding methods. Afterwards I moved towards the welding metallurgy of duplex stainless steels and studied on their microstructure, properties and thermal cycles experienced during multi-pass welding. That knowledge was essential when jumping into our more recent projects involving Additive Manufacturing of duplex stainless steels. Currently I am working in additive manufacturing of special alloys and also in the optimization of stainless steel claddings for the power generation industry.  

External assignments

• Since April 2014: Vice-Chair of subcommission IX-H (Welding of stainless steels and nickel-base alloys) of the International Institute of Welding.
• Since 2018: Member of the Editorial Board of the journal Welding in the World.
• Since July 2019: Chair of the Study Group “Research and Collaboration” at the International Institute of Welding.
• Since September 2019: Member of the Institutional Board (Institutionsnämnden) for the Engineering Department at Högskolan Väst.
• Since July 2020: Member of the Technical Management Board of the International Institute of Welding.

Teaching / supervision

As a teacher and supervisor it is essential for me to inspire the students with the desire to learn and to awake their curiosity and interest for the contents of the lectures and labs. I always do my best to catch the students’ attention and to get them motivated and engaged since the very first minute.

Digital media are always present in my teaching: videos, animations and images help me to introduce the topic and in turn allow me to catch students’ preconceived ideas. I am currently working towards the incorporation of virtual reality in our welding labs.

Since 2018, I am the course responsible, coordinator and Examiner of the Welding Metallurgy course (SVM700) in the Advanced Manufacturing Master program.

Examiner and course responsible of the ProdEx course IPS600: Integrated Project Work on Welding Technology since 2020.

My past teaching contributions:

In 2017 I collaborated in the Mechanical Engineering program with a guest lecture in the undergraduate course Manufacturing Course (TVT200), and in the Master in Manufacturing Engineering I contributed with lectures in the course Advanced Materials Science (AVM600) and I was teacher and examiner in the Advanced Production Technology I (AVP700) course.

In 2018-2019, also in the Master level I developed the steel and aluminum contents of the Advanced Materials Science course (AMT601).

I have been supervising master students, international Bachelor students and I am currently supervising 2 PhD students.

Keywords

Welding, additive manufacturing, stainless steels, duplex stainless steels, austenitic stainless steels.

Research gate

Media

Article: International researcher strengthens welding research

Article: Asun Valiente, Researcher in welding

Article: Industrinära spetsutbildning på Högskolan Väst

Article: Premi de prestigi mundial per a una molletana

Video: About the research environment Production Technology West, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden

Publications