Mingyue Sun, male, was born in Jinzhou, Liaoning in October 1980, and is currently a professor and a doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Prof. Sun obtained his bachelor’s degree from Chongqing University in 2003 and his doctor’s degree from IMR in 2009, and have been working in IMR ever since. Prof. Sun was selected as an associate academician of APAM, a talent of “Talents Project” of Liaoning City, and “Leading Talents of Taishan Industry” of Shandong Province. Prof. Sun was also served as the executive director of the Youth Committee, CMRS, the member of China Society for Technology of Plasticity, and the deputy secretary-general of CAST Alliance for Aero-Engine Industry and Academy.
Prof. Sun’s main research direction is advanced thermal processing technology of special steel and large forging. At present, he is responsible for more than 20 project topics including National Key Research and Development Project, State Nuclear Power Major Special Project, National Natural Science Foundation of China, key deployment projects of Chinese Academy of Sciences, innovation cross team project of Chinese Academy of Sciences, with 46 published papers, 42 authorized invention patents, and leading the draft of 12 standards. He has won the National Second Prize for Progress in Science and Technology, Liaoning First Prize for Technical Invention, Liaoning Second Prize for Progress in Science and Technology, CIUR Innovation Award, Metallurgy Young Science & Technology Award of the Chinese Society for Metals, Young Scientist Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Lu Jiaxi Youth Talent Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences. In recent years, he invented the Metal Additive Forging (MAF) technology, which was evaluated as a transformative innovation by academicians and experts at the Xiangshan Science Conference. As one of the main technical leaders, he cooperated with CNNC 401, IRAETA, and TISCO to manufacture an austenitic stainless steel ring forging with a diameter of 15.6 meters and a weight of 150 tons, which became the greatest ring forging in the world, and was reported by CCTV News, People's Daily, and Science and Technology Daily, with the achievements being selected to attend in the tour of the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Prof. Sun’s research results have assisted the enterprise in developing S90MC-C type marine crankshaft with the weight of 426 tons and the length of 25 meters, and a nuclear power pressure vessel with the diameter of 5 meters and the weight of 200 tons, which successfully achieved localization, and solved the bottlenecks of several major equipment materials and manufacturing.
In recent years, with the support of the Major Nuclear Power Projects and the National key Research and Development Plan Transformative Technology, Professor Mingyue Sun and his research team have broken through the limitation of the idea of “heavy ingot for large forging”, and have first proposed the idea of Metal Additive Forging (MAF) in the world. This technology uses multiple small-sized homogenized slabs as the basis material. By means of surface activation, vacuum encapsulation, and high-temperature deformation, the bonding interfaces are completely consistent with the basis material, and the homogeneous base material required for the large forging is obtained, which realizes the new manufacturing technology of "small ingot for large forging". This technology has been applied to hydroelectric alloy steel spindles (110 tons in weight) and nuclear power stainless steel giant rings (15.6 meters in diameter). MAF technology has played an important role in promoting the rapid development of high-end equipment in China and ensuring the independence and control of core materials for major equipment.