Professor Colin Hall

Colin Hall is an Industry Professor at the Future Industries Institute (University of South Australia), and is a key member of the Materials Engineering Group. Colin is interested in helping Australian manufacturing be globally competitive through the uptake of innovative research. Colin has worked in private industry for 9 years and academia for 19 years giving him a unique perspective for industry engaged research.

Colin completed his PhD in material science, in 2014. His approach to research is focused on identifying new materials or enhanced ways of using existing ones to solve problems. Specifically focusing on additive manufacturing and coatings for industry partners operating in space, automotive, mining, agriculture and medical.

Currently Colin is focussed on two area, thin film coatings for optical systems and wear resistant structures & coatings for extreme conditions.

Colin leads a team looking at wear minimisation through cladding of mineral processing equipment, utilising Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) to create metal matrix composite coatings. With an extensive tribology lab the project will correlate lab based wear tests to real world wear and optimise coating composition. Colin is also the SA node lead in the ARC ITTC Surface Engineering for Advanced Manufacturing (SEAM) which works with partners LaserBond and Santos. This work looks at the control and optimisation of additive manufacturing. 

Colin works closely with SMR (a tier 1 automotive supplier). The team continues to innovate in the area of decorative coatings and their integration into lighting and sensing applications. One output of the research was a safer method of manufacture for producing an equivalent to electroplated plastic. Colin also played a key role in the development of an automotive plastic mirror. The advantages of plastic exterior mirrors are that they are shatter proof, lightweight and offer design freedom. Over the 5 years of production over 1.8 million mirrors have been exported to the USA. For this work Colin was awarded the inaugural 2016 Prime Ministers Prize for New Innovators. This coating technology is finding its way onto high end cars in north america and europe. 

Further work in the area of thin film coatings includes novel interference filters for space based sensors and laser systems. The universities capablity in thin film coatings is extensive and is open to contract coating work.

During his time at the University of South Australia he has also conducted research on conducting polymers, looking at their electrochromic properties, low cost heliostats for concentrated solar power and developing protective coatings for aeroplane windows. Colin is also collaborating with the University of Adelaide's School of Dentistry; this work is looking at bringing instrumented nanomechanical analysis to the study of tooth wear in erosive environments. In total Colin has published 61 journal articles, 2 book chapters, art work, presented at numerous conferences and is an inventor on 14 patents. Colin has been invited to speak at prestigious universities and conferences both on the material science aspect but also on how to successfully transition research to commercial outcomes.

Colin supports the materials community by his work as the South Australia branch president for Materials Australia.

Australian Institute of Physics, Australian Vacuum Society, American Vacuum Society, Society of Vacuum Coaters, Materials Australia

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia

• Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Physics University of South Australia

• Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Physics University of South Australia