Gianluca Buffa

Gianluca Buffa

Gianluca Buffa is Full Professor of manufacturing technologies and systems in the Department of Engineering at the University of Palermo, Italy. He obtained his PhD in Production Engineering from the same university in 2007 with a thesis on the computer-aided engineering of friction stir welding processes, and spent 2004-2005 as a visiting scholar in the Industrial, Welding and Systems Engineering Department at Ohio State University, where he developed numerical models of friction stir welding.

His research focuses on solid-state joining and metal forming: finite element modelling and process engineering of friction stir welding, including the influence of process parameters, microstructural evolution, material flow, in-process heat treatments, residual stresses and joint formability. His work also covers friction stir spot welding, T-joints, lap joints and tailored welded blanks, the joining of titanium, magnesium and steel alloys, linear friction welding and porthole die extrusion, and forming processes such as single point incremental forming, coining and fillet rolling, of direct relevance to sustainable and circular manufacturing.