Universidade Federal do Ceará
Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Ciência de Materiais

The Welding Research and Technology Laboratory at the Federal University of Ceará (LPTS-UFC), in strategic partnership with the Research, Development, and Innovation Center of Petrobras (CENPES-PETROBRAS), was awarded the prestigious Technical Recognition Award “APERAM SOUTH AMERICA – STAINLESS STEELS 2026” for the work “Microstructural Characterization of Austenitic Stainless Steel Welding Metals Subjected to Trans-Varestraint Testing”. The accolade recognized the team’s technical and scientific excellence, as the work was presented as the best in the field of stainless steels at the 9th ABM Week in 2025, organized by the Brazilian Metallurgy, Materials, and Mining Association.

The award was presented at the opening ceremony of the 10th ABM Week, the main technical and scientific forum for Latin America’s metal-mechanical and mining sector.

Ana Beatriz Ferreira Sousa, a doctoral student at PGMateriais-UFC and the lead author of the awarded work, represented the team at the awards ceremony.
The awarded research forms part of Ana Beatriz Ferreira Sousa’s master’s thesis, developed at PGMateriais-UFC and funded by the Human Resources Training Program of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP PRH-31), under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Cleiton Carvalho Silva. The project stands out not only for its methodological rigor and contribution to the state of the art on the integrity of stainless steels but also for fostering the training of qualified human resources.

The experimental development and data analysis also involved active collaboration with Jenifer Sofia de Souza, who served as an undergraduate research student during the study and is now a master’s student at PGMateriais-UFC.

This achievement consolidates the technical cooperation between LPTS-UFC and CENPES-PETROBRAS, forming a high-performance ecosystem for solving complex metallurgical challenges and generating technological innovation with direct application in the oil and gas supply chain and the processing industry.