Academy Members

Liščić Božidar, F.C.A.

Academic titles:

• fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• professor Doctor of Science

Institutions:

• full professor, retired  – Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb

Membership in Academy:

• full member – Department of Technical Sciences (01/30/1997 – 04/19/2020)

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Curriculum Vitae

Božidar Liščić, F.C.A. was born in Karlovac, Croatia on 17th January 1929., and deceased on April 19, 2020, in Zagreb. He received his B. Sc. in Mech. Engineering in 1954. from the Technical Faculty the University of Zagreb. From 1954. to 1964. worked in machine tools factory “Prvomajska” as: Head of heat treatment dept.; Head of tool-room dept.; Assistant to technical manager; Technical manager (1961.-1964.) of the factory (3000 employees). During these ten years he was sent 4 times for specialisation in relevant factories and institutes in Germany and Belgium. From 1964. to 1968. he was counsellor for metal-working industry at the Chamber of Commerce of Zagreb.

In 1968. he was elected as Lecturer for Heat Treatment at the Faculty of Mech. Engineering in Zagreb, where he established a well equipped Heat Treatment Laboratory, and introduced some new heat treatment technologies (Salt bath nitriding process “Tenifer”; Vacuum heat treatment of alloyed steels; Gas nitriding process “Nitroc”), not existent until then in the country.

In 1975. he received his Ph. D. in materials science from the University of Zagreb. In 1976. he became Associate professor and in 1982. Full professor and Head of the Chair for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering, until his retirement in 1999. During his work at the faculty he served, between 1971. and 1990. 9 times on short and medium-term assignments as UNDP expert for heat treatment in: Israel, India, Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

From 1989. he is technical adviser of Research Department of IPSEN INTERNATIONAL GmbH, Kleve, Germany, one of the world biggest companies producing heat treatment equipment. He holds 50% of the common patent (Edenhofer, Liščić, Dominik): “Flexible adaptable quenching”, European patent office, Application No. 93106451.3. In 1992. he spent two months as visiting professor at the Department of Mech. Engineering, the University of Cincinnati, Ohio (USA):

During many years of cooperation with domestic industry, as well as with industries in countries where he served as UNDP expert, he has drawn up plans for 18 small and medium-sized heat reatment workshops. As a result of his cooperation with a local manufacturer of heat treatment equipment in Zagreb, 1986. an original prototype of the salt bath furnace for martempering and austempering was developed.

His educational activity at the faculty and generally in his own country, as well as in different countries where he served as UNDP expert, was devoted entirely to heat treatment of metals. His scientific and research activity was first of all aimed at investigating and improving the technology of the quenching process. His main scientific achievement is the invention of the Temperature Gradient Method for quenching intensity measuring, recording and evaluation. This workshop designed, computer-aided method enables to record the quenching intensity for different quenchants and quenching conditions, through the heat flux density on the surface of a special probe, which was developed in cooperation with American company NANMAC, and is known in professional literature as the LISCIC/NANMAC probe. The relevant computer program enables also to calculate the cooling curves at every arbitrary point of the round bar cross-section, as well as to predict the resulting microstructure and hardness after quenching. The method itself has been reffered to in professional journals in: Germany, USA, England, Ukraine and partially or in full described in 5 monographs. Based on this method the company IPSEN INTERNATIONAL GmbH, Kleve, Germany has in 1995., as the first in the world, brought to the market the “Flux control”, a computer-aided system for measuring, recording and control of the quenching intensity during high pressure gas quenching in vacuum furnaces. The main feature of the system is the IPSEN-LISCIC sensor.

Another of his important scientific achievements is the cognition that PAG-polymer solutions of high concentration may be used for Controllable Delayed Quenching (CDQ), provided adequate steel hardenability and cross-section size of the workpiece are involved. The CDQ technology can substantially enhance the depth of hardening. Recent investigation, he is conducting in cooperation with the Institut für Werkstofftechnik (IWT), Bremen, Germany is aimed. to control heat extraction during high pressure gas quenching. His international reputation as researcher in the field of quenching technology may be judged by his engagement as:

• Member of the International Organizing Committee of the 1st International Conference on Quenching and Control of Distortion (1992.), Chicago, Illinois (USA).
• Member of the International Organizing Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Quenching and Control of Distortion (1996.), Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
• Co-chairman of the 3rd International Conference on Quenching and Control of Distrortion (1999.), Prague, Czech Republic.

Education:

• 1954. B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Technical Faculty, University of Zagreb
• 1975. Ph. D. in Materials Science, University of Zagreb

Employments:

• 1954.-1961. Workshop Engineer and head of department at the machine tools factory “Prvomajska” in Zagreb.
• 1961.-1964. Technical manager of the machine tools factory “Prvomajska”.
• 1964.-1968. Counsellor for metalworking industry at the Chamber of Commerce of Zagreb.
• 1968.-1970. Lecturer at the Faculty of Mech. Engineering and Naval Architecture (FSB).
• 1970.-1976. Assistant Professor at FSB.
• 1976.-1982. Associate Professor at FSB.
• 1982.-1999. Full Professor at FSB
• 1999. Retired.

During employment at the faculty served as UNDP Expert for heat treatment with different UN agencies (ILO, UNIDO, ESCAP) in the following countries:

• 1971. ISRAEL, Small Industry Advisory Centre, Tel Aviv (5 months)
• 1972/73. INDIA, Advanced Training Institute, Guindy, Madras (one year)
• 1978. EGYPT, Engineering and Industrial Development Centre, Cairo (6 months)
• 1980. TURKEY, Industrial Training and Development Centre, Ankara (2 months)
• 1983/84. BANGLADESH, Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory, Dhaka (1.5 years)
• 1986/87. INDIA, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal (2 months)
• 1986/87. PAKISTAN, Farm Machinery Institute, Islamabad (2 months)
• 1989/90. PAKISTAN, Pakistan Machine Tools Factory, Karachi (3 months).

A total of 119 papers, review articles and chapters in books.

Memberships:

• Full Member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1997.).
• Member of the American Society for Materials (ASM – International) from 1980.
• Fellow of the ASM – International (elected 1998.)
• Member of the: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wärmebehandlung und Werkstofftechnik (AWT) e.V. (Germany) from 1995.
• Founding member of the ASM – Heat Treating Society (1994.).
• Chairman of the Technical Committee „Scientific and Technological Aspects of Quenching“, of the International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering (IFHTSE), from 1978. up to nowadays.
• Member of the ASM – International HTS Quenching and Cooling Committee.
• Member of the working group “Fachausschuss für Eht-Bestimmung“ (Committee on Case Depth Definition) of the AWT, Germany (1971/72).
• Member of the Croatian Society for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering.
• Vice President of the International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering (IFHTSE), elected in September 2001.
• President of the International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering (IFHTSE) for the years 2004-2005.
• Member of the International Editorial Board of the Journal: Heat Treatment of  Metals ( JINSHU RECHULI) –ISSN 0254-6051, of the Chinese Heat Treatment Society, Beijing,China.

Awards:

• 1976. Grand medal of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture the University of Zagreb, for establishing the Heat Treatment Laboratory.
• 1989. State award of Republic of Croatia named “Nikola Tesla” for achievements in scientific research, especially for development of the Temperature Gradient Method for Quenching Analysis.
• 2006. ADOLF-MARTENS-MEDAILLE, for the life long activity in the field of  heat treatment,especially quenching,awarded by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Wärmebehandlung und Werkstofftechnik e.V , Germany.

Educational activities:

As university professor and head of the Chair for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering, he has introduced and taught many undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the field of Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering. He was mentor for: 30 diploma degree holders (B. Sc.), 5 postgraduate students (M. Sc.) and 2 doctoral theses (Ph. D.) in material science.

During his activity as UNDP expert he has organized and taught courses and seminars on heat treatment in: Israel, Turkey, India and Pakistan. He has given more than 60 public lectures in 13 different countries, among them 9 invited lectures.

Invited lectures given abroad:

1. “Computerized Data-bank of Quenching Intensities and its Application for Prediction of Hardness Distribution upon Quenching”, Seminar on quenching, Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences, Kiev 3-8 May, (Ukraine) 1988.
2. “Messung der Abschreckintensitä t im Abschreckbad als Grundlage fü r die Steuerung” – IPSEN – Tagung, Dü sseldorf, (Germany), 23.6.1991.
3. “State of the Art in Quenching” – 3rd International Seminar IFHT “Quenching and Carburizing”, Melbourne (Australia), 2.9.1991.
4. “State of the Art of Computer Simulation in Quenching” – The 8th International Congress on Heat Treatment of Materials, Nov. 17-20.1992. Kyoto (Japan).
5. “Methods to Evaluate the Quenching Intensity” – Workshop on Quenching, organized by the Center for Industrial Heat Treating Processes – University of Cincinnati, 11-13. Nov. 1992., Detroit, Michigan, USA.
6. “Contemporary Heat Treatment in Vacuum Furnaces”, – Workshop: Development, Testing and Processing of Contemporary Functional Constructional and Tool Materials, 23.04.1997., Ljubljana (Slovenia).
7. “The Influence of Heat Transfer Dynamics on Hardness Distribution at Quenching”, 5th Conference on Materials and Technologies, October 1-3. 1997, Portorož (Slovenia).
8. “Messung und Berechnung der Abschreckintensität – Neue Entwicklungen in der Abschrecktechnologie” – Technische Universität Graz, 5. 05. 1999., Graz (Austria).
9. “Computer Simulation in gas Quenching “ 7th – International Seminar of IFHT, 15. 09. 1999., Budapest (Hungary).
10. “Calculation and Measurement of the Workpiece’s Surface Temperature  During Quenching”,20th ASM  Heat Treating society Conference , 9. October 2000., St. Louis, Mo, USA.
11. “History and Perspective of Controllable Heat Extraction During Quenching”, 21st ASM Heat Treating Society Conference ,6th November 2001. Indianapolis, IN, USA.
12. “Vom unbestimmten Abschrecken in flüssigen Mitteln hin zum geregelten Wärmeentzug beim Gasabschrecken“ Härterei-Kolloquium HK – 2006, Wiesbaden, 11-13 Oktober 2006, Germany. (Lecture given on the occasion of the award of ADOLF-MARTENS-MEDAILLE)

Research activities:

Heat treatment of steel, especially the quenching process. New computer aided Temperature Gradient Method for quenching intensity measuring, recording and analysis by a special probe (LISCIC/NANMAC probe). Expert systems and development of quenching facilities for oil and high pressure gas quenching. Effects of “delayed quenching” and development of controllable heat extraction (CHE) technology.