From research in 1990's into hydrogen movement in welds of structural steels - how to machine steel in liquid nitrogen. You could call it "cryogenic machining", if you wanted...
A nice ad hoc commercial project I had come to me - casting stainless steel "in air" (cheaply; not inside a vacuum enclosure).
Improving landing gear performance for aircraft - a project to bestow corrosion-cracking protection on aircraft landing gears...
Explain to a major producer of Aluminium (Aluminum) in 10 minutes flat what are the new and future opportunities for Aluminium in the commercial world...