Designing alloys for resource efficiency (DARE)- a manufacturing approach

The manufacturing and processing of metals to form components is one of the largest industrial sectors and accounts for 46% of all manufactured value, with an economic value to the EEA of Euro 1.3 trillion annually. Material security concerns the access to raw materials to ensure military and economic sufficiency. We will face major future challenges as key elements will be increasingly in short supply with consequent price volatility ("the ticking time bomb"). Equally, many materials rely on strategic elements for which supply is not guaranteed, with rare earth elements being the prime example (central to the performance of magnesium alloys). Metals production consumes about 5% of global energy use and is responsible for an annual emission of over 2Gton of CO2, so efficiency in manufacture can produce significant reductions in environmental impact. The recent report "Material Security: Ensuring resource availability for the UK economy" from the TSB noted "the importance of material security has increased due to limited short-term availability of some raw materials, widespread large increases in raw material prices, oligopolistic industry structures and dependence on a limited number of sometimes politically unstable countries as sources of key materials". Furthermore, "The issue of sustainability has attained unprecedented prominence on both national and international agendas, occupying the minds of businesses and governments as never before... Resource efficiency has a key role to play in mitigating wider issues such as depletion of resources, environmental impact and materials security, and it also contributes significantly to the low-carbon economy."

Addressing resource efficiency in metals production and use requires that new metal alloys be developed specifically to reduce reliance on strategic and scarce elements, for recycling and for disruptive manufacturing technologies that minimise waste. The size of the problem is too large to be undertaken by the traditional matrix experiment. Rather, a wide range of state-of-the-art modelling, experimental and processing skills needs to be brought together to target resource efficiency in metallic systems. In the DARE approach we use basic science to come to an understanding of the role of strategically important elements, to design new alloys with greater resource efficiency and to optimise the processing route for the new alloys to give supply chain compression. Unique to the DARE approach is to bring manufacturing into the centre of the alloy design paradigm. The combined themes will tackle key metal alloys, including ultra-high strength, low alloy and nanostructured steel (e.g. for a resource efficient approach to vehicle light weighting to give reduced automotive emissions); titanium alloys and titanium aluminides (e.g. for aerospace applications) and Mg alloys (e.g. in automotive and military applications, for example, cast gear box casings). The research team and their ten industrial partners will deliver actual materials and implementation into industry, moving the resource efficiency agenda from the sphere of policy into the real economy. We will support the growth of the high-value UK speciality metals manufacturing industry by developing and exploiting the DARE approach to the design of alloys that improve the resource efficiency and flexibility with regard to fluctuating material availability of the UK manufacturing economy, addressing the EPSRC grand challenges in transitioning to a low-carbon society. This will help existing UK world-leading industries to expand and manufacture for the future.

DARE has three main pathways to impact: (i) engaging key stakeholders; (ii) maximising research impact and (iii) delivering highly skilled people.
(i) Engaging key stakeholders:
The research team and their industrial partners will deliver actual materials and implementation into industry, moving the resource efficiency agenda from the sphere of policy into the real economy. The approach taken in this project will have generic applicability to most metal alloys and will therefore impact a wide range of industrial sectors, including manufacturing, transport, energy, healthcare technologies and defence. The grant is strongly supported by a wide range of industrial sponsors, namely Rolls-Royce, Firth Rixson, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty, TIMET, Magnesium Elektron, Siemens, Tata Steel, Sheffield Forgemasters and Arcelor Mittal. Members of these companies have agreed to join our Strategic Advisory Board, which will facilitate the exchange of knowledge from us to industry, but also allow us to receive insight into future challenges faced by industry. We will involve Fusion-IP at UoS and Imperial Innovations (LSE:IVO, Imperial's £285m technology commercialisation office) for exploitation of our research.
(ii) Maximising research impact
The topic of resource efficiency and sustainability will not be a short-term hype, but rather a subject that will have ever increasing importance. This project will greatly advance knowledge and we will seek to publicise EPSRC sponsorship of this critical topic within the wider political debate. We will go much further than publishing in high impact journals by organizing symposia at international conferences, and disseminate our knowledge through the dedicated website and specific workshops on focused topics aimed particularly at industry. In addition, we will address public engagement in a creative manner, e.g. through Headstart Summer Schools, Science and Engineering Taster Days for widening participation, the first Sheffield Festival of Science and Engineering (2013), the Cheltenham Science Festival etc. We will promote resource efficiency through our work with the media, for example, our bespoke videos of manufacturing. We will get involved in the Centres for Innovative Manufacturing Network events, work with the Catapult Centres (in particular the AMRC, AFRC and MTC, where we have existing collaborations) and already are working with our Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) on sustainability.
(iii) Delivering highly skilled people.
We have a long and proud track record in training the next generation scientists and engineers in metallurgy (including the Sheffield-Manchester Advanced Metallic Systems CDT) the demand for which continues to outstrip supply. At all levels, we will develop and broaden the skills-base of participants and equip them to be future leaders in the increasingly important and challenging field of resource efficiency and sustainability. We will also develop the skills of at least 6 PhD students committed to this project by the Universities and Industrial partners who will work alongside the PDRAs.