Additive Manufacturing: driving the Steel Industry into the digital age (AM-Steel)

Steel is the backbone of modern society, serving as the foundation for many industries globally. The widespread growth of the steel industry is tied directly to the Industrial Revolution and since then this growth has not stopped; global crude steel production was 1.7 billion tonnes in 2017. Over the years both steel materials and the processes we use to make them have been researched and developed continuously, but a lack of government support for industry meant new investment in existing steel manufacturing infrastructure was limited. In recent decades huge amounts of steel, sold cheaper than we can make it in the UK, have flooded the market. This comes primarily from Europe and Asia. In order to compete in this key industry the UK has to shift its focus from large volumes of commodity material to smaller volumes of high value-added material, and to achieve this in both an environmentally and economically sustainable way. This has been accepted in the industry but low profit margins have meant there are no funds available to invest in large capital projects and enable transformation on the required scale with current technologies.

This ambitious project, AM-Steel, aims to start to address this challenge by providing the UK steel industry with the knowledge, technology and competitive advantage required to kick-start a transformation towards digital technologies - specifically additive manufacturing (AM). The AM process is currently used in high-tech and high-value industries including Aerospace and Medical, where the design freedom and high material utilisation makes the economic benefit easily seen, and is experiencing unprecedented revenue growth of 40% year-on-year for the past 5 years. With the maturing of this technology, AM has started to spread into a broader range industry sectors, where steel is the dominant material. It is projected that from 2020 steel will have the largest market share in the metal AM sector, overtaking Titanium, Nickel, and Aluminium alloys.

AM requires high quality metal alloy powders. There are less than ten steel alloys widely available as powders for AM, mostly stainless and tool steels, compared to the thousands of alloys available to traditional productions routes (such as casting or forging and subtractive machining). This project will use the wealth of metallurgical knowledge in the steel industry, advanced thermodynamic modelling, and world-leading characterisation facilities - all available in the UK - to create a range of bespoke steel alloy compositions tailored to realise the enhanced processability at lower cost for general engineering applications, by utilising the unique benefits of the AM process.

AM-Steel will establish AM technology capability in the UK steel industry; enabling the industry to produce high value-added powder materials for AM, improving the productivity of the industry's heritage assets using these technologies, and transforming the industry and its supply chain through digital manufacturing.

AM-Steel is strategically aligned with the Liberty GREENSTEEL policy: to serve local markets using local materials; produced using green, renewable long-term sources of power; re-invigorating the subsequent engineering supply chain and delivering innovative solutions that provide a competitive advantage to customers. AM-Steel will contribute greatly to Liberty's target to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Success of this project would generate economic, environmental and societal benefits.

Metal powders and Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies are disruptive in nature, have the potential to create new products and to replace some traditional steel and metal products. Use of powder metals to manufacture components will produce lighter weight products, using and wasting less materials, and reduce the steps in the manufacturing process and supply chain. A broad spectrum of high value manufacturing industries including Aerospace, Automotive, Energy and Medical are investing in AM technologies, which this project will impact.

Economic benefits:
- The new materials developed in AM-Steel will help to realise the potential of AM for general engineering applications, leading to a higher uptake of AM technology which in turn will help drive down the cost of machinery and material through economies of scale thus enabling further cost reduction in a virtuous circle.
- By conservative estimates the productivity at selected Liberty Steel plants alone could be improved by 1% through the repair technology developed for steel plant components by 2025, resulting in a £10m revenue increase and benefits along the steel supply chain.
- The solutions to be developed in this project are applicable to other asset-intensive sectors beyond steel, and the knowledge transfer to enable this will be achieved through the dissemination activities written into the Pathway to Impact. Liberty and project partners will disseminate information with industrial and academic bodies through cross-function and multi-industry conferences and technical papers, with the intention of accelerating the pace of development.
- It is expected that the additional revenue at Liberty Powder Metals from sales of new materials during the project will be £1m and increase to £5m/pa 5 years after the fellowship. Liberty's business plan, if enabled by this project, would increase high value product export (£20m by 2025).

Environmental benefits:
- The material yield from current AM processes is above 95%, as compared to existing manufacturing routes that in Aerospace are closer to 15%, so energy and emissions are saved throughout the supply chain from less mineral extraction and processing to reduced transportation.
- The overall supply chain is much shorter, with less processes that due to their scale also tend to be vertically integrated with the AM facility, greatly reducing the transportation energy consumption and linked emissions.
- Significant light-weighting of components can be achieved due to the high specific strength of steel, which in turn can generate significant reduction in energy consumption and emissions

Societal benefits:
- Education, Employment and Skills are central to supporting a diversified and high value economy with a skilled workforce, while increasing lifetime opportunities for young people and older workers which will help ensure a more inclusive economy. The training programme provided will upskill existing employee's in the steel industry and supply chain and expand the talent pool to fill new job opportunities created by the transformation to digital manufacture in the upcoming decade.
- The AM technology capability developed through this project will enable Liberty, the UK steel industry and the wider supply chain to invest in powder metal businesses. Liberty's investment plan alone would create 50 new jobs in the business and an estimated 185 in supply chain, an this number could be much higher as UK steel and other sectors increase their investment in AM. Being a high-tech industry, the jobs created (or indeed those upskilled and saved from the struggling steel industry) by the growth of the AM industry would be high value and better secured.