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

钢铁是现代社会的支柱，是全球许多行业的基础。钢铁行业的广泛增长与工业革命直接相关，自那以来，这种增长一直没有停止; 2017年全球粗钢产量为17亿吨。多年来，钢铁材料和我们用于制造它们的工艺都在不断研究和开发，但缺乏政府对工业的支持意味着对现有钢铁制造基础设施的新投资有限。近几十年来，大量的钢铁充斥着市场，它们的售价比我们在英国生产的钢铁还要便宜。主要来自欧洲和亚洲。为了在这一关键行业中竞争，英国必须将重点从大量的商品材料转向少量的高附加值材料，并以环境和经济可持续的方式实现这一目标。这一点已被业内所接受，但低利润率意味着没有资金投资于大型资本项目，并利用现有技术实现所需规模的转型。这个雄心勃勃的项目，AM-Steel，旨在通过为英国钢铁行业提供知识，技术和竞争优势，以启动向数字技术的转型-特别是增材制造（AM）。AM工艺目前用于航空航天和医疗等高科技和高价值行业，其设计自由度和高材料利用率使得经济效益显而易见，并且在过去5年中实现了前所未有的收入同比增长40%。随着这项技术的成熟，增材制造已开始蔓延到更广泛的工业部门，其中钢铁是占主导地位的材料。预计从2020年起，钢铁将在金属增材制造领域占据最大的市场份额，超过钛、镍和铝合金。增材制造需要高质量的金属合金粉末。与传统生产路线（如铸造或锻造和减材加工）的数千种合金相比，广泛用作AM粉末的钢合金不到10种，主要是不锈钢和工具钢。该项目将利用钢铁行业丰富的冶金知识、先进的热力学建模和世界领先的表征设施（所有这些都在英国提供）来创建一系列定制的钢合金成分，以实现更低的加工性能。一般工程应用，通过利用AM工艺的独特优势。AM-Steel将在英国钢铁行业建立AM技术能力;使该行业能够为增材制造生产高附加值的粉末材料，利用这些技术提高该行业传统资产的生产率，并通过数字化制造改造该行业及其供应链。AM-Steel在战略上与Liberty GREENSTEEL政策保持一致：使用当地材料服务当地市场;使用绿色、可再生的长期能源生产;重振后续工程供应链，并提供创新解决方案，为客户提供竞争优势。AM-Steel将为Liberty到2030年实现碳中和的目标做出巨大贡献。

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.