A UK start-up, MatAlytics, has been awarded a £619,000 grant from Innovate UK to develop AI systems that make steel production more efficient. This follows a previous proof-of-concept grant for £100,000.
A modern warehouse requires steel for shelving, picking trolleys and other equipment. A good warehouse equipment manufacturer uses steel for its strength, economic cost and durability. It is also a material that can easily be recycled.
Steel has to be capable of supporting heavy loads and withstanding stress. It is essential to accurately predict the thermomechanical behaviour and microstructure of any steel produced to withstand stress without risk of failure. These predictions usually take hours or days to produce using complex simulations on high-performance computing systems. MatAlytics claims that its CITRUS software, which uses AI, predicts a wide range of parameters in just seconds. These predictions include thermomechanical behaviour, microstructure evolution, phase changes and the final mechanical properties and defect risks of steel.
The predictive data that CITRUS creates can provide insights that are used to modify steel manufacturing processes to reduce carbon emissions, as well as operating and energy costs. They can also help produce steel of consistent quality.
MatAlytics emerged from PhD research at the University of Nottingham, which looked at how AI could be used to make steel manufacturing more efficient and productive.
The AI underlying CITRUS has wider applications outside of the steel industry. It can be applied to other heat- and stress-intensive engineering sectors such as power generation and aerospace.
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