Developing and testing new steel alloys will be up to 100 times faster in the Industry 4.0 (US)

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Chemical analysis of steel – Dr James McGettrick of Swansea University, with an X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer. This analyses the extra nanolayers which are added on top of steel, for example to improve adhesion or resistance to corrosion.

Developing and testing new steel alloys will be up to 100 times faster, allowing new products to reach market more quickly, thanks to £7 million of funding announced for a ‘virtual factory’ being developed by Swansea University, in partnership with Tata Steel and WMG, at the University of Warwick. Steel is the most widely used structural material in the world.It is at the heart of major manufacturing sectors such as the car industry, construction, packaging and defence. It is indispensable for national infrastructure such as transport, communications and energy, and for high-tech uses in energy-positive buildings to wind turbines and electric vehicles. “This project is a huge boost for innovation as it massively speeds up the development of new alloys.It means steel producers can deliver new and betterContinue reading→

POSCO bets on Artificial Intelligence to Disrupt the Steelmaking Industry (US)

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Winners of POSCO Industrial AI Solution Challenge pose at the POSCO Center in Seoul, Sept. 19. (Credit Photo@ POSCO)

POSCO, Korea’s largest steelmaker, has valued the importance of talented people for the past five decades since its founding in 1968. Its management philosophy is devoted to nurturing talented individuals. To enhance job competency of its employees, POSCO has operated a training institute since 1969 while the group was busy constructing its steel mill. To strengthen its competitiveness, POSCO recently announced it will spend 45 billion won ($40.45 billion) over the next five years and hire an additional 20,000 employees by 2023. POSCO said creating 20,000 jobs is a 190 percent increase compared to the steel maker’s recruiting performance of the past five years, in which it hired about 7,000 employees. “As POSCO has valued the importance of talented individuals since its founding, the recruitment plan is to secure a growth engine for the group in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” the steelmaker said. POSCO said hiring moreContinue reading→

voestalpine UK, High Performance Metals in a good shape at 90 (US)

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The new value added services centre at voestalpine High Performance Metals’ Oldbury headquarters

Based in the area since its incorporation in 1928, voestalpine High Performance Metals UK is part of the Austrian owned voestalpine AG Group. Originally registered in the UK as Anglo-Styrian Steel Co Ltd, over the years the company has traded under various names including Schoeller Bleckmann Steels (Great Britain) and more recently Bohler Uddeholm (UK). A leader in supplying specialty metals to the most demanding sectors including oil & gas, aerospace,power generation, automotive and motorsport, the group today has a combined turnover of more than 12 billion euros, with 500 group companies and sites in 50 countries, but the West Midlands remainsContinue reading→

Arconic to Double in Germany Its Titanium Aerospace Castings Capacity (German)

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Arconic eröffnet erweitertes Werk für Luft- und Raumfahrtteile in Deutschland

Erweiterung verdoppelt die Produktionskapazität für Titanteile in Bestwig, um der wachsenden Nachfrage der Hersteller von Verkehrsflugzeugen gerecht zu werden.

Bestwig. Arconic (NYSE: ARNC), weltweit führender Anbieter fortgeschrittener Fertigungstechnik, hat heute seine Werkserweiterung für Titan Feingussbauteile für die Luft- und Raumfahrt im nordrhein-westfälischen Bestwig eröffnet. Mit der Erweiterung erhöht Arconic seine Produktionskapazität, um die wachsende Nachfrage der Kunden im kommerziellen Flugbetrieb nach leichten Titangussteilen für dieContinue reading→

J W Kane Excited By Airbus CSeries Involvement (US)

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J W Kane managing director Damian McArdle has seen the company’s footprint expand well beyond its modest beginnings with Bombardier.

Portadown (Northern Ireland)-based machined forgings specialist J W Kane “started as a small supplier to Bombardier,” and now supplies programs such as the F-35, machining parts from forgings using complex six-axis CNC (computer-numerically controlled) machine tools, Damian McArdle, managing director, told AIN. McArdle believes Northern Ireland has been a “microcosm” of what has happened in places like India where the country has developed its aerospace industry on the back of offsets, with Invest NI the catalyst in Northern Ireland. “It has enabled us to create a footprint and to grow beyond Bombardier to other aerospace companies,” said Continue reading→

Decoupling stress and corrosion to predict metal failure (US)

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An Arizona State University research team has released new insights about intergranular stress-corrosion cracking (SCC), an environmental cause of premature failure in engineered structures, including bridges, aircraft and nuclear power generating plants. The research, Decoupling the role of stress and corrosion in the intergranular cracking of noble alloys, released today in Nature Materials, addresses the assumption that intergranular SCC is the result of the simultaneous presence of a tensile stress and corrosion, and demonstrates that the roles of stress and corrosion can be decoupled, or can act independently. “The finding is the culmination of about 30 years’ work on this kind of stress corrosion problem,” said lead researcher Karl Sieradzki, a professor of materials science andContinue reading→

VSMPO and Boeing launch new JV in Russia for Aerospace Titanium Forgings (US)

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Russia’s VSMPO-Avisma (VSMO.MM), the world’s largest titanium producer, and U.S. planemaker Boeing (BA.N) have launched a new manufacturing unit in Russia’s Urals region of Sverdlovsk, a local governor said on social media on Wednesday. The joint venture (JV) will receive 5.5 billion roubles ($82.3 million) of investment, Evgeny Kuyvashev said.   Russia’s VSMPO-Avisma (VSMO.MM), the world’s largest titanium producer, and U.S. planemaker Boeing (BA.N) have launched a new manufacturing unit in Russia’s Urals region of Sverdlovsk, a local governor said Continue reading→

Arconic considers selling itself after bid interest (US)

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Private equity firms including KKR, Blackstone and Apollo are exploring a deal

Arconic is considering selling itself after the aluminium products company was approached by several private equity players interested in buying out the Alcoa-spin-off, people familiar with the matter said. A consortium of Blackstone and Carlyle and another group of private equity groups including of KKR and Onex have expressed their interest in acquiring Arconic, those briefed on the approach said. They added that Apollo, another US private equity group, is also exploring a deal. The talks are at an early stage and come weeks after the US company said it was planning to sell the building products unit that provided the external cladding applied to London’s doomed Grenfell Tower. Arconic was initially opposed to selling itself but a person close to the company told the FT last month that it would be open to do Continue reading→

ArcelorMittal vend ses aciers en ligne (FR)

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Lancée en janvier 2018, la plateforme E-Steel permet au géant de la métallurgie de vendre 20 % de ses produits en France online.

Au départ, seule l’agence ArcelorMittal de Colomiers, qui a lancé le concept en 2017, et sept autres agences en France (Caen, Langon, La Roche-sur-Yon, Reims, Rennes, Rouen et Savigny-le-Temple) avaient mis leurs stocks à disposition des clients via un site d’e-commerce. Tubes carrés en inox, poutrelles en acier, barres plates en aluminium, tôles, plaques : l’éventail des produits était large. Six mois après son lancement, ArcelorMittal vient de tirer un premier bilan de cette nouvelle façon de vendre de l’acier. Et il est positif, selon le Continue reading→

Constellium CEO Says Company Still Open to ‘Serious’ Suitors (US)

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  • ‘We’re for sale every day as a listed company,’ Germain says
  •  Constellium was seen weighing options for takeover last year

Constellium NV, which was said to have drawn takeover interest last year, hasn’t closed the door to prospective suitors, Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marc Germain said. “We’re for sale every day as a listed company, so we’ll study any offer that is serious,” Germain said in a telephone interview Monday. “If somebody comes in, it’s got to be something that makes a real difference for our shareholders vis-a-vis executing our plan.” Last year, the Dutch maker of aluminum products used in automobiles, aerospace and packaging which runs plants in the U.S. was said to be weighing options after drawing takeover interest. At the time, Credit Suisse Group AG analysts said the company could be worth as much as $18 a share in a takeover. Shares climbed 3.3 percent to $11.875 at 1:32 p.m. in New York. Rising demand forContinue reading→