RESEARCH NEWS
AI-powered research for low-CO₂ steels
Tata Steel UK has announced a major new research initiative, ADAPT-EAF( Accelerating the Development of Automotive and Packaging steel Technology for Electric Arc Furnace production). It is aimed at developing a new generation of advanced steel products from its electric arc furnace( EAF), set to transform the future of automotive and packaging applications from car bodies to food cans.
As the UK steel industry transitions towards electric arc furnace( EAF) technology, the ADAPT-EAF programme will address one of the key challenges of using high-recycled-content steel: how to control and optimise residual elements that can affect performance in demanding applications( such as some automotive components and packaging).
“ The ADAPT-EAF project will develop a world-leading, AI-powered platform to predict how different scrap types and compositions impact steel quality and processability. This will be integrated with rapid alloy prototyping and testing to generate the data required, as well as to pioneer automotive and packaging steel grades suited to EAF processing. This work will reinforce our efforts to produce cleaner, high-performance steels in the UK, while building local expertise and sharing best EAF steelmaking practices, product knowledge and robust processes across the Group,” said Tata Steel UK.
Backed by a £ 7-million funding investment from Tata Steel UK, three partner universities and a contribution from the EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships programme, the project aims to drive innovation in highperformance, low-carbon steels and support the UK’ s clean growth ambitions( for more
ADAPT-EAF team with Tata Steel UK and representatives from all three university partners: University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and the University of Warwick.
sustainable manufacturing and a circular steel economy).
ADAPT-EAF is one of 23 new Prosperity Partnerships announced on 10 July 2025 by the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council( EPSRC). EPSRC is funding the partnerships with a £ 41-million investment, matched with a further £ 56- million from businesses and academia.
ADAPT-EAF brings together Tata Steel UK with the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and the University of Warwick to drive innovation in low-emission steel production.
The five-year programme will also fund 13 PhD studentships across the three universities to conduct leading research into the advanced manufacturing of steels and steel products suited to EAF steelmaking.
Tata Steel UK celebrated a historic milestone in its green transformation
journey on 14 July 2025 as Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Steel and the Tata Group, joined UK government ministers at a groundbreaking event for the company’ s new electric arc furnace( EAF) facility in Port Talbot. Mr Chandrasekaran was joined by Tata Steel CEO and Managing Director, T. V. Narendran, and Tata Steel UK CEO, Rajesh Nair, marking the official start of construction for the UK’ s largest, low-carbon steelmaking facility. This is part of a £ 1.25-billion transformation to low CO₂ steelmaking, supported by a £ 500-million investment from the UK Government. n
www. tatasteeleurope. com
www. tatasteeluk. com
Hybrid drive developed for industrial robots
Fraunhofer IFAM in Stade( Germany) has developed a pioneering technology to improve the dynamics and precision of industrial robots: the hybrid drive.
“ This combines a proven gear drive with an additional torque drive that compensates for dynamic errors and effectively dampens vibrations. This significantly improves the path accuracy to less than 0.1mm, even at high feed rates and complex trajectories,” it said.
“ A particular benefit is the optimised disturbance rejection, which ensures constant precision even with highly dynamic process forces. The innovative drive allows up to 100 times higher jerk values, which leads
A schematic representation of the hybrid drive for robots.
to a significant increase in productivity,” it continued.
Image: © Fraunhofer IFAM.
With these properties, hybrid drive robots aim to close the gap between classic industrial robots and machine tools. They are particularly suitable for demanding manufacturing processes( e. g. the machining of difficult-tocut materials) and are intended to unlock new possibilities for automation technology and Industry 4.0.
A schematic representation of the hybrid drive for robots was shown at the Automatica exhibition recently on Fraunhofer’ s joint stand with Autonox Robots GmbH. n
www. ifam. fraunhofer. de / en
18 | ismr. net | ISMR September 2025