Stainless Steel World Magazine May 2026 | Page 40

[ Circularity ]

[ Circularity ]

GEAR-UP promotes circular manufacturing with recycled materials

Circular manufacturing promises lower emissions and reduced resource use, but its wider adoption hinges on one key question: can recycled materials meet demanding industrial performance standards? In sectors where reliability and traceability are critical, this remains a major barrier. The Horizon Europe-funded GEAR-UP project tackles this challenge by combining additive manufacturing with AI-driven design and life-cycle assessment. Focusing on recycled stainless steel, aluminium alloys, and advanced polymers, it aims to prove that circular materials can deliver both sustainability and high performance at scale.
By Joanne McIntyre
The transition towards circular manufacturing is gaining momentum, but its large-scale industrial adoption continues to face a fundamental challenge: ensuring that recycled materials can consistently meet the performance, reliability, and traceability requirements of demanding applications. This is particularly relevant for sectors such as energy, mobility, and advanced manufacturing, where material integrity is critical. The Horizon Europe-funded GEAR-UP project, launched in October 2024 as a Coordination and Support Action with
a budget of EUR 5.99 million, directly addresses this challenge. By integrating advanced additive manufacturing technologies with AI-driven life-cycle assessment( LCA) and simulation-based design, the project aims to demonstrate that circularity and high performance are not mutually exclusive.
Measurable gains in performance & sustainability GEAR-UP has defined a series of ambitious key performance indicators( KPIs) across its industrial use cases. These include:
Green
Engineering
Analysis &
Reskilling for
Unbounded
Production
GEAR-UP
40 Stainless Steel World May 2026 www. stainless-steel-world. net