New steel manufacturing method could lower emissions

The team is led by Professor Mark Rainforth and Dr Junheng Gao from the university’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Published in the journal Nature, the team’s study details a new method of making lightweight, high strength steel that could be easily adapted to mass manufacturing and used to make vehicles lighter as well as more sustainable.

According to researchers, the technique can produce steel with a strength of nearly 2GPa, equating to a 1cm diameter wire capable of holding a weight of 15 tonnes. It could also produce steel with an elongation of 45 per cent, the team said, meaning the steel would be ductile enough to be formed into complex shapes.

Copper is used in the team’s new method, an element increasingly being found in recycled steels because much of it is made using recycled cars and other engineered items containing electrical wiring.

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