Liberty Steel Stocksbridge.

Bringing digital-twin methods into steel manufacturing

InTiFi — Industry 4 Technologies into Foundation Industries — was an Innovate UK-funded programme within the UKRI industrial digitalisation landscape. Working with the Materials Processing Institute and Liberty Steel, its aim was to investigate how digital technologies could reduce costs and improve the performance of existing industrial plant.

TSC was one of the industrial technology partners, contributing process simulation and digital-twin capability. For me, the Stocksbridge work meant taking our experience in process industries and oil and gas into a new domain: steel rolling, material deformation and the realities of a large, established steelworks.

One week on site. A foundation for the digital twin.

We laser-scanned the facility and process in one week. I was the onsite lead, managing the team’s activities and safe working practices in a live heavy-industry environment.

Our 3D team then converted the captured point-cloud data into meshes and built a navigable, real-time environment in Unity. The purpose went beyond creating a visual record: the model provided a spatial foundation on which plant data, engineering models and simulation experiences could be brought together.

There were two complementary directions to investigate: operator competency and training, and better access to connected plant information.

Practising the first rolling process

The 40-inch millstand is a critical asset. A mistake during the first rolling stage can damage the workpiece, interrupt production or overload equipment that is expensive and time-consuming to repair.

We focused on the operating decisions behind those risks. Too many passes can allow excessive temperature loss; poor handling can strike the workpiece against the rolls and deform it; a mishandled rolling sequence can produce a “cobble” or require material to be recycled. The training objective was to let operators practise rolling schedules before carrying them out on the real equipment.

We built an interactive version of the millstand that could be operated in a similar way to the physical machine. My hands-on technical contribution was a proof-of-concept mathematical simulation of the stand, which drove the 3D visualisation. The TSC project film below shows the resulting environment and operating demonstration.

This was a proof of concept for exploring the training approach. It established a connection between the engineering behaviour and the visual interaction, with the ambition of supporting more consistent operating practice.

Connecting fragmented plant information

The second direction was data aggregation. The site had many systems and data sources, but limited connectivity between them. Monitoring and interpretation relied heavily on people bringing information together.

We investigated a tool that would aggregate live plant data and help explain what was happening, when it happened and why. The 3D plant model offered a way to place that information in its physical context. This strand remained at the investigation stage when the project ended.

Related work at MPI’s Normanton plant

A related project applied the same scanning and navigable-model approach at the Materials Processing Institute’s Normanton steel plant in Middlesbrough. The Institute’s 2021 conference paper records TSC’s digital scan and 3D navigable model, alongside MPI’s wider Industry 4.0 work.

The paper is by AG Taylor, Principal Researcher at the Materials Processing Institute. It provides independent context for TSC’s contribution and the wider programme.

Download the Normanton Industry 4.0 paper — PDF, 8 pages

Leading across sites, disciplines and stakeholders

I managed the customer and partner relationships, worked with end users across sites, researched operational problems, defined requirements and work packages, and helped shape where a digital twin could provide practical value. I also led the development team and our onsite activities, while contributing directly to the millstand simulation.

The work demanded a new understanding of metals rolling and deformation, alongside the ability to turn unfamiliar operational problems into a clear technical direction. It pushed both me and the team beyond our established process-industry experience.

Our project ended earlier than planned amid the financing disruption following Greensill Capital’s collapse. The scanning workflow, real-time environment and mathematical proof of concept nevertheless made this an important step in TSC’s digital-twin development and in my own experience of engineering leadership.

Programme relationships and dates

Work began in March 2020, with laser scanning at the end of August 2020. Our project ended prematurely around July 2021 amid the funding disruption described above. I’ve dated our Stocksbridge work here; the wider cohort had its own programme and timescales.

MPI was the applicant on behalf of the InTiFi group. TSC was a programme partner with direct working relationships with Liberty Speciality Steels and MPI, each with distinct goals and priorities.