World-leading research and innovation centre, the Materials Processing Institute, has welcomed a visit from a key executive in the steel industry.
Chris Vaughan, the newly-appointed Technical Director of British Steel, visited the Institute’s UK campus in Tees Valley to learn more about how it is playing a key role in supporting British Steel’s research activities.
The Materials Processing Institute has worked with British Steel since 2016, when it engaged in a partnership programme with the Institute to benefit from its expertise in steel to support the development of new and advanced steel grades, improve production processes and create plant efficiencies.
Through partnership programmes, the Institute manages a portfolio of clients’ projects with the objective of maximising the financial return on research investment and minimising the associated technology risks. It works with and runs partnership programmes with steel companies worldwide.
On his visit to the Institute, Mr Vaughan was given a comprehensive tour of facilities, and an update on each of the research projects being undertaken on behalf of British Steel. The projects include process improvement for all the major ironmaking plants and the BOS steelmaking and all Continuous Casting machines.
Chris McDonald, Chief Executive of the Materials Processing Institute, said: “The Institute is celebrating 75 years as a leading steel research centre, built on our extensive research capabilities, expertise and longstanding global partnerships with market leading steel companies.
“Through our partnership programmes, we integrate with clients to deliver a comprehensive, long-term plan of research and innovation projects. We initially adopted this approach for our UK clients, but are increasingly developing a portfolio of international clients benefiting from the programme.
“It was a pleasure to update Chris on our ongoing projects to deliver improvements to British Steel, as well as discuss future research priorities and opportunities.”
Chris Vaughan, Technical Director of British Steel, said: “British Steel has a long standing relationship with the Materials Processing Institute which has assisted in the development and enhancement of our iron and steelmaking products and manufacturing processes.
“We look forward to continuing to work in partnership to meet the future challenges of the UK steel sector, and to complement our R&D team’s efforts to drive sustainability through innovation”.