The Russian company PAO Severstal, one of the world’s largest vertically integrated steel and mining companies, recently announced that it has invested in Dutch company Airborne, a global leader in developing digital automation platforms for the production of composite parts, and products with integrated composites.

Severstal (www.severstal.com) has joined other companies in this investment round, including Pangaea Ventures (a leading advanced-materials venture capital fund) and SABIC (the world’s third-largest ‘diversified’ chemical company).

Airborne (www.airborne.com) has developed and brought to market a set of digital technologies that increase the efficiency of carbon-fibre composite production by automating the production process.

The company is in the process of commercialising the automated production cells and software.

At its facilities in the Netherlands and the UK, Airborne manufactures composite products for a broad range of sectors, including the automotive, construction, shipbuilding, aerospace, electronics and wind power industries.

Working with Severstal’s technical development and quality department, Airborne will examine the potential of integrated solutions based on composites and steel, and Severstal will offer its clients the opportunity to test these integrated solutions.

George Gogolev, head of Severstal Ventures, said: “With our investment in Airborne, we are continuing to move towards our goal of achieving integration between metals and composites in the innovative solutions we offer our clients.

"We believe this technology could transform the composites market in the next five to seven years by significantly reducing the price of end products.

"This will impact the metal market by enabling us to offer our customers new materials with unique properties that are not currently achievable in steel making.

“Composites can be up to five-times as strong, up to twice as tough, and up to four-times less prone to fatigue — and up to 75% lighter than steel. However, this does not mean that steel as a material will be completely replaced by composite analogues.

“On the contrary, we are convinced that the greatest demand from key industries will be for a ‘multi-material offer’ of composites containing a combination of materials, including steel.”