CTC has begun providing Daido Steel with an AI-based surrogate model. Combined with ICMD, it will accelerate the search for material candidates and validation of manufacturing conditions, with the potential to substantially reduce conventional simulation times.
Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) announced on 28 September that it had begun providing Daido Steel with an AI technology called a "surrogate model" to accelerate simulations of material manufacturing and processing processes. Daido Steel introduced the cloud-based ICMD materials development platform in November 2023, and CTC has continued to provide support since its introduction. The combination is expected to create an environment in which the search for material candidates and validation of manufacturing conditions can proceed simultaneously, reducing the number of prototypes and shortening development times. By using years of materials data together with information from actual machinery, the companies aim to optimize design and manufacturing as an integrated process.
A surrogate model is a system that trains AI on past simulation results and rapidly predicts changes in material conditions caused by differences in manufacturing conditions. Whereas high-load calculations previously had to be repeated, the surrogate model avoids this and links the study of material candidates and manufacturing conditions on ICMD, enabling a wide range of conditions to be evaluated in a shorter period. CTC said it would support the development of an environment for consistently evaluating processes from material design through manufacturing by combining the model with years of accumulated data from actual machinery.
In research and development involving large forging machines, cases have been reported in which applying a surrogate model substantially reduced simulation times. Work that previously took several days to about a week for a single calculation can, depending on the conditions, now be predicted in less than one minute. This could enable more processing conditions to be compared and validated, potentially shortening materials development times and improving quality. CTC plans to further strengthen the integration of ICMD and the surrogate model and develop a system for jointly evaluating material design and manufacturing conditions.