Daido Steel Co., Ltd. (President: Tetsuya Shimizu) participated in the international conference “ICME Impact Forum,” held at the University of California, Irvine, from January 28 to 29, 2026, as a user of the cloud-based materials development platform ICMD® (Integrated Computational Materials Design). While most participants were U.S.-based companies and universities, Daido Steel was the only presenter from Japan and delivered a presentation on development case studies utilizing ICMD®.
ICMD® is a materials design platform developed by QuesTek Innovations LLC, based on the principles of ICME (Integrated Computational Materials Engineering). The platform is a tool that enables the prediction of material properties and performance from material composition.
Since becoming the world’s first company to adopt ICMD® in 2023, Daido Steel has been working to improve prediction accuracy by comparing simulated data with data obtained from the actual manufacturing process to validate a model. At the ICME Impact Forum, the company highlighted its efforts to correlate material composition and production process with the microstructure and property prediction model, capturing the phenomena inherent to the production process.
In this approach, it is essential to have a highly accurate materials database that reflects changes in manufacturing parameters. Daido Steel has developed its own laboratory evaluation equipment capable of reproducing microstructures and properties that are obtained in the actual mass-production process in short cycles and has constructed a highly accurate model in a short period of time. In addition, by combining ICMD® with simulation technologies for melting, forging, and rolling processes, the company can now determine optimal manufacturing parameters by back-calculating from the targeted final properties.
By using this model, Daido Steel has succeeded in significantly reducing development time and is now able to design materials with required properties in a single trial in development projects that once required multiple prototype iterations. Accordingly, the company will further improve feasibility of developing materials and accelerate development process toward commercialization of customers’ products.
Going forward, Daido Steel will continue to advance digital technologies centered on ICMD®, aiming to provide the quick and best material solution and to create new value through co-creation with customers.
Reference
- Press release issued by ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation and QuesTek Japan K.K. on December 14, 2023, titled “QuesTek Japan provides cloud-based materials development platform ICMD® to Daido Steel — Leveraging simulation technology for the development of specialty steel with superior heat and corrosion resistance”
https://www.ctc-g.co.jp/company/release/20231214-01666.html