Home-Hyperion Robotics Opens New Factory to Scale UK Infrastructure
Finnish concrete 3D printing specialistHyperion Roboticshas chosen Flixborough, near Scunthorpe, as the location for its first UK concrete manufacturing facility.
The specialist has signed an agreement with Swedish companyLKAB Mineralsto set up a prefabricated concrete production plant on LKAB’s industrial site in North Lincolnshire.
Named Forge I, the factory is scheduled to open before summer 2026 and will produce pre-cast concrete foundation units using robotic and automated manufacturing systems. LKAB will supply both the mineral inputs used in the concrete mix and the physical site, while Hyperion takes responsibility for developing and operating the facility.
Steve Handscomb, Managing Director Cementitious, LKAB Minerals UK, said, “By supplying climate-efficient mineral inputs directly into Hyperion’s computational design and robotic production platform, we are helping to establish a new automated raw-materials-to-infrastructure value chain in the UK. It demonstrates how materials innovation and industrial digitalisation can work together to accelerate the transition to lower-carbon, high-performance construction.”
Manufacturing Foundations for UK Utilities
Forge I is designed to manufacture more than 50 foundation units per week, with each unit measuring up to 3m x 3m in footprint and 2.5m in height. All units will be Eurocode-compliant and CE-marked, with Hyperion initially targeting infrastructure clients across the energy, water, data centre and utilities sectors. These are the sectors where foundation work represents a significant and repeatable component of project costs and timelines.
The Finnish company’s approach offers a practical answer to longstanding inefficiencies in construction. By producing concrete foundations under controlled conditions and delivering them ready to install, it reduces the volume of labour and heavy vehicle activity needed at project sites, and shortens program delivery compared with conventional on-site construction. This also allows for tighter control over material use and consistency, with implications for both cost and carbon output.
Last year, Hyperion partnered withNational Gridand theUniversity of Sheffieldto trial the design, manufacture and structural testing of3D printed concrete foundationsfor electricity substations in a UK first.
Foundations produced by Hyperion underwent full-scale load-bearing tests at Sheffield before field trials were conducted at National Grid’s Deeside Centre for Innovation in North Wales. Funded throughOfgem’sNetwork Innovation Allowance, the initiative projected a 70% reduction in concrete use, 65% lower embodied carbon and an estimated £1.7 million in consumer savings if adopted across the network.
Source: 3D Printing Industry
