Hyperion Robotics and LKAB to open the UK's first automated low-carbon concrete factory

What happened

Hyperion Robotics, a Finnish concrete 3D-printing specialist, announced on 24 March 2026 that it will open a robotic factory for low-carbon concrete foundations at Flixborough, near Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire. The facility, named Forge I, is a joint venture with LKAB Minerals, the UK arm of the Swedish state-owned minerals group, which is providing both the site and the mineral materials for the low-carbon concrete mixes. The partners say it will be the most automated concrete manufacturing facility of its kind in the UK market, and expect it to open before the summer of 2026.

Forge I is designed to produce more than 50 large-scale foundation units a week, each up to 3m by 3m in footprint and 2.5m in height. The units will be CE-marked and Eurocode-compliant, and are aimed at buyers in the energy, water, data centre and utilities sectors. The factory will employ around 10 people at the outset, in roles spanning advanced manufacturing, robotics and digital production systems.

The technology

Hyperion's process replaces conventional cast-in-place or precast foundation work with robotically printed, digitally designed reinforced concrete elements. Printing deposits material only where the structural design requires it, which cuts both concrete volume and embodied carbon.

In trials with National Grid on electricity substation foundations, funded through Ofgem's Network Innovation Allowance with structural testing by the University of Sheffield, the approach reduced concrete use by 70 per cent and embodied carbon by 65 per cent against conventional equivalents. National Grid has estimated savings of £1.7m for consumers if the method were adopted across its network.

LKAB's contribution is the feedstock: Steve Handscomb, managing director cementitious at LKAB Minerals UK, described the venture as bringing together "low-carbon mineral materials and advanced digital manufacturing in a single, integrated production model". Beyond carbon, the partners point to reduced material use, less on-site labour and fewer heavy vehicle movements, since finished foundations arrive ready to install.

Hyperion has form with UK utilities: alongside National Grid, it lists Yorkshire Water, Welsh Water and Mott MacDonald Bentley among its clients. Fernando De los Rios, Hyperion's chief executive, called Forge I "a major milestone in industrialising low-carbon infrastructure delivery in the UK". Investor announcements in July 2026 reported a €6.4m seed round for the company to expand its European infrastructure business.

Why it matters for UK & Ireland

Foundations are unglamorous but ubiquitous, and the UK's infrastructure pipeline will pour a great deal of concrete over the next decade — grid reinforcement, water assets under AMP8, data centre construction. Concrete is among the hardest materials to decarbonise; a factory that certifiably cuts embodied carbon by roughly two-thirds on standard units addresses the problem where volumes are largest.

The CE marking and Eurocode compliance matter as much as the printing. Additive-manufactured structural concrete has been demonstrated many times; what has been missing is a production line turning out certified, code-compliant structural elements at a rate, 50-plus a week, that a transmission operator or water company can actually plan around. If Forge I delivers, it gives UK asset owners a procurable low-carbon foundation product rather than a pilot.

There is also an industrial dimension. Flixborough sits in a region with a long heavy-industry heritage, and the factory ties a Finnish robotics firm to a Swedish minerals group on English soil — a small but concrete example of the automated, factory-based construction the sector has long promised.

What to watch

The opening itself: "before the summer" of 2026 was the stated target at announcement. Then throughput — whether the 50-a-week figure holds in routine production, and which utility frameworks place the first standing orders.

The National Grid trial numbers were achieved on substation foundations; watch whether comparable carbon and material savings are certified for water and data centre applications. Finally, watch whether Hyperion and LKAB replicate the model: a single factory of 10 staff is a demonstration of a production system, and the economics of a second and third site will show whether it scales.