Mobarakeh Steel Company’s Digital Innovation Center at Tehran University’s tech park is planning a startup event to help upgrade the domestic steel manufacturing industry by employing modern technologies.
Called 3S, Smart Steel Manufacturing Startup event, the gathering will be a reverse-pitch webinar slated for Nov. 1, 2021, where representatives from major steel companies will pitch entrepreneurs on business plans, ISNA reported.
The event is supported by the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology and its subsidiary Iran National Innovation Fund, Mobarakeh Steel Company, Telecommunications Organization of Iran, Iranian ICT Guild Organization and International Systems Engineering and Automation Company (aka IRISA).
Based on the event’s statement, the participating startups are asked to present solutions for MSC’s six main industrial/technological challenges.
These are smart physical protection of products, smart maintenance of MSC’s rotary machines using condition monitoring techniques, smart storage of spare parts, improving the safety of MSC employees through the online monitoring of insecure behaviors, cold-rolled quality control, and software upgrade and simulations for major projects.
According to the event’s organizers, the startup event will be a win-win for both sides, as large industrial units bridge their technological gaps and small businesses get funding and partnership opportunities.
To participate in the webinar, tech teams are required to register and submit an introductory proposal of their products at Reversepitch@irisaco.com.
This will be the third 3S startup event held by MSC’s Digital Innovation Center to address the domestic steel industry’s technological shortfalls.
The first and the second events were held in November 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Steel production is one of the country’s key sectors striving to transform into a knowledge-based industry for increasing efficiency and productivity by tapping into the capacity of the technology ecosystem.
The country produced 7.5 million tons of crude steel in Q1 2021 and maintained its place as the world’s 10th biggest steel producer, according to the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization citing the World Steel Association.
Similar Measures
Since the former government announced its policies on supporting knowledge-based companies and fledgling startups in 2013, the technology ecosystem has flourished in many fields.
Officials believe that tech firms are helping upgrade almost all sectors while gradually transforming the traditional economy into a knowledge-based one.
Recently, a startup accelerator signed a deal with Iran National Innovation Fund to prepare the ground for tech firms to move forward and enter the market in the medical and health sector.
According to Arian Aqili, the head of the accelerator, the fund will provide startups and knowledge-based companies with financial assistance for producing medical prototypes and conducting pilot tests.
Instead, he added, the accelerator will receive a share of the tech firms’ profit after they commercialize their products.
Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, probiotic and functional foods, nanotech-targeted therapy for cancer, scar patches and health-protective items such as sanitizers are subjects explored by the accelerator.
A similar initiative was launched in late April by INIF with an investment of 140 billion rials ($509,000) in nanotech firms to boost the domestic production of health-protective items used for stemming the transmission of coronavirus.
According to the fund’s website Inif.ir, Iran Nanotechnology Innovation Council helped INIF sign contracts with eligible knowledge-based companies.
Mohammad Ali Bahreini, the head of Nano-Fund Department at the council, said the contracts are geared toward the production of N95 and N99 facemasks needed by the medical staff to fight the Covid-19 outbreak.
The investment was also allocated for upgrading machinery, especially electrospinning machines, used in the production of masks.
Electrospinning is a fiber production method that uses electric force to draw charged threads of polymer solutions or polymer melts up to fiber diameters up to some hundred nanometers.
The method has the potential to produce seamless non-woven items by integrating advanced manufacturing with fiber electrospinning. This would introduce multi-functionality (flame, chemical and environmental protection) by blending fibers into electrospin-laced layers in combination with polymer coatings.
In a bid to inject modern technologies to conventional industrial sector, the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology also entered into an agreement with Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization affiliated to the Industries Ministry last year.
According to the vice presidential office, the move was aimed at encouraging the establishment of innovative industrial units, expanding the reach of technology ecosystem in the industrial sector and upgrading the quality of products and services offered by small- and medium-sized enterprises.
From a broader perspective, the ground for expansion of technology in the country should be accompanied by improvement of labor market.
Parties to the agreement committed to enrich the technology infrastructures required for innovation centers and empower specialized technical centers that act as technology supporters.
