InfraStructures - March 2020 - Take a load off Mother Earth with EcoUpgrade

Take a load off Mother Earth with EcoUpgrade

People at SSAB are convinced that good environmental stewardship is not just the right thing to do, it makes sound economical sense. By collaborating in design projects that specify sustainable materials, companies around the world are lowering their carbon contributions, innovating products that are more efficient and adding to their bottom lines.

With the SSAB EcoUpgrade program, engineers, designers and end users can upgrade to high-strength steel and reduce the weight of their equipment, improve fuel economy, and extend product lifetime – all factors that also have a major impact on reducing their environmental impact, while potentially increasing overall profitability.

Building Muscle – While Staying Lean, Mean and Green
When companies upgrade from standard steel to high-strength steel, they can cut the weight of the end product while maintaining the same strength and increasing durability and productivity. From a lifecycle perspective, this is crucial because most of the negative environmental impact comes from a product’s use phase. And because high-strength steel is stronger than conventional mild steel, less steel is needed to manufacture the product. This also reduces CO2 emissions. An SSAB “EcoUpgraded” product will generate CO2 savings that exceed the CO2 emitted during the production of the upgraded part. The amount of the savings varies depending on the design and whether or not it is weight-critical.

SSAB looks at each specific application and compares the potential CO2 savings in the use phase to the CO2 emitted during production. This way, it identifies products that would benefit the most from an upgrade to high-strength Strenx^® and/or Hardox^® steel. Once the CO2 payback time is reached, the vehicle will continue to deliver CO2 savings far in excess of the original CO2 debt.

From Good to Great: A Customer Success Story
Successful projects and satisfied customers bear witness to the success of EcoUpgraded on many levels. For one customer, an ultra-light tipper chassis used 600 kg of Strenx^® 960 MC Plus to replace 750 kg of S700 MC steel. And in the body, 830 kg of Hardox® 500 Tuf replaced 1,000 kg of Hardox^® 450.

This brought a total weight reduction of 18% for the upgraded parts. The body’s lifetime was doubled, to 12 years, eliminating the need to change the body on this chassis. And the weight was reduced by 310 kg, which increased the load capacity by the same amount.

Source: SSAB

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