InfraStructures - November 2009 - Swedish Steel Prize Finalists Selected

Swedish Steel Prize Finalists Selected

The time is fast approaching for conferring the 2009 international Swedish Steel Prize design award. Innovations from Europe and North America have been nominated for the Prize, which will be presented on November 18 at the China Theatre in Stockholm.

The Swedish Steel Prize, which is now entering its second decade, was set up by SSAB with the aim of promoting the use of high strength steels around the world and inspiring a new approach in design thinking. For eleven years, the Swedish Steel Prize has showcased the opportunities offered by steel and, in spite of the current business recession, the proportion of high strength steels being used has continued to grow.

The cost of high strength steels is very competitive. High strength steels also owe their successes to the need for lighter, stronger and environmentally more appropriate products. The standards of this year’s nominated entries are as high as those of prize winners in earlier years, and illustrate very clearly the big potential of high strength steels and the virtually endless opportunities offered by the material.

The nominees are:

Andreoli Engineering S.r.l of Italy - By radically redesigning the lattice framework for a sprayer unit spreader arm, Andreoli Engineering S.r.l. has put high strength steel to very innovative use. The framework consists of two laser cut plates that are joined together with a minimum number of welds. The weight and production cost have been substantially reduced, while the increased stiffness has led to higher precision and reduced liquid spillage when the sprayer is in use.

Hydroform Design Light AB of Sweden - The company has developed unique roller skis by putting to innovative use the good elasticity and high strength of advanced high strength steel. The elasticity of the roller ski can be adjusted to suit the weight of the skier, which results in a skiing experience that is very close to that on snow. The advanced steel has led to a winning concept in competition with other high tech materials.

Labrie Environmental Group, Inc. of Canada - By putting to use the wear resistance and structural properties of the steel in selected thicknesses and widths, Labrie Environmental Group, Inc. has succeeded in lowering the weight, while also increasing both the strength and the wear resistance of the containers and loading arms of a front-loader refuse collection truck. The very high strength of the wear resistant steel used for the whole of the container also enables higher compacting pressure to be applied which, together with the weight reduction, has allowed for a substantial increase in payload.

Lecitrailer SA of Spain - Lecitrailer has developed a trailer with a sandwich construction platform of advanced high strength steel which, in combined action with the remainder of the chassis, has minimized the number of the trailer chassis cross-members. The design has been subjected to full-scale tests that have demonstrated that the strength of the high strength steel has been put to full use. The sandwich construction platform of advanced high strength steel can therefore meet the competition of alternative materials in terms of weight, strength and stiffness, at a substantially lower cost.

The winner will be announced at a prize-giving ceremony on November 18 at the China Theatre in Stockholm. In addition to a statuette designed by the artist Jörg Jeschke, the winning entry will receive a grant of SEK 100 000. The prize-giving ceremony will mark the conclusion of a three-day event that will attract hundreds of participants from engineering and other industries around the world.

Source: SSAB