We are strongly committed to product innovation
Only by continuing to innovate our range of products can we stand out from our competitors. Our ambition is to produce innovative products with a high added value, which can guarantee a sustainable lifestyle.
Over 50% of the products on offer to our customers today did not exist seven years ago. In 2018, more than 80 projects were in progress within ArcelorMittal to develop new products.
A strong example of this innovation is our development of Fortiform®, a range of ultra-high-strength steel. Car parts made from this sustainable steel are 10 to 20% lighter, more fuel-efficient and therefore better for the environment. It will enable our automotive customers to reduce the emission of cars to 95 g of CO2 per kilometre by 2020. In addition, Fortiform® steel is also safer in the event of a collision.
The 1st group of third-generation ultra-high-strength steel (with a 10% weight reduction) was launched in 2017. Quite a few automotive manufacturers are now using these new types of Fortiform® steel in their car models since this material offers the best possible compromise between costs, performance (transformability) and sustainability. In 2018, we started the industrialisation of ultra-high-strength steel with a 20% weight reduction.
10 to 20% lighter car parts
95gr CO2/km in 2020
In the last five years, we rolled out an ambitious investment programme of 250 million euros, to enable the production of these unique steel properties. No less than five of our production departments were geared up for the production of our Fortiform® steel: the steel shop (Ghent), hot strip mill (Ghent), continuous annealing line (Liège), the Jet Vapour Deposition line (Liège) and the hot dip galvanising line (Ghent).
At the continuous casting line in Ghent, where we transform liquid steel into slabs, the casting line was completely renewed. The casting segments were equipped with dynamic soft reduction. This innovation leads to a superior internal homogeneity of the steel structure.
In the hot strip mill in Ghent two finishing stands of the finishing mill were replaced by new stands capable of handling the tougher Fortiform® ultra high-strength steel.
The continuous annealing line in Liège was fitted with a metallurgical ‘Quenching & Partitioning’ (Q&P) cycle in order to intermittently heat up and cool down the newest generation of ultra-high-strength steels. In 2018, we carried out 53 industrial sample tests on the continuous annealing line of Kessales. We made great progress, in terms of the homogeneity of the mechanical properties of Q&P products, the improvement of the flatness of MS1500 steel and the development of MS1300 steel.
On 8 November 2018, the official inauguration of a brand new furnace in the hot dip galvanising line Sidgal 3 in Ghent took place, in the presence of Honorary Governor Jan Briers. With the arrival of the new furnace - called Sidgal 3 Upgrade - we are able to realise very sophisticated and very specific temperature curves, something that was not possible with the existing furnace. This gives us a unique product that is up to 20% lighter, but at the same time very strong and highly deformable. The new furnace forms the final element in the Fortiform® investment chain.
The first production of Sidgal 3 Upgrade took place earlier, at the beginning of May 2018, after a construction period of only 26 months. Within a very short period, it became possible to produce a number of existing products of Sidgal 3 in the Sidgal 3 Upgrade. At the end of 2018, customer deliveries were already made of deep drawing steel, Interstitial Free (IF) steel, High Strength Steel (HSS), bake hardening steel and High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steel. In early 2019, Dual Phase steel DP600 was also released. Apart from transferring the existing products of Sidgal 3 to Sidgal 3 Upgrade, a number of new products were developed at a very high pace. Our Dual Phase DH products were made available for customers to order from the end of 2018. In addition, we successfully produced the first coils of Fortiform®980 and Q&P1180.
In 2017, the new Jet Vapour Deposition production line was inaugurated in Liège. The JVD line coats steel inside a vacuum chamber, which involves spraying zinc on the steel strip. A unique process and a world first that only became possible thanks to a breakthrough in scientific development. The production process results in a smaller ecological footprint. It ensures an exceptionally evenly applied coating, improving the surface quality. It guarantees excellent bonding of the coating, regardless of the type of steel and it prevents the risk of steel or zinc oxidation.
High-strength steel is also used for other industrial market segments. Our quality label Amstrong® is a good illustration of this. The Amstrong® high-strength steel range and advanced high-strength steel is produced in Ghent and is ideal to reduce the thickness and weight of constructions, and simultaneously increase the load capacity. The Amstrong® range offers significant benefits for a broad range of applications, such as trailers and tipper trucks, diggers and agricultural vehicles. ArcelorMittal developed a digital tool that helps commercial development teams to calculate the weight and cost savings for customers who are considering a switch to Amstrong® steel. In 2018, the proportion of Amstrong® products saw a sharp increase, thanks to the promotion it was given by our commercial organisation.
The Magnelis® coating consists of a combination of zinc, aluminium and magnesium. The corrosion resistance of Magnelis® is significantly higher in comparison with the traditional zinc-based coatings. This coating was developed in the hot dip galvanising line of Eurogal in Liège and then applied at an industrial level in other European hot dip galvanising lines in Germany and Spain. The Magnelis® coating is used in the support structures for solar panels, in garage doors or gutters. With a view to the growing demand for Magnelis®, we started in 2018 with the preparation of the hot dip galvanising line Sidgal 1 in Ghent for the production of this coated product. The start-up of the production is anticipated for the 2nd quarter of 2019.
With a surface area of 200 football fields, the Kristal Solar Park in Lommel will be the largest solar park in Benelux. The 300,000 solar panels in the park will be mounted on support tables with the help of the FASTSLIDE® system developed by ArcelorMittal customer Voestalpine Sadef. The FASTSLIDE® parts are manufactured from steel coated with Magnelis®, a unique anti-corrosion barrier coating developed by ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products. Magnelis® guarantees the long-term viability of the solar park, even in the demanding industrial environment in which it is based.
Magnelis® Solar Park
With a volume of 600,000 tons of organically coated products per year, ArcelorMittal Belgium takes the lead within ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products for the production of organically coated steel. A prime example of this is Estetic® Casa, a range of organically coated, pre-lacquered steel for domestic appliances produced by ArcelorMittal Liège.
Samsung Poland produces over three million washing machines and fridges per year, and one out of two is made with steel from ArcelorMittal Europe - Flat Products. In 2015, ArcelorMittal received the ‘Samsung‘s Best Partner Award’. Since, both companies have continued their increasingly close collaboration.
The organically coated products represent approximately 70% of the steel that ArcelorMittal Europe - Flat Products supplies to Samsung in Poland. The main product is Estetic® Casa, a range of pre-lacquered steel especially developed by ArcelorMittal for domestic appliances. Estetic® Casa is used for the visible parts of fridges and washing machines, which need to be of a high visual quality.
