May 23, 2017 | Volume 13 Issue 20 |
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Kiruna Wagon execs celebrate winning the Swedish Steel Prize 2017.
It was all champagne wishes and caviar dreams for Swedish company Kiruna Wagon at the awards presentation May 11 in Stockholm for the Swedish Steel Prize 2017. Sponsored by Nordic and U.S.-based steel company SSAB, the international competition aims to inspire and disseminate knowledge about high-strength steel and how it can be used to develop stronger, lighter, and more sustainable products. Kiruna Wagon took home the top prize among 102 contenders for its Helix Dumper wagon system for long-haul rail transport and efficient unloading of minerals.
Kiruna Wagon used high-strength steel to develop a highly durable and far more efficient wagon solution than other ore wagons on the market.?
"Kiruna Wagon has successfully updated a good idea and used high-strength steels to turn it into a brand new, superior wagon solution," said Eva Petursson, chairman of the Swedish Steel Prize jury and head of SSAB's Strategic R&D.
Use of advanced high-strength structural and wear-resistant steels in Kiruna Wagon's Helix Dumper made it possible to design lightweight wagons combined with a stationary Helix terminal for on-the-fly rotary unloading. The ingenious solution has an unloading speed of 25,000 tons per hour, which is twice that of other systems. With its nearly doubled unloading rate, the Helix system is superior to all conventional solutions and solves many problems related to sticky aggregates.
For the final design, both Strenx structural steel and Hardox wear-resistant steel were used in the wagon solution.
When comparing with other systems, a complete unloading system for the Helix costs 1/7th of what a rotational wagon costs. Furthermore, the Helix uses parts of the potential energy of the ore to push the wagon forward as it unloads. This means no extra energy is required, and there is much less dust with almost no noise.
The Swedish Steel Prize was established by SSAB in 1999, and this time marked the 18th time the prize was awarded. The winner received a statuette by the sculptor Jörg Jeschke and a cash prize of SEK 100,000 (almost $12,000). SSAB encourages the winner to donate the cash prize to charity.
The other finalists, Fermel from South Africa, JMG Cranes from Italy, and Wabash National from the United States, were runners-up in the Swedish Steel Prize 2017 competition.
"This year, a record number of 102 applications were sent in from 32 different countries around the world," said Petursson. "The high overall quality of the applications shows that this prize has an important role in promoting and even encouraging the industry to find new and innovative ways to use high-strength steels for higher performance."
The runners-up
Fermel, mining vehicle, South Africa
One impressive past winner is Belaz, maker of the world's largest dump truck, who won the Swedish Steel Prize in 2014.
Other recent winners
The last time the prize was given out (2015), the jury had entries from 28 countries to evaluate. The Finnish innovator Ponsse won for designing a new, innovative, and cost-effective roller feeder for forest harvesters (see Designfax story here). The winner before that (2014) was the Belarusian company Belaz, who built the world's largest dump truck with the help of high-strength steel (see Designfax story here).
Read more about the Swedish Steel Prize at www.steelprize.com.
Source: SSAB
Published April 2017