How much technology does voestalpine contain?

Change is a part of our lives and, more than ever, a part of our business. Accepting change as a challenge, and dealing with it, is essential to successfully managing the future.

Since we as an industrial enterprise also want to play a trailblazing role as well as maintain that role long term, we must continuously grapple with the issues of technological development and future technologies – with technological change – and we must do so across the entire value chain of the production process.

Transforming into a technology and capital goods company

We at voestalpine are conscious of this challenge and, as a result, we have developed step by step over the last 15 years from a steel company into a technology and capital goods company. We know that our future will continue to be largely based on steel, but that it will not end there. With a comprehensive change in strategy in 2001, the company shifted its focus to processing. The concept was no longer “more steel,” as it had been previously, but rather “more from steel” as well as “more than steel.”

Around 30 percent of our turnover is still generated with traditional steel production – and exclusively in the high-quality segments. Today 70 percent of our turnover is made up of capital goods such as complete railway lines, high-tech tools, or aircraft and automotive components made from a wide variety of metals and metal alloys.

Developing the value chain in niche and high-tech areas

Since our customers are among the top companies in technology-intensive sectors, we have also gradually extended and consistently developed our value chains in the niche and high-tech areas in which our customers are active: through the use of new materials for one, as well as by continuously expanding our process expertise. And we are firm in our resolve to continue this successful course – there is no stopping us!

Technological advantage is decisive

The items we produce and sell include capital goods – individual parts as well as components, modules and complete systems, including the accompanying services. The decisive difference here is the technological advantage already present in the design of the product and process. As a result, we continuously optimize our processes with future-oriented technologies and thus, step by step, continue our efforts to maintain technological leadership.

Technology as a hallmark

Developing technologies and adapting processes from other areas, or consistently evolving them into new, combined applications and then rolling them out internationally – this has now become a hallmark of our company.

But let us take a closer look: Using our twelve examples of development, we show you how much technology is really contained inside voestalpine.

• Press-hardened steel: high-strength car body panels from lightweight steel
• Lamination stacks from electrical steel strip: motors for e-mobility
• Iron briquettes: environmentally friendly raw material of the future
• Surface coatings: trendsetting features and designs for household appliances
• Head-hardened rails: wear-resistant railway tracks for generations
• Turnout systems: intelligent track changes even at high speed
• Oil Country Tubular Goods: materials development for energy production and transport
• Additive manufacturing: 3D printing with metals
• Plastic mould steel: tool steels for new smartphone features
• Welding consumables: secure joining of metals
• Wire: safety and stability for vehicles and architectural constructions
• Aircraft parts: precisely forged aerospace components

Technology determines the development of our value chains: We are actively helping protect our environment, for example, by using new methods to ensure less carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere during steel production. Turnouts equipped with intelligent digital systems for self-monitoring offer the greatest possible safety and, with  3D printing in metal, we are revolutionizing the production of even highly complex parts.

So there is a great deal of technology to be found within voestalpine – technology of a highly sophisticated order. And this is why we call ourselves a technology and capital goods company. In doing so, we are firmly resolved to continue, together, to take the future into our own hands, to constantly improve our products and systems, and to stay that decisive step ahead in the future.

More about our focus on technology: www.voestalpine.com/focus