(0:00 - 4:23) Welcome to Wire Insights, the podcast of the latest developments, innovations and trends at voestalpine Wire Technology. From cutting-edge materials to sustainable production processes, experience exciting insights into current projects that are revolutionizing the industry and find out how innovations made of wire are changing the world. Whether you are a technology enthusiast, an industry professional or just curious about the future, this podcast is for you.
Tune in and join us. A warm welcome to our guests here at the voestalpine Wire Rod Austria site in St. Peter, Freienstein. My name is Dieter Danko and I would like to thank you for giving us and our listeners some valuable insights.
Today we want to talk about the interesting research and development setup available to the voestalpine Wire Technology business unit. And we will hear about some exciting projects. Our experts have already sat down in front of the microphone.
Peter Gruber, Katharina Ragger and Robert Kienreich. Would you please briefly introduce yourselves and give us an insight into your job profiles. Mr. Gruber …
A very warm welcome from my side. I'm head of R&D and innovation within the business unit wire. Therefore, I'm responsible for the operationalization of the R&D program, especially in product and process development, as well as in the area of testing and measurement technology.
In addition, patent management and knowledge management is also part of our department. Mrs. Ragger, would you please be so kind to give us an insight into your job profile.
My name is Katharina Ragger and I am a member of Peter Gruber's team. I'm integrated in the product development group and my job is to design new steel grades, taking into account our customers' requirements and concurrent optimum process parameters. Mr. Kienreich, may I also ask you for a short personal introduction.
Yes, my name is Robert Kienreich and I've been working at voestalpine since 2000 in different technical roles. I'm currently working as a senior expert in application engineering. The focus of my task is customer orientation and quality improvement.
Thank you for the brief round of introductions. Then I would say let's move straight on the research and development department. The wire technology business unit attaches great importance to research and development and there are also unique research facilities available internally.
What characterizes these research facilities? What opportunities do they offer and what competitive advantages do they generate, Mr. Gruber? We offer a unique research and development infrastructure to provide customized wire solutions. Thanks to this existing infrastructure, we can shorten development times and reduce material input costs. On the one hand, we utilize the service of the research service company, for example in material simulations and surface technology.
We also utilize the possibility of the Metlab with 80-kilogram batches for the pre-development and subsequently the creation of prototypes with the help of the Techmet, for example three-ton batches. The customized development is rounded off using special testing equipment in the wire technicum, for example testing the H2 resistance of wires or fastening elements and testing the forming limit behaviors of wire. We also have access to an instrumented drawing line as well as heat treatment units like retort and chamber furnaces.
(4:24 - 5:25) The R&D infrastructure will be expanded in the fiscal year 2025-26 to include a five-stage cold heading line so that we can better understand customer processes. We will then be able to offer customers complete development package. On the one hand, we can offer material expertise around wire and forming tools as well as surface and forming expertise.
The customer can then commission the prototype development from us and can then outsource the development loops completely to us. There is also an in-depth exchange of knowledge between voestalpine Wire Technology and external research institutions such as universities. Could you please tell us more about this? Our research is divided into three main areas product development, process development and testing measurement technology.
(5:27 - 5:54) Our employees work together with various research institutions in Austria, Germany and in special cases also in Europe. This ranges from short-term research contracts or special tests lasting to two to four months to large three to five-year projects. The partner is the consortium leader and take care of the submission of founding programs.
(5:55 - 7:30) We are also participants in so-called CT laboratories. This is where basic research is carried out which forms the basis for our work. As a part of these programs, diploma theses and dissertations are repeatedly supervised.
In best case the graduates are then taken on by the company and so we work closely with the University of Leoben, Graz University of Technology and Vienna University of Technology. This intensive research and development work is also reflected in numerous success stories. Long-standing wire technology customer Hilti even presented the company with an Innovation Excellence Award.
What exactly was this about? In June 2024 Hilti recognized the outstanding R&D and innovation skills of voestalpine Wire Austria with the Innovation Excellence Award 2023 as part of its supplier recognition model. voestalpine Wire Austria was the only company from the steel industry to receive the award at Hilti's Liechtenstein headquarters. The decisive factor was the company's innovation capability, the high level of innovation through sound metallurgical expertise in combination with material development based on partnership, the highest quality and reliability.
(7:31 - 13:32) What other success stories should not go unmentioned in this context? The customized material development for setting nail is a success story. The setting nail are used to fasten corrugated sheets to steel beams. The specific aim here was to improve the local properties of the product, particularly the hardness of tip of the setting nail.
All this had to be done without increasing costs. In addition, this year after years of development work, we succeeded in obtaining approval for wire from a continuous casting production for ball bearing application in the bearing industry. The intensive cooperation across the entire value chain should be emphasized here.
voestalpine Stahl Donawitz, voestalpine Rail Technology, voestalpine Wire Technology and voestalpine Forschungsservice Gesellschaft were involved. And in addition, two patents have been registered in the last two years. One in the field of zirconium boron alloyed steel for fasteners and one in the field of alternative corrosion protection for prestressing steel wires.
And these two patents reflect our expertise in the field of material development and surface technology. Successful projects require many gears to mesh together. In the wire technology development project High Performance Wire, known internally as IGOR for targeted alloy design in very small quantities, there was excellent cooperation within the metallurgy network.
Could you please describe this collaboration for us? Which cooperation partners are responsible for the success of this project, Mrs. Ragger? In my opinion the great success of this project is due to the close cooperation between several companies. These were voestalpine Wire Rod Austria, voestalpine Stahl Donawitz, voestalpine Forschungsservice Gesellschaft Donawitz and as an external partner the chair of steel design at the Montanuniversität Leoben.
Mainly voestalpine Stahl Donawitz was responsible for the production of prototypes on a laboratory scale as well as large-scale manufacturability. The voestalpine Forschungsservice Gesellschaft Donawitz provided simulation support for alloy design and for finding the optimum rolling parameters. Among others the chair of steel design carried out high resolution material analysis.
The overall coordination and the ultimately successful rolling were carried out by voestalpine Wire Rod Austria. In addition, our team was also able to draw on great support from voestalpine Boehler welding and the competence center welding of voestalpine Rail technology as part of a special prototype production. The combination of company-specific expertise ultimately led to the success and thanks to strong efforts on the part of voestalpine Wire Austria's application engineers and the sales department the product has already been successfully placed on the market.
What is the ultimate benefit of the project? The great advantage lies in the direct formability combined with high strength after tempering. This elimination of the classic soft annealing before further processing results in a significant improvement in the co2 balance and it is also more cost efficient. How can we visualize this development? Alloying elements are usually used for heat treatable steels which are generally cost intensive.
It was therefore necessary to find more favorable alternatives but without compromising on the mechanical properties. IGUA based on over 11.000 alloy variants was developed entirely on the computer using simulation processes under the leadership of the voestalpine Forschungsgesellschaft Donawitz. What significance does the project have for future projects? The project can certainly be described as a model for future development projects as it has shown that expertise combined with targeted simulation processes can lead to success.
The next topic is a very specific one. It is about optimized wire quality with simultaneous conservation of resources through thermomechanical rolling. A question that is essential for understanding especially outside of specialist circles.
Mr. Kienreich what does thermomechanical rolling mean? In comparison to the well-known standard hot rolling process thermomechanical rolling is basically rolling with lower finishing rolling temperatures combined with optimized cooling strategies directly from the rolling heat. Microalloying elements like vanadium and niobium are often added to TM-rolled steels and should precipitate as carbides and nitrides during hot rolling and cooling. The goal is always to improve the mechanical properties by additional grain refinement.
(13:34 - 15:39) This process reduces CO2 emissions but there are also several other advantages that customers benefit from. For example, thermomechanical rolling is also considered a resource saving production process across the entire value chain as further heat treatment steps can be omitted. What are the main benefits? In general, high quality wire rod for cold heading applications is usually produced by hot rolling, controlled cooling and subsequent soft annealing.
I would like to mention four main benefits of the TM rolling process. At first the possible elimination of soft annealing of boron alloyed quenching and tempering steel grades up to strength class 12.9. Second the extended use of micro-alloyed steel grades up to strength class 1000 megapascal without final heat treatment. Third for long slender components straightening can be omitted as there is no hardening distortion with this alternative precipitation hardened micro-alloyed steel grades.
And last but not least the extremely fine-grained microstructure improves the cold forming limit, the low temperature toughness and also the resistance to hydrogen embrittlement. Thank you very much for these exciting insights into the world of voestalpine wire technology. Thank you for giving us your time and your expertise.
That's it for this episode of wire insights. Fascinating to see how much innovation is driven by research and development isn't it? Stay tuned because in the upcoming episodes we'll dive even deeper from groundbreaking technologies to the people behind the ideas. We'll show you how visions turn into reality.
Don't miss out the best is yet to come. voestalpine one step ahead.
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