OREANDA-NEWS. November 15, 2011. Corrosion of wagon body can affect the safe operation of railway wagon, while the new type highly corrosion resistant weathering steel-S450EW developed by Baosteel independently has a corrosion resistance 50% higher than the existing products, and its high strength performance can reduce the weight of wagon body, reported the press-centre of Baosteel.  

Recently a message came from a user in northern region: this product of Baosteel has been smoothly used in the trial manufacture of over 2000 vehicles and various performance indicators are good. It shows that Baosteel has successfully developed the unique new type highly corrosion resistant weathering steel, and formed an invention patent.

Due to the impact such as environment and climate, the body of railway wagon can be corroded easily, which will affect the transportation safety and maintenance of wagon body. In late 1980s, some steelmakers developed the first generation weathering steel. In 2003, Baosteel took the lead to independently develop second generation weathering steel Q450 through exploration, which has the merits of high strength, good impact toughness at low temperature, etc. ,and its corrosion resistance is higher than the first generation. The application in the main wagon models of the Ministry of Railway satisfies the development demand of reducing the dead weight and increasing the carrying capacity of railway wagon. The performance indicators of Baosteel products are also written into the technical conditions and standards of supply by the Ministry of Railway.

In recent years the market of second generation weathering steel is becoming more and more competitive. So Baosteel follows the development trend of railway wagon industry closely. In 2007, Baosteel set up a production-marketing-research team consisting of Product Development Department, Research Institute, Steel-making Plant, Hot Rolling Plant, Manufacture Department, Steel Sheets Sales Department, Scientific Development Department and Baosteel International's Northern Company, Steel Trading Co. to independently develop highly corrosion resistant weathering steel.

Without any documentation or experience for references, the members of the team set out from basic research and gave play to the comprehensive advantages in the development and application of weathering steel accumulated for a long time to seek the breakthrough in R&D mechanism. In the testing, the alloy ingredient proportioning was sifted repeatedly to ensure the excellent comprehensive performance of new products. In particular, in the step of trial manufacture on site, confronted with many difficulties that affect the yield, the members of the team bravely carried out brainstorming of process technology, which laid the foundation for the formation of mature and stable manufacture technologies. After 3 rounds of trial manufacture in nearly 3 years, the product performance and quality improved steadily and the breakthrough in R&D was achieved finally.

By far, the new products of Baosteel has passed the specialists' panel review organized the Ministry of Railway, and the specialists panel is very satisfied with various performance indicators of the new product. They believe that this steel sheet can be used in large load railway wagon. It is learnt that the Ministry of Railway has included the performance indicators of Baosteel's new products into the relevant technical conditions and standards for purchase. Moreover, after using Baosteel's products many railway wagon manufacturers also commented that the corrosion resistance of Baosteel products is higher than the last generation products, coating pollution is avoided, safety and vehicle availability of wagon operation are improved, the service life is extended and the maintenance workload is reduced.

It is learnt that Baosteel also synchronously developed the matching welding materials suitable for welding of new products to form the unique competitive advantages and created favorable conditions for application of new products.