How the Sausage Is Made
Peeking behind the curtain of steel product development
Story: Ian VanDuzer
Photography: Sandra Mulder
Steel is static. The steel industry isn’t. New innovations and improvements in the space are essential, especially with tightening standards and expectations surrounding climate change and embodied carbon content. From utilizing environmentally friendly steelmaking processes to producing more sustainable steel, more is happening in the steel industry than ever before.
But how are these changes being made? How are new products developed? What are the largest steel makers in North America doing with their resources to investigate new innovations?
For ArcelorMittal Dofasco, the answers are surprisingly simple: among other priorities, they put their customers first and develop steel solutions which meet their needs and address their current and future challenges.
The Future of Future Steel
Future Steel Buildings has been buying their Galvalume™ steel from ArcelorMittal Dofasco for more than thirty years – ever since the Hamilton steel mill started producing the material. “It’s a great partnership,” grins Lorenzo Turi, the Vice President of Operations at Future Steel. “We were one of the first to use Dofasco’s Galvalume™ ”, a 55%Al-Zn coated steel known for its superior corrosion performance.
Future Steel manufactures prefabricated steel buildings. Most of their buildings serve as garages, workshops, or other outbuildings, although they have also bent their semi-circular style to residential, commercial, and industrial projects. The majority of their projects utilize Galvalume™ in gauges dependent on the needs of the buyer. But over the past three decades, pain-points have emerged based on the materials they had available to use. “We had this sort of awkward pocket with our material thicknesses,” Turi explains. “We had Grade 80 Galvalume™ for up to 20 gauge (0.038”), but only Grade 50 for 18 gauge (0.048”). And that 18 gauge was a bit of a dead product for us, because there wasn’t any benefit in strength for the higher cost of going to the thicker steel. They would have to go to 16 gauge (0.060”) to see an appreciable difference in strength.”
The steel grade corresponds to the minimum yield strength the steel must exhibit. For Grade 50, the minimum yield strength is 50 ksi, while Grade 80 would require the steel to have a yield strength that was 60% greater.
In 2023, Will Khuu from the ArcelorMittal Research & Development (R&D) Group based in Hamilton met with Turi to better understand the product challenges preventing Future Steel from growing and better competing against other building types. At the time, ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s Grade 80 product offering was limited to a maximum gauge of 0.038”. Turi indicated Future Steel would be able to produce larger structures if they had access to heavier gauge Grade 80 product. There would also be greater efficiencies in building design as thinner substrate at the enhanced yield strength could be used when compared to the Grade 50 substrate, so work began at R&D to expand ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s Grade 80 product offering.
How to Expand Product Capability
“The primary concern with offering an unannealed product at heavier gauges is the risk of recrystallization during galvanizing” says Khuu. “We can mitigate some of the risk by selecting a steel chemistry with a higher carbon content versus the typical chemistry we would apply on lighter gauge Grade 80 orders.”
It didn’t happen overnight. Changes and successes were incremental as multiple trials took place to validate product capability at increased gauges. “I’d get these emails that would say, ‘Ok, we got 18 gauge to Grade 80,’” Turi recalls. “And then later I’d get further updates and improvements, until finally we got to the point where we can offer Grade 80 Galvalume™ at every gauge between 22 and 14 (0.072”).”
“We got more than we asked for, for sure.”
“While we didn’t come across any instances of recrystallization during the multiple line trials, our Operations teams had some challenges ensuring edge-to-edge acrylic coating coverage on the harder steel during the heavier gauge trials, “ says Khuu. “It was certainly a learning experience, but we were able to adjust our roll coater set up.”
The higher grade of steel meant stronger material. “We love it,” beams Turi. “Basically, we can offer our buildings for cheaper, because we can use thinner material without compromising strength. That benefits us, that benefits our customers, and that benefits ArcelorMittal Dofasco because we can send that user data back to them.”
“It’s part of our value proposition for our long-term customers,” says Khuu. “When customers place an order with ArcelorMittal Dofasco, they’re not just purchasing steel but gaining access to a full suite of services such as technical advice from our metallurgical experts, product testing through our R&D co-engineering lab and promotional support through our Steel Design publication. These services can materially augment our customer’s product offering and it’s what sets us apart from the competition.”
Top of Class
But Grade 80 wasn’t the only objective while expanding the Galvalume™ product offering. “Will came to us and said, ‘Well, you asked for grade 80, but what about Class 3, too?’” Turi says. “That was a huge value add, for us.”
AISI S100-16 is the North American standard that governs the design of cold-formed steel structures. Under AISI S100-16, structures using steel without a minimum elongation can only be designed to 75% of the ordered yield strength, while steels with a minimum elongation of 3% could be designed to 90% of the ordered yield strength.
“After sitting down with Lorenzo and gaining a better understanding of what Future Steel was trying to achieve, I was able to go back and review the AISI and ASTM standards to identify the Grade 80 Class 3 specification, which has a 3% minimum elongation lined up nicely with the AISI conditions governing building design strength, “recalled Khuu. “Certainly, offering up the Class 3 entailed a greater scope of work to validate ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s capability to consistently deliver on the minimum elongation requirement. It seemed like it would be worth it given the 20% increase in yield strength that Future could design to, from the 60 ksi they were previously restricted to.”
Checking the Math
Turi wants to make it clear that they don’t just take ArcelorMittal Dofasco at their word. “We need to do our own independent tests on the new steel,” he says. “That’s just to verify all of their claims, and also so that we can go to our customers and say, ‘yes, we can guarantee that we can do this with this steel.’”
Testing is ongoing, with capacity evaluation of Future’s quonset panels at ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s co-engineering lab in Hamilton. It really underlines their confidence in their steel, Turi says, that they are providing the facilities to run the tests.
“This is a huge step forward for Future Steel,” Turi says. “And it really is because of the forethought and partnership with Dofasco.”
SPECIFICATIONS
METAL:
ArcelorMittal Dofasco, Future Steel Buildings
PRODUCT:
GalvalumeTM Coated Steel
