With a new Steel Innovation Center at its Linz site, the voestalpine Group has taken another step in the long term strengthening of its technology and quality leadership. After one and a half years of construction representing a total investment of almost EUR 13 million, the new laboratory complex was officially opened on September 13th 2010.
It is dedicated to the development of new surface technologies for high quality steel strip, including the underlying surface analysis. The building with a striking metal facade coated with a newly developed external automotive paint provides state of the art work stations for 70 researchers and testing engineers.
Quality, technology, innovation and service: these are the four cornerstones of voestalpine’s successful strategy, which has clearly proved its worth in the past few challenging years. Whereas during the crisis other companies, in particular, those in the international steel industry, significantly reduced their outlay for R&D as well as the number of their researchers, the voestalpine Group deliberately increased its concentration on innovation during this period and kept its annual R&D budget at the high level of approximately EUR 110 million. According to the EU, this figure makes the Group the most research intensive industrial company in Austria.
Mr Wolfgang Eder CEO of voestalpine AG said that "We have continued purposefully on our path and thanks to the quality of our products, we were able to get through the worst of the crisis faster and more successfully than others. In order to continue to grow, above and beyond saturated sales markets and volatile raw material markets, it is of decisive importance to continuously develop new products for new markets."
Mr Peter Schwab Head of R&D at the voestalpine Group underlined the company's clear commitment to research and development over many years. He said that "The new Innovation Center marks the current high point of this unshakable orientation."
The key reason for its construction was that not only are products and technologies continuously becoming more complex and challenging, but also the underlying development processes. The new Steel Innovation Center is thus not an isolated research center, but is closely linked with two other facilities that have long been in operation at the Linz site, the Steel Development Center (focus: materials research) and the Steel Processing Center (simulation and optimization of processing steps such as welding, pressing and forming).
This connection of know how regarding materials and processing is a central element of voestalpine's strategy of firmly establishing its technology and quality leadership for many years to come.
The Steel Innovation Center was built in the inner courtyard of Building 04, the headquarters of the R&D organization, and simply due to its innovative architectural appearance it presents an interesting contrast to the red brick character of the main R&D building. The new center’s glossy silver metal facade was created with a recently developed four layer complete paint system that was actually developed in cooperation with BASF Coatings as an external automotive paint. This innovation is not yet on the market and has thus become publicly visible for the first time in the new research center.
In the area of surface technology, voestalpine is a globally recognized leader. In this connection, Eder referred to the latest successful market launch, namely that of phs ultraform® for the automobile industry. This is a new press hardened and hot dip galvanized steel that was developed in cross divisional cooperation by the voestalpine Group and is now increasingly being used in luxury models.
Mr Peter Schwab head of R&D said that "In these high quality models the phs grade is already used for up to 15% of the car body. Its key advantages are that it is not only lightweight, but also provides high crash safety, optimized forming properties and cathodic corrosion protection."
Surface technology is primarily concerned with metallic and organic coatings, such as corrosion protection and paints. In addition to the development of the coatings themselves, it also encompasses further processing possibilities, for example, through the forming or pressing of body components.
Mr Wolfgang Eder said that "Surface technology know-how is a decisive factor in the strategic orientation of voestalpine in the segment of high quality flat steel."
The voestalpine Group’s global R&D network should also be highlighted here. Alongside cooperative activities with customers and suppliers, this presently includes some 80 partnerships worldwide with universities, universities of applied science and research institutes affiliated with universities. More than 10% of the Group’s annual R&D budget is devoted to these partnerships.
In this application oriented basic research, a key focus is on cooperative R&D projects involving surface technology and nanotechnology. Recently, for example, an enormous boost in this strategically important area was the initiation of the new SteelCoatingDesign project that is being carried out by voestalpine Stahl GmbH in cooperation with the Johannes Kepler University of Linz.
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