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  • Smooth sailing

Superplast® steels conquering the oceans

Sailboats and yachts have always made people dream as they convey an image of freedom and luxury. Who never thought about traveling the world on a boat? ArcelorMittal ensures a smooth sailing thanks to Superplast® steels, used to manufacture keels.                 

First the land, now the oceans

Industeel’s Superplast® are premium mould steels used to manufacture plastic injection moulds. They are mainly used in the automotive industry, but also in electronics, domestic appliances and packaging and they are now extending their use to the marine sector. Superplast® SP300 and SP350 have been specified for the manufacturing of fixed keels for sailing boats or super-yachts.

Becoming designers’ reference steel   

When building a ship, designers are the conductors of the project as they are in contact with the manufacturers of the different elements (sail, hull, keel…). Designers oversee the final quality of the ships and they decide which materials will be used. Due to the efforts of Industeel in the last past years to promote Superplast® and its many advantages, some shipbuilding designers are now specifically asking for SP300 steel for the manufacture of the keels.

Ship designers look for a specific combination of hardness, elongation and tensile strength that guarantees the best compromise between resistance and stability to the ships. Superplast® SP300 and SP350 steels provide the ideal answer to these needs. Moreover, the excellent through-thickness homogeneity of Superplast® guarantees a consistency of these properties through the whole plate, whose dimensions are typically between 100mm and 300mm thick.