For the first time, Tata Steel is offering an abrasion-resistant strip product, with Valast® 450. The new product enhances Tata Steel’s offer to longstanding customers including global manufacturers of construction, mining and agriculture equipment, who now have a dependable technical partner in Tata Steel, as well as a dependable product.
Valast® 450 provides superior surface quality when compared with conventional abrasion resistant plate products in ‘as rolled’ condition. Rolled at Tata Steel’s state-of-the-art facility in IJmuiden, The Netherlands, and ‘cut to length’ on some of Europe’s most powerful decoilers in Maastricht and South Wales, Valast offers consistent dimensional tolerances, flatness and an outstanding quality finish.
Due to Valast’s superb quality, the product yields reduced rejection rates, resulting in greater production efficiency for manufacturers. As a strip product, Valast can also be cut to any length required by manufacturers, while also being offered in the greatest width of any strip – up to 2 metres. This greater level of customisation helps manufacturers achieve better nesting, in turn reducing wastage and improving efficiency. Valast’s greater dimensions also reduce manufacturers’ welding requirements, saving time and improving structural rigidity.
Valast® 450 customers benefit from the exemplary levels of support provided by Tata Steel’s local technical specialists. With decades of experience as proven, dependable partners to the construction equipment, mining and agriculture sectors, Tata Steel regularly works with its customers to help develop solutions that improve efficiency, reduce complexity and increase reliability.
With operations in 26 countries, including the UK, The Netherlands and Germany, Tata Steel’s local distribution network ensures that its specialists don’t just understand the challenges faced by each sector, they also apply this knowledge to the local market.
Abrasion-resistant steels are typically used in an application where ruggedness is key, such as tipper bodies, dump trucks, refuse trucks and excavator buckets, so steel hardness is vital. Tata Steel has invested in an extensive development programme to yield an abrasion resistance in Valast® 450 that is 2.5 times greater than structural steel while retaining its ability to weld thanks to a low carbon equivalent (CEV/CET).
Glyn Martin, Customer Technical Support Engineer at Tata Steel, said, “Abrasion-resistant steels are subject to some of the most rigourous duty cycles, in the toughest working environments imaginable. Valast® 450 offers the dependability expected of an abrasion-resistant steel, while also providing customers with outstanding quality and efficiency, as well as the level of technical support synonymous with Tata Steel.”
- Valast® 450 marks Tata Steel’s entry into abrasion-resistant steel strip supply
- New hot-rolled strip product offers superior surface quality, consistent tolerances and flatness, and can be cut to any length
- Tata Steel Valast® 450 is the widest abrasion-resistant strip available (up to 2 metres) allowing for greater efficiency
- Expert technical specialists at Tata Steel ensure Valast® 450 customers benefit from comprehensive support
