ArcelorMittal showcases offer for traffic safety products

The Intertraffic Fair in Amsterdam at the end of March provided an opportunity for ArcelorMittal to demonstrate its extensive range of solutions for road safety and infrastructure applications. The ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products stand featured real-life products developed by our customers including a lighting pole from Safety-Product (Belgium), safety barriers from Mieres Tubos (Grupo Condesa, Spain) and ArcelorMittal Ostrava, and an acoustic wall developed by CIR Ambiente (Italy).

The European market for road safety infrastructure such as barriers, lighting poles and signs is innovating rapidly due to the recent introduction of new standards. Rather than prescribing the material to be used, the new regulations are performance-based. This allows manufacturers to use technically superior materials such as ArcelorMittal’s range of advanced high strength steels (AHSS).

All new products must be tested to ensure they meet the safety standards defined in the regulation. ArcelorMittal works closely with its clients to ensure that products manufactured from our steels will pass the tests with flying colours.

Database of simulations

ArcelorMittal’s Intertraffic stand featured a safety barrier designed and manufactured by Mieres Tubos (Grupo Condesa). The co-engineering partnership which led to the development of the new barrier dates back to May 2011.

Co-engineering enables customers to take advantage of ArcelorMittal’s safety experience, gained through our long involvement in the automotive market and which is now being applied to road infrastructure applications.

Certified safety barriers

By the end of 2013, two safety barriers developed during the partnership with Mieres Tubos had received the CE marking which indicates the product complies with European road safety regulations. Both utilise ArcelorMittal’s high strength low alloy steels (HSLA) and unique zinc-magnesium-aluminium coating Magnelis^®.

HSLA steels are ideal for safety barriers because they provide:

• Better control over mechanical properties compared to conventional structural steels
• Higher mechanical properties which enable significant weight reduction (up to 25% per metre compared to structural grades)
• Higher productivity during installation and reduced maintenance costs.

The CE certificate confirms that ArcelorMittal’s high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels meet the requirements of the standard. It also demonstrates the benefits of the co-engineering approach to product development which ArcelorMittal champions.