SSAB awards Swedish Steel Prize 2017 to Kiruna Wagon

SSAB has named Sweden-based Kiruna Wagon as the winner of the 2017 international Swedish Steel Prize for its Helix Dumper.

The dumper wagon system is designed for long-haul rail transport and unloading of minerals. Use of advanced high-strength structural and wear-resistant steels made it possible to design lightweight wagons combined with a stationary Helix terminal for on-the-fly rotary unloading. The system has an unloading speed of 25,000 tons per hour, which is twice that of other systems.

For the final design, both Strenx® structural steel and Hardox® wear-resistant steel were used in the wagon system.

According to SSAB, a complete unloading system for the Helix costs one-seventh of what a rotational wagon costs. Furthermore, the system uses parts of the potential energy of the ore to push the wagon forward as it unloads. This means no extra energy is required, and there is much less dust with almost no noise.