Sumitomo Metals, Industry-Academic group Develops 1000MPa Building Steel

Sumitomo Metal Industries announced on Thursday the Corporate Research & Development Lab. Developed world highest 1000 mega pascal (MPa) class high tensile building plate, SS1000 through the joint development effort with Osaka University, Kyoto Institute of Technology and Nikken Sekkei and Katayama Stratech. They got approval from Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. They expect the new item could contribute to strong building without harm even under major earthquake.

Traditional concept for earthquake resistance is to absorb energy through plastic deformation of steel structure. Sumitomo Metals and the group started the development in 2004 and tried to focus the energy into damper with only elastic deformation for steel structure in order to prevent structural trouble. The group proposes structure with 1000 MPa class steel and damping device.

The steel with 1000 MPa strength has much stronger than current building steel with maximum 590 MPa strength. While 1000 MPa steel didn’t be used for building, Sumitomo Metals and the group modified the alloy design of steel and welding material for the building application.