Technology isn’t just securing the safety. Also boosts athlete’s motivation

Pride of the Korean-Made

The passion of the athletes seen at The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games is unforgettable. It is to this end that POSCO has devoted itself to supporting athletes with disabilities.

When it comes to sports, even small improvements in technology or changes to the gear may bring about huge differences. Having supported the national para ice hockey team since 2016, POSCO developed lightweight sledges with improved tolerance shock absorption for the Korean para ice hockey team so that the athletes could focus more on the game. This made POSCO the first company in Korea to manufacture athletic gear for national Paralympic teams. Equipped with motivation and new gear, the Korean para ice hockey team achieved an amazing Bronze medal in The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

SEE ALSO: Parallel: Shining a Spotlight on the Korean National Para Ice Hockey Team

With memories of The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games still fresh, South Korea recently observed the National Day of Persons with Disabilities on April 20. In recognition of this day, POSCO interviewed Jin-Owan Jung, head officer at the Korea Paralympic Committee Icheon Training Center and manager of the Korean Paralympic team the man who led the Korean team at The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games and one who both understands and represents the interests of people with disabilities in Korea.

“It’s Not Just About Overcoming Your Disability But Accepting It.- Jin Owan, Jung”

He emphasized the recognition and acceptance rather than struggling

Accept who you really are

Jin-Owan Jung was 22 years old when a car accident left him paralyzed from the waist down in 1987. Undeterred by the accident, Jung set his eyes on becoming an athlete for the Paralympics when he saw the Seoul Paralympic Games in 1998. He won 2 medals – a gold and a bronze – in Shooting in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics Games. After retiring as an athlete, his passion for sports drove him to take on a new role in administration. The experiences gained as a Para sport athlete and also by interacting with others with disabilities, gave him a perception that acceptance of one’s disability is more important than struggling to overcome it.

He agrees that the situation is getting better but still needs more support such as financial aspects

You are not alone

The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games was a huge success in that the athletes’ passion inspired positive change in the society’s views toward people with disabilities. Jung noted that the infrastructure for people with disabilities in The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games was much improved in comparison to past games. However, he believes there is still room for improvement. Additional and sustainable social support is necessary to ensure those with disabilities can enjoy living conditions equal to those of other citizens and have an equal share in the development of their societies.

POSCO supports not only their technology but also financial aid

How to support?

Jung explains, “Financial support is not everything but it is important in certain circumstances.” POSCO has been a proud sponsor of athletes with disabilities and has provided roughly $2.6 million in support of Para sport since 2011. This year, POSCO donated $370,000 to the Korean Paralympic team in honor of their effort and passion.

‘Harmony’ is the element that POSCO will promise for better society

Jung believes that sports might be the key to resolving discrimination against people with disabilities. However, this can only be accomplished with active contribution from supporters. POSCO will continue to support Jin-Owan Jung’s dream of achieving social harmony and creating a society where having a disability does not impede one’s quality of life.

POSCO started supporting the team last year after CEO Ohjoon Kwon watched the team take the bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships. As shown in the documentary, the athletes were playing on insufficient sledges that would often break down and cause injuries. Some players were fixing their own sledges between matches, others made do with what they had. CEO Kwon knew POSCO had the solutions for the team and started a project with sledge-maker Massive Blade to revamp the sledges for the team. Now, ahead of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympics, the team is equipped and ready with the world’s leading technology.

SEE ALSO: How POSCO’s Advanced Technology Gives Speed to Korea’s Para Ice Hockey Team

Parallel: A Documentary

Parallel was directed by Kyungman Kim in 2012. He wanted to make the movie to document the para ice hockey players’ endurance and grit in overcoming their physical limitations through the sport. “However, as I started editing the footage and putting it all together, I noticed how happy the players looked on the ice. That’s when I decided the documentary was going to be about happiness – what it really means to be happy. That’s what I want to share with viewers,” said director Kim.

Director Kim couldn’t help but notice the smile on the players’ faces. (Source: Taehung Pictures Naver Post)

That’s exactly what the movie delivers. Of course, the players face challenges every day due to their injuries and physical conditions, but the interviews in the documentary reveal the players to be genuinely happy and grateful for their sport. Seunghwan Jung, one of the players, says, “I used to wish I had legs all the time, but when I started playing hockey, the thought just never crossed my mind. In a way, the sport has allowed me to accept myself… understand myself.”

One of the players take break from intense training. (Source: Taehung Pictures Naver Post)

For many of the players, playing para ice hockey has been a healing process, but it doesn’t end there. The team is as competitive as any other Olympic team, and even with a lack of spectators and interest in the sport, the national team has produced impressive results. In the 2010 Vancouver Winter Paralympics, the team placed 6th, and then 7th in Sochi in 2014. This is even more remarkable given the poor equipment, especially the sledges, they were using at the time.

POSCO Gives Ice Sledges a Technological Makeover

In order to qualify as a para ice hockey player, a person must have a physical impairment in the lower part of their body, but this can come in many different forms. As a result, one of the biggest challenges teams face is finding sledges that fit, protect and enhance each player. Before POSCO signed on as a sponsor, the Korean National Team relied on expensive imported sledges from Canada that were heavy and susceptible to structural damage from harsh contact. On average, 5 to 7 sledges required repair work during a single game. In an attempt to produce the first domestic sledge, POSCO’s researchers jumped on board to provide sledge-producer Massive Blade the materials for a lightweight, strong and corrosion resistant sledge.

Researchers at POSCO’s Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST), came up with a way to use magnesium as the main material for the sledge frame. Magnesium is one of the lightest materials available as it is one third lighter than aluminum, but it is extremely hard to treat and bend into shape. RIST not only developed the technology to treat magnesium, but also applied it to sledges for the first time in history. POSCO also provided its advanced high-manganese anti-vibration steel and stainless steel to finish off the new sledges, fit for a national team.

RIST researchers developed a processing technology to increase the moldability of magnesium.

Outfitted with the new sledges, the team beat out strong European teams in the 2017 World Championships to place 3rd, and just last month, they won a four-nation friendly tournament in Japan. Now, they have their eyes on an Olympic medal in PyeongChang.

Regardless of the results, POSCO will continue to support the Korean National Para Ice Hockey Team so they can continue doing what makes them and others around them happy.

Cover photo courtesy of Hello PyeongChang.

The Steel Wire recently spoke with Bruvel about his Flow Series of sculptures. With ribbons of stainless steel, Bruvel has created stunning representations of life, its dualities, and its binding contradictions.

You’ve worked with a variety of media including oils, pencils, pastels, wood, and bronze. With the Flow Series you began using stainless steel. What inspired you to start working with steel?

Among all the different material I use for my artwork, stainless steel or inox steel has the qualities I needed to materialize the sculptures of the Flow Series. I wanted to create different variations of reflectivity for the surface of my artwork to fuse with its environment by simply reflecting it. The reflections can be made from grained surfaces up to a highly reflective mirror polish surfaces. If I want to represent the feeling of water or the sensation of the wind pressing on the skin like in the sculpture of the Wind, I can play with these variations to further the feeling of flow and my personal interpretations of patterns inspired by nature.

“Bringing stainless steel to this new platform was to bring the paradox of the sense of permanence that stainless-steel gives, its natural resistance to rusting over time and stability in harsh environment…”
– Gil Bruvel

Steel seems like it would be a difficult medium to work with. How has steel allowed you to express your creativity, compared to other media?

Stainless steel is indeed a rigorous material needing very structured methods to work with. But at the same time, it allows this illusory notion of opposite between the rigidity of steel and this sense of fluidity and movement I can infuse it with. It momentarily freezes the ephemeral, the constant motion of nature, permanence and impermanence.

Gil Bruvel works on My Mirror Remains (Photo courtesy of Gil Bruvel)

It is impressive to see you create such elaborate pieces using steel. Can you describe your work process? How do you go from idea to steel sculpture? How long does it take? What tools do you use to mold your sculptures?

I start with various sketches and a considerable amount of time figuring out what my intentions are about a specific piece. This represents multiple iterations with sketches whether it is inspired by, as examples, erosions carved by the wind or water, dunes formations, ripples in the sand, physical sensations, motions, emotions, the grass or leaves in trees pushed by the wind and the infinite myriads of patterns small or large nature is made of.

Then I start to model the concepts until I think it is ready to receive a silicon mold. With this mold, we pull a wax for the lost wax process at the foundry and to finally do the casting. After removing the sprues and chasing the surface of the steel, I start to play with the reflectivity of the surface up to the most polished parts of the final sculpture.

It takes many months to create a sculpture from the original concept to the final cast.

Gil Bruvel’s Dichotomy sculpture that “meditates on and celebrates the dual nature of existence.” (Photo courtesy of Gil Bruvel)

Which steel sculpture would you consider to be your best, or favorite? And why?

My favorite sculpture of the Flow Series is of course the next one I am about to do with the renewed excitement to apply the new skills and knowledge I gathered from the previous works with the integration of new ideas and concepts as well as continuing to explore and studying new patterns.

“Among all the different material I use for my artwork, stainless steel or inox steel has the qualities I needed to materialize the sculptures… -Gil Bruvel

I like the sculpture of Dichotomy for the simplicity of its message about the human condition. The vertical lines in opposition with the horizontal lines contained within this same bust, whatever contradictions or oppositions we experience are simply part of who we are.

The sculpture of Rain is also one of my favorite for its meditative aspect. The sculpture entitled River with its metaphor of the river flow carrying our memories and experiences.

The Wind, the euphoric awareness of being alive, feeling the wind against our skin. And many other sculptures.

Offering a variation on the theme of human frailty, My Mirror Remains explores what it means to be fully human. (Photo courtesy of Gil Bruvel)

What message are you ultimately trying to convey through the Flow Series? How does using steel help you communicate that?

All the above might contribute to this question, but mainly I see art as a platform, an opportunity to experiment with my own perspective, in the form of artwork to show and share the results of these experimentations. To keep building a universal language we can all relate to. I think the universality of steel lends itself to this idea. Our planet is shrinking with the way we communicate and art can be what binds us together.

How is your artistic vision embodied through your use of steel in the Flow Series? How is it connected (or different) from your other work?

The many different material and methods I use to create my artwork goes in parallel with my passionate pursuit of knowledge. The Flow Series has been a centerpiece to my creative process, and I see it as a continuum to my previous experiments with other materials. Bringing stainless steel to this new platform was to bring the paradox of the sense of permanence that stainless-steel gives, its natural resistance to rusting over time and stability in harsh environment comparatively to other material; and at the opposite, the artistic expression of fleeting moments and ephemeral nature of our experiences we have, the constant changes and impermanence of life.

The Steel Wire is excited to have had the opportunity to talk with Gil Bruvel. His artistry and expertise surpass expectations and his exquisite sculptures show us the beauty that can be found in steel.

Watch the video below to see some of Gil Bruvel’s favorite pieces and hear more about his work process and inspiration. You can find out more about the artist and his exhibitions by visiting his website or following him on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

BRUVEL from One Story Productions on Vimeo.

Iron Age

During the Iron Age, semi-solid steel, produced by simply reducing iron ore, was forged to create farm implements and weapons. It was not until the mid-14th century that liquid iron was extracted directly from iron ore. This became possible because high temperatures were reached with furnace bellows operated by waterwheels.

For over 3,000 years, until replaced by steel after 1870, iron formed the material basis of human civilization in Europe, Asia and Africa.

The Industrial Revolution in England

In the late 18th century, during the Industrial Revolution in England, the invention of the steam engine by James Watt enabled the blasting of air into the blast furnace with a machine. This made the mass production of iron possible.

While the iron making process had been centered on the coke blast furnace for 300 years, the steel production process has made leaps and bounds in the past 160 years.

Around this time, the S-Martin open hearth furnace appeared. Though it required an external heat source and its productivity was relatively low, it permitted a wide range of iron resources and allowed easy control of the temperature and composition of molten steel.

The S-Martin open hearth furnace became the predominant method of producing liquid steel for about a century, until the appearance of basic oxygen steelmaking in the 1950s.

Basic Oxygen Steelmaking in the 1950s

Basic oxygen steelmaking and continuous casting processes developed in the early 1950s are considered the most innovative technologies in the history of the steel industry. The two processes replaced the open hearth furnace and the slabbing and blooming process in integrated steel mills.

The integrated steel mills have many advantages such as high productivity, cost competitiveness and the ability to produce a wide range of high-quality steel products. However, they require large-scale facility groups with complex process configurations across a large land area. Other disadvantages include the generation of large quantities of environmental pollutants from the use of fossil fuels.

In the late 1980s, major global steel companies and research institutes led research and development activities to address the disadvantages of basic oxygen steelmaking in integrated steel mills. The focus was placed on developing new processes to replace the existing blast furnace in iron making.

POSCO’s FINEX technology

FINEX technology is one such new development. POSCO began researching FINEX technology in 1992, and successfully launched a pilot plant with an annual production capacity of 600,000 tons in 2003. At present, two FINEX facilities are in operation at POSCO Pohang Steelworks. One plant, launched in 2007, has an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons, and the other, opened in 2014, has an annual capacity of 2 million tons.

POSCO also plans to build another FINEX technology facility soon, but this time it will be located outside of Korea. POSCO recently signed a memorandum of agreement with Iran to build a FINEX technology steel mill in the Middle East country.

FINEX combines the iron making processes of sintering, coke making and blast furnace into one process. It allows the direct use of low-grade fine ore and coal without preliminary processing. This process dramatically reduces the generation of air pollutants such as SOx, NOx and dust.

The changing environment of the global steel industry

The attention of global steel companies is now focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adjusting to the stricter global regulations on air pollution. These regulations are expected to expedite the restructuring of steel production facilities.

As a result, environment-friendly and innovative iron making technologies are expected to become commercialized soon. This would enable the use of low-grade raw materials across the globe. With the development and expanded utilization of new clean energy sources, steel production will depend increasingly on the utilization of economically produced steel, such as Direct Reduced Iron.

The future direction of the steel production process

According to the report, the steel production processes of the global steel industry are expected to move in three directions. First, large-scale seaside integrated steel works will continue to be highly competitive. Second, the expected increase in steel scrap availability and low-cost production of Direct Reduced Iron will increase the economic feasibility of procuring iron resources.

Third, inland regions in China, India and other large continent countries who are at a geographical disadvantage are expected to build simplified, compact, environment-friendly alternatives to outdated blast furnaces.

The three steel production processes are expected to coexist to produce low-grade raw materials and secure a smooth supply of steel products in inland regions where demand is forecasted to grow. This is expected to bring balanced and continuous growth for the global steel industry.

The steel industry has evolved and developed throughout history and thanks to the superior characteristics of steel materials and economic mass production it will continue to be an integral part of our lives for many more millennia to come.

Related Link:

In Southeast Asia, Surging Imports Lead to Rising Trade Barriers

The Future of Manufacturing in Korea

China’s Era of New Normal and its Implications on the Steel Industry

The Myth and Reality of Global Steel Overcapacity

POSRI Releases First Edition of Bi-Annual English Journal “Asian Steel Watch”

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[Iron is the Future] blog post series will explore the history of the iron and speculate on how it will unfold in the future.

Iron has had a significant impact on the advance of human civilization. Do you know how iron, which is now taken for granted and used widely, entered our lives in the first place?

Today, to kick off the first edition of [Iron is the Future] series, we have prepared the behind story of the emergence of iron on Earth, as well as, various origin theories of iron.

How is Iron, number 26 on the periodic table and the fundamental element of life forms, made?

Atomic number 26 Fe, a.k.a. iron, makes up 35% of Earth’s mass and 5.2% of Earth’s crust. The abundant metal is truly one of Earth’s essential building blocks.  As mentioned in our previous post, there are 3 grams of iron even in the human body. Let’s take a look at how it’s made.

Long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, iron was born during a nuclear fusion reaction within a star. During the initial stages following the Big Bang, no elements that were heavier than hydrogen or helium existed. In other words, iron didn’t even exist in the very beginning.

Nonetheless, all elements have the tendency to return to the most stable state. In order to achieve this, elements continuously go through nuclear fusion and fission. Since iron is the most stable element in the universe, all elements naturally try to convert to it.

However, lighter elements require extreme heat to become iron through nuclear fusion, and to obtain such heat, extreme pressure is necessary. The only place that fulfills such requirements is within a giant star. Thus,  iron is  born when a giant star explodes into a supernova. This is why stars are nicknamed “Iron Factories in Space”.

How much iron is there in Earth?

Like we said, all elements have the tendency to turn into iron, the most stable element in the universe. Let’s see how much iron, one of the most widely used metals, makes up the Earth.

Iron accounts for a third of Earth’s mass. Most of it exists not in the crust, but within the core. It exists as a liquid in the outer core and as a solid in the inner core. In fact, 91% of the Earth’s core is made up of iron!

The iron within the outer core forms Earth’s magnetic field as it rotates along with the Earth. Though the force of Earth’s magnetic field is negligible compared to that of magnets, it nonetheless plays a very important role. The reason why have compasses to show us direction and help us tell north from south is due to Earth’s magnetic field!

Furthermore, the iron in Earth’s core makes our planet habitable by forming Earth’s magnetic field which protects us from solar wind.

Then why is it so important to not be directly exposed to solar wind?

The upper atmospheric layer of the Sun emits plasma, which is what we call solar wind. Plasma, in turn, is essentially for the flow of electrons and protons which is known as radiation. Space radiation, if exposed, could 1) alter our DNA which will lead to cancer; 2) take away the electrons from the atoms that form our bodies; or 3) be absorbed by the atoms. All three scenarios will inevitably make life unsustainable.  If there were no iron in Earth’s core, there would be no magnetic field to shield us and we wouldn’t be able to exist on Earth in the first place.

Are you curious about the various origin theories of iron? There are three theories about the birth of iron, let’s find out now!

Theory 1: A Mistake

The first theory is that the discovery of iron was, interestingly, a mistake. This theory posits that our ancestors mistook iron for chalcopyrite, an ingredient of bronze, which happened to be of similar shade and color. This theory becomes plausible when we assume that our ancestors already had the technology to manufacture bronze during the Bronze Age.

Theory 2: Wildfire

Next is the wildfire theory. This theory argues that a wildfire melted the iron ore that emerged on the earth’s surface, thus allowing our ancestors to discover iron. According to this theory, prehistoric humans took the now deoxidized and exposed iron ore and molded it into different shapes for use.

In general, the fire we use daily seldom goes over 800℃, which is insufficient heat to deoxidize iron ore. However, a wildfire in thick, prehistoric jungles could have been much larger and may have lasted for much longer, which makes the wildfire theory possible.

Theory 3: Meteorites

Last but not least is the meteorite theory. This theory posits that humankind discovered iron from fallen meteorites. In fact, many of the meteorites which landed on Earth contain abundant iron, which is called meteorite iron. Meteorites, which are an alloy of iron and nickel, are reported to contain 4~20% nickel and 0.3%~1.6% cobalt.

The most plausible of the aforementioned theories is the first one, which states that our ancestors mistook iron for bronze. According to ancient documents and ruins, humankind first began to use iron around BC 4,000 in the Asia Minor region. Also, evidence claims that iron refining technology existed around 3,000 B.C. in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

From cars to ships, planes, homes, various daily necessities, iron is indeed all around us. We hope this post provided some enlightenment around Iron. Look forward to our part 2 in the [Iron is the Future] series.