With human influence, iron becomes a material of warmth, offering sustenance, shelter and safety. Here are a few ways how.

Fishing for a Solution: How an Iron Fish is Treating Anemia

Resource: http://www.luckyironfish.com/

Apart from being a useful material, iron is also an essential part of our daily diet.

Anemia, a condition in which there is a lack of red cells or of hemoglobin in the blood, often the result of an iron deficiency, can leave people feeling weak, cold and tired. It is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world, affecting approximately 2 billion people globally.

Despite a significant international effort to fortify food staples and to provide iron supplementation programs specifically aimed at vulnerable populations, iron deficiency continues to increase worldwide.

But that may change soon, thanks to a solution created by a group of Canadian health workers in Cambodia.

In 2008, fish-shaped cast iron ingots were developed by the group to provide dietary supplementation to individuals affected by iron-deficiency living in poverty. When placed in a pot of boiling water, the ingots release elemental iron into the water and food being cooked.

The solution was considered such a huge success that in 2012 the Lucky Iron Fish Project was formed to develop the iron fish on a larger scale, promote the product in rural areas and distribute it to non-governmental organization partners.

The inexpensive iron lumps shaped like smiling fish are 7.5 centimeters long and have a lifespan of about five years.

The Lucky Iron Fish, which is said to release iron at exactly the right concentration to provide up to 90% of the recommended daily iron intake for an entire family, is now being used by thousands of Cambodians. In fact, more than 50,000 Lucky Iron Fish have been sold worldwide and the solution has helped to correct iron deficiency in about 90,000 people and more than 15,000 households.

Home, Steel Home

The power of iron is even more impressive when combined with love and goodwill. A perfect example of this is POSCO’s Happy Steel House—a project that helps those who have recently lost their homes get back to normal life as quickly as possible.

The Happy Steel House was first established by POSCO in 1996. These homes are built to be resistant to natural disasters like fire, earthquakes and storms, but more importantly can be constructed within two weeks.

Since 2015, POSCO’s Happy Steel House has become even sturdier and more aesthetically pleasing, thanks to POSCO C&C’s manufactured panels. In addition, POSCO’s Steel Solution Marketing Team developed an external material product through POSCO A&C’s unique Flow Coating—a technique that produces colored steel plates. The end result was a Happy Steel House with an entirely new look.

More significant than the improved design was the fact that the base of the Happy Steel House grew sturdier with every new home that was built, including those constructed for 16 Korean families who lost their homes to fires. This was achieved by applying the expertise of POSCO’s executives, staff members and global youth volunteers, as well as warmth and caring for those in need.

Building Bridges as Strong as Steel

POSCO’s mantra of volunteering and sharing is also playing an active role in other parts of the world. In Vietnam, where tropical monsoons are common, POSCO built a steel bridge for communities affected by floods.

Due to heavy rainfall six months a year, Vietnam’s bridges often become submerged under water during the wet season. This makes transportation a huge safety concern for locals.

What’s even more worrying is the fact that many young students use these bridges on a daily basis to commute to school. Since most of the wooden bridges do not have a handrail, it is even more dangerous for pedestrians, as they are unable to see where the bridges begin and end. As such, young children often trudge through flooded areas blindly in an effort to make their way across to get to school in time.

In order to secure safe traveling, POSCO built a steel bridge in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s flood area, Da Bac, with the help and hard work of employees and affiliates.

The “POSCO Vietnam Holdings – Steel Bridge” boasts steel handrails to provide a safe and sturdy way for the students to walk to school.

POSCO’s steel bridge was successfully completed with the help of POSCO’s global youth volunteers, POSCO A&C’s design, POSCO SS VINA’s supplies and POSCO E&C’s handrail work and construction. Thanks to these contributors’ talent and love, students and local residents in Da Bac are getting around safely, even during the wet season.

From iron health supplements to the roofs that shelter us to the bridges that help us reach our destination, iron is keeping us warm, happy and healthy.

Be sure you never miss any of the exciting steel stories from The Steel Wire by subscribing to our blog.

Iron: Inexpensive Yet Strong, ‘Economically Feasible’ Material 

Steel is one of the most abundant resources. As a result, the cost of steel is indeed very cheap. It only costs approximately 1/3 of its closest alternative, Aluminum, which costs roughly 1700-2000 USD per ton. Furthermore, steel’s price compared to its strength property is significantly lower at 4.4 when compared to other materials such as aluminum alloy at 21.2 and plastic at 11.3. This indicates that steel is cheap despite the material’s outstanding strength. Although directly comparing the costs of steel products to those of similar products made of other materials is meaningless since different materials involve different production process, but it is clear that steel products are cheap yet strong and that steel is relatively more economically feasible when compared to other materials. 

‘From a Needle to a Vessel’, Well-rounded Material with Properties of Handy Procedure, Corrosion-resistance and Durability 

As implied in the phrase ‘From a needle to a vessel’, steel is extensively used in diverse fields. Not to mention the cheap cost of the material, Steel’s mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and machinability allow its flexible application to various industry fields. It comes as no surprise that steel is universally considered as the most important material in engineering and construction industry.

Plastic is often perceived and used as an alternative material to steel for the characteristics alike; plastic has the merit of being easy to process, mechanically durable, pressure-resistant, and heat-resistant due to high softening temperature, pressure and electro-thermal. Despite all the positive aspects, plastic is still considered inferior than steel in terms of the material’s mechanical and chemical properties.

Through Recycling Process, ‘Iron’ is Eco-friendly 

When estimating a certain material’s level of eco-friendliness, recycle availability becomes the standard. In the case of plastic, only 3 ~ 5% of the overall production is recycled. However, due to its simple recycling process, iron stays eco-friendly through high usage of the process.

By reusing the recycled iron, it is possible  to decrease 82% of Carbon Dioxide, 88.9% of nitrogen oxides, and 94.7% of sulfur oxides, compared to directly producing iron from minerals. Therefore, iron scraps are considered as one of the top three ingredients of steel along with iron ore and coke.

Even the production process of iron has less negative effects on nature, compared to the processes of other mineral resources. In order to mine mineral resources, trees and forests need to be cut down to make a tunnel in the area. Prior to the mining, a series of content analyses of an iron ore is held to assess economic feasibility of the site. For gold, 3 grams of gold per 1 ton of raw ore is considered economically feasible. This ‘feasible content’ for Aluminum is 13%, iron 5%, copper 0.8% yet the steel is at astonishing 60%. This means that steel is an ‘eco-friendly’ material in that the mining process does not involve extensive environmental destructions and leaves minimal wastes compared to other natural resources. In other words, more use of steel over other materials helps to save the environment. Environmental destruction due to mining process is inevitable yet the negative impacts could be minimized with more use of steel.

Various Usages in Our Daily Lives

Other than the excellent qualities introduced above, there are many more usages in our daily lives. Human body contains certain amount of iron and it is used in manufacturing products from food container to artificial bone structure. Also, sometimes iron is used in producing another type of metal with improved qualities, such as stainless steel. Known for its non-rusting and robust property, the stainless steel is an alloy of regular steel with reasonable amount of carbon, nickel and chrome. As shown, depending on the type of materials added to the steel, various steel products with many different qualities can be made. Since they alloy of iron or oxides tend to be magnetic, it is widely used in producing computer diskettes, recording tapes, skippers, calling cards and more. We could expect for an enhanced quality of life by further developing the outstanding properties of iron and utilizing them into new products in the future!

[box]

Case Study – Steel House

POSCO has built a steel house ‘Youth Shelter’ to support teenage runaways who are not capable of living an ordinary life due to domestic conflicts or violence. In addition, a senior welfare center called ‘Happy Steel House’ was constituted with the fund raised by POSCO family employees’ 1% share campaign. Including the ‘Happy Steel House’, POSCO’s Steel House construction is now being applied in various social contributions in Korea.

[/box]