The budget for the entire event was estimated to be around USD 10 to 13 billion to get PyeongChang in prime shape to host more than 6000 athletes and officials from all over the world. As a result, the winter games will take place in 13 different venues, 6 of which have been newly built and the remaining 7 were renovated specifically for use during these games.

The Olympic flame lands in PyeongChang during the flame lighting ceremony. (Source: Sputnik News)

As the biggest steelmaker in Korea, POSCO played a crucial part in building the International Broadcast Center (IBC), Media Residence Hotel and the Kwandong Hockey Center with its World Premium Products and innovative construction solutions.

SEE ALSO: POSCO Steel Shines at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics

International Broadcast Center

This year’s Winter Olympics will set a new record as the first Olympics to be broadcast live in all U.S. time zones, and all of this will be coordinated through the IBC. POSCO custom-made H-beams for the center’s pillars and columns using Pos-H, a type of steel produced by precisely cutting and welding POSCO’s hot-rolled steel plates and thick plates together.

The HSA5-based Pos-H is seismic wave resistant and can be customized to fit specific height and thickness requirements for different parts of a building. Plus, compared to existing hot-rolled steel which only comes in a standard size, manufacturers have the added benefit of reducing the amount of steel used, thus saving costs.

For the first time ever, all time zones in the U.S. can watch live coverage of the Olympics. (Source: Heerim)

POSCO also applied GI-Ace steel and fire-resistant cladding to the IBC’s columns to not only increase fire resistance but reduce construction time. POSCO’s dry fire-resistant cladding is different from traditional methods that require numerous layers of fire-resistant paint to be applied, requiring additional manpower and hours to complete. Dry-cladding can be wrapped around the surface of the columns in a one-time process.

Finally, the 5-story IBC is now capable of supporting a much larger load thanks to a new composite beam with concrete integrated into POSCO’s SM490 steel. Overall, POSCO supplied 8,218 tons of steel for the IBC.

Media Residence Hotel

The Media Residence Hotel is another important facility POSCO’s materials and construction solutions played a vital role in. POSCO wrapped the exterior walls of the 300-room, 4-story building with PosMAC, a magnesium alloy coating, that is 10 times more corrosion resistant than standard galvanized steel.

The interior walls are also lined with steel. Instead of wallpaper, the Media Residence Hotel is lined with a special type of printed steel that feels like fabric to the touch. POSCO also applied PosMAC to the modular bathroom floors instead of traditional tiles. PosMac is 5 times more corrosion-resistant than zinc plating, and has an aesthetically-pleasing finish. POSCO’s stainless steel, PossSD, made up other parts of the bathroom as it is also highly corrosion-resistant and workable. In addition, each entrance was made with POSCO’s high-strength and corrosion-resistant 329LD duplex stainless steel with surface treatment and color processing.

Media Residence Hotel was constructed off-site, then put together at the venue. (Source: The Korea Herald)

What’s noteworthy about this construction project is that 100 percent of the building was constructed off-site via modular construction. Compared to the time it would take to build a traditional concrete building of the same scope, the construction period for the Media Residence Hotel was 18 months shorter. Since each room is a relocatable building unit, it will be moved to a different venue and recycled as another hotel or dormitory. All in all, POSCO supplied 1,405 tons of steel for the entire construction project.

Kwandong Hockey Center

Kwandong Hockey Center will be home to some of the most exciting action of the winter games, and the facility was built on the “ice wave” concept to reflect the dynamics of ice hockey, waves of the nearby East Sea and the region’s strong winds.

Again, POSCO’s duplex stainless steel 329LD was used to cover the stadium’s exterior to protect against rapid corrosion that is prevalent in coastal areas. Aside from protection against corrosion, the stainless steel is extremely high in strength, allowing the builders to reduce the thickness of the steel plates by 25 percent compared to standard types of stainless steel.

POSCO’s duplex stainless steel keeps the Kwandong Hockey Center strong and corrosion-free. (Source: Curbed)

POSCO also aided the construction process by providing additional support such as internal wind pressure structural analysis, surface treatment and a panel processability evaluation to maximize the benefits of POSCO’s products.

With these new and upgraded facilities completed, PyeongChang is now equipped and ready to host the 23rd Winter Olympics. The only thing left to do now is to witness history as the best athletes from all over the world compete for gold. Best of luck to all the Olympic and Paralympic athletes!  

Cover photo courtesy of Snow Best.

It is also the most common material found in medical supplies that contribute to people’s health and safety on a daily basis.  

Surgical Steel

“Surgical steel” is a term used to describe stainless steels for medical applications, and are generally made up of 316, 440 and 420 stainless steels. Surgical stainless steels are corrosion resistant, have a shiny, aesthetically pleasing exterior and are extremely hygienic. Plus, they have a long life cycle and require minimal maintenance.

Surgical steel is also used for screws and joints that hold bones together. (Source: National Geographic)

Due to these properties, surgical steel is the material found in medical equipment such as syringes, scalpels and gauges. Moreover, screws used to hold broken bones together and other parts for application inside the body are made of surgical stainless steel.

For the same reasons, surgical steel is also used to make jewelry.

Know anyone who is allergic to certain types of jewelry? Often times people think they are allergic to gold or silver, but chances are, they are allergic to other alloying elements, the most common one being nickel. In the United States, up to 17 percent of women and 3 percent of men are allergic to nickel, and the number is rising. Surgical steel with zero nickel content is a safe and cost-friendly alternative, and demand for the hypoallergenic material is growing.

Surgical steel is commonly applied to piercing jewelry. (Source: Elixa)

Surgical steel was a part of the 45.8 million metric tons of stainless steel produced globally in 2016, almost double the 24.5 million metric tons produced in 2005. The growing demand and application of stainless steel are playing a positive role in the economy, but it has also been the cause of environmental pollution.

POSCO’s Surgical Steel

One of POSCO’s surgical stainless steels is the PossRB1. It is comparable to the 420J2 stainless steel that is often applied to kitchen blades, however, it has a much higher level of hardness, and thus can be applied to surgical scalpels and razor blades.

Surgical scalpels come in direct contact with the body and need to be especially clean and non-corrosive. (Source: NY Times)

Another example is POSCO’s 304i stainless steel used to make syringe needles. It is an upgraded version of 304 stainless steel with a 9 percent nickel content, traditionally applied to syringe needles. The production process of syringe needles is demanding and require multiple steps to process into the desired thinness and diameter. To add, the materials need to be especially clean, or else the needle can fracture or not reach the desired thinness. POSCO’s 304i stainless steel is manufactured using POSCO’s strip casting technology and can be processed into the thinnest diameter requirements for 32 gauge needles (dental needles).

Syringe needles require a demanding production process. (Source: Tangent Industries)

POSCO’s poStrip Technology for Stainless Steel Production

In order to reduce the harmful environmental effects of steelmaking on the environment, POSCO partnered with the Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST) in 1989, to come up with an innovative technology for stainless steel production called poStrip, or POSCO’s strip casting technology.   

The poStrip technology is an innovative way to make steel production more sustainable. (Source: POSCO E&C)

For more than 13 years, POSCO and RIST experimented with a twin-roll strip casting system where thin strips of steel can be produced in a single, continuous process. Hot molten steel passes through two cylindrical rollers that rotate and cool the hot steel sheets immediately, thus eliminating the need for hot rolling. In conventional casting processes, molten iron is poured into molding frames to produce steel slabs that are then rolled into sheets.

The new technology vastly reduced the cost of production, delivery time as well as the amount of harmful emissions created in the steelmaking process. In the end, POSCO’s poStrip technology was perfected and applied to various types and grades of POSCO’s stainless steels.

Not only is the innovative technology cost-effective and sustainable, it produces better quality steels.

In 2015, POSCO received the Steelie Award for Innovation of the year from the World Steel Association. POSCO was recognized for its high-quality stainless steel products that were produced with the innovative strip-casting production technology. POSCO will continue to research and improve the production and overall quality of stainless steels so that its partners can manufacture world-premium supplies, machines and architecture.