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.

For the International Broadcasting Center (IBC) completed last April, builders used POSCO’s Pos-H steel. Building parts were made by precisely cutting and welding the hot-rolled steel plates and thick plates. Pos-H is custom-made for structures and does not produce any waste unlike existing hot-rolled shape steel with fixed dimensions. In addition, POSCO’s dry fire-resistant cladding technique was applied to all the pillars of the IBC. The dry fire-resistant cladding technique eliminates the process of applying fire-resistant paint to pillars for fire prevention, and instead, fire-resistant materials are wrapped around the pillars.

The Media Residence that will house reporters during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics resembles a steel showroom due to its impressive design. PosMAC, which is over 5 times more corrosion-resistant than general galvanized steel sheets as it is coated with zinc, magnesium and aluminum, was specially printed to bring to life the fiber texture. PosMAC was used for the exterior of the bathrooms and walls for durability as well as artistic value. The surface steel plates plated with aluminum and zinc, called ALZASTA was treated to achieve a glittering spangle pattern texture and applied to the residence fire doors, valve enclosures and hallways. PossSD, stainless steel with a level of reflectivity equal to that of a mirror, was used inside the bathrooms.

The Media Residence was completed on December 15, after 8 months of construction. All of the 300 rooms were prefabricated in a factory and assembled at the site. This is known as modular construction. It reduced the construction period by 18 months compared to building with general concrete. More than anything else, modular construction makes it possible to move the structure to another location and reuse it. In this respect, modular construction is regarded as the best choice for the facilities that will be removed after the Winter Olympics. The Media Residence will be reused as a hotel or dormitory.

Finally, the Kwandong Hockey Center’s exterior walls are made of 329LD POSCO stainless steel, which is highly corrosion-resistant and robust. POSCO provided the structural analysis by calculating the optimal thickness for the walls and reduced the thickness by 25 percent.  

After the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics, POSCO will continue to provide construction solutions through is WPP and technologies for its partners.  

Cover photo courtesy of Heerim.

One of our most exciting new products is PossSD – which stands for Super Ductile Duplex, a kind of duplex stainless steel. Duplex steel combines two types of stainless steel – austenitic and ferritic – to maximize the strengths and minimize the weakness of each.

The idea has been around since the 1920s, but only recently has technology and knowhow reached the point to make this a practical commercial product. And now, POSCO’s PossSD is one of the most exciting types of duplex steel to hit the market.

Combining Two Steels to Create an Innovative Alternative

Austenitic and ferritic steels are both considered fairly easy to make and fabricate, but both also possess certain drawbacks. Austenitic steels make up about 70 percent of all stainless steel production. These are low-strength steels that have low resistance to stress corrosion cracking, plus their high nickel content can make them more expensive.

Ferritic steel, on the other hand, have stronger engineering properties, but less resistance to corrosion. They use less nickel than austenitic steel, so tend to be cheaper.

By combining those two types of steel together, however, duplex steel is tougher and more ductile than ferritic grades, and are about twice as strong as both types of steel. It is also cheaper, while possessing stronger corrosion resistance.

Taking Duplex Steel to a Higher Level

PossSD takes those advantages to the next level. It is a high-alloy steel that features high corrosion resistance in severe marine, chloride and acid environments. It also has very limited nickel content, so is cost competitive. And the strip-casting process lets POSCO make PossSD with a higher nitrogen content.

Higher chromium and nitrogen make PossSD strongly anti-corrosive, and its strength gives PossSD anti-dent properties. But at the same time, enhanced ductility and elongation make PossSD highly formable. It also has excellent anti-fatigue properties.

Because PossSD is ferritic and austenitic, it is also magnetic, and therefore is induction heatable and good for cookware.

The strength of PossSD allows products that use it to be thinner and safer. And its high corrosion and wear resistance mean it is very useful for hoppers and tanks. It is an excellent floor material for refrigerated containers, with higher wear resistance and lighter weight.

High-strength enhances its safety factors, making it a good choice for safety items like fire doors and emergency ladders.

PossSD is also a hygienic steel, so it is also appropriate for water distribution and piping. And its strength means water ring thickness can be reduced 20 percent.

Finally, PossSD is versatile, and with proper treatment it can be employed for a wide array of other uses, like curtain walls, the exterior parts of electric battery chargers and artworks.

Stronger, Lighter, Cheaper

The many advantages of PossSD led to this POSCO World Premium product winning a World Steel Association Steelie Award in 2015 for being the Innovation of the Year.

In short, POSCO’s PossSD is an excellent example of what POSCO’s World Premium steel can be. Stronger, lighter, cheaper than regular steel options, PossSD is a major step forward for stainless steel.

To learn more about PossSD, be sure to check out this video.

PossSD, POSCO’s ‘Super’ Stainless Steel, to be Used in Development of Residential Escape Ladders

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PosCoZy Floor Plates Creates Quieter Apartments

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The escape ladder refers to a structure installed in the balcony or on the floor slab of apartments that allow a person to evacuate a building in the event of a fire or emergency situation. It works by opening up a buried hatch, unfolding a containment ladder, and climbing down the ladder to the ground below.

The current Building Act requires apartment buildings to install any one of the following: a shelter space, lightweight party wall between housing units, evacuation exit on a party wall, or a top-down evacuation exit (escape ladder).

Escape ladder made of the high-strength, high-corrosion resistant stainless steel PossSD.

Having already been implemented in buildings in Busan and Gyeongnam Province, some local governments in Chungnam Province are now also seeking to install the escape ladders. This has led to a new demand for stainless steel, which amounts to around 3,000 tons as of last year, and such demand is expected to make an annual growth of more than 20%.

Responding to the demand in the market, POSCO has gone through trial productions for its unique stainless steel material, PossSD, which the company had developed to replace the 304 steel. In collaboration with domestic producers of the escape ladder since early this year, POSCO also plans to start mass-producing and supplying the product in September after undergoing a fire safety certification test.

Having the similar level of corrosion-resistance and ductility as 304 steel, PossSD won the Innovation of the Year Award last October from the World Steel Association. The use of PossSD has improved the stability and durability of the newly developed escape ladder. The company plans to further promote the material, targeting local governments, domestic construction companies and manufacturers of escape ladder to expand its sales.

How POSCO is Making the World Earthquake-Resistant

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