Corus UK Limited
By: Mr Stephen E Webster (Corus Research, Development and Technology)
and Mr Christopher Lindley (Corus Research, Development and Technology)
Brief history
Corus has been formed from the merger of British Steel and Koninklijke Hoogovens to create a global metals company with manufacturing plants across Europe and in North America. The turnover in 1999 was £9.6 billion with 66,000 employees. Corus supplies carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminium and has a very strong market focus in the automotive, transport, construction, engineering and packaging sectors. The development strategy is focused upon supplying innovative customer specific metals applications solutions derived from the technological skills of the company.
The company currently has over 1000 people employed at four research centres (three in the UK and one in The Netherlands) encompassing the full range of scientific disciplines with an extremely strong emphasis upon the properties and use of both steel and aluminium. Swinden Technology Centre is a 17 acre site that has been developed as a research centre since 1951. It currently has about 400 staff and has an international reputation for all aspects concerned with the understanding of steel behaviour and use. A particular strength is the knowledge of structural integrity, both its application and science in which it has been a leading exponent for many years.
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Fig.1. Part of the Swinden Technology site at Rotherham © 2001, Corus |
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Fig.2. The larger of the two laboratories dedicated to fracture and fatigue testing © 2001, Corus |
Corus' contributions for the EuroStir® project
The company's main contribution in terms of the practical derivation of data will be into Task 5 - Properties. The emphasis will be concerned with the fatigue and fracture behaviour of friction stir welded joints. However because of its
interests Corus wants also to be actively involved in Task 2 - Materials and Task 3 - Processing.
Summary of testing equipment available at Corus
In addition to the extensive range of equipment associated with a state-of-the-art laboratory concerned with steel and aluminium development, the laboratories have large scale test facilities and welding equipment ranging from the conventional processes to a 25 kW laser. The fatigue and fracture equipment available for the project is suitable for testing products ranging from thin aluminium sheet to thick steel plate and includes:-
- Servo Hydraulic Test Equipment - 25 frames with capacities from 25 to 2500 kN
- Hydraulic High Rate machine - 1000 kN, 3-12 m/min ram speed
- 40000 kN Wide Plate Test Machine
- Fracture - all types of fracture mechanics tests
- Fatigue - high strain to long life data
- Strong floor for large scale tests
- Tests in air, gas and liquids
- Strain gauging and data logging
- Residual stress measurement (X-ray and strain gauge)
Associated with the test equipment are expertise and facilities in modelling, structural analysis and fitness for purpose evaluations.
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