IQ-Steel® from Ovako has minimised the size of inclusions, which dramatically increases its fatigue strength in all directions, while BQ-Steel® is the more traditional choice for improved fatigue strength in demanding applications. Both groups of materials can help customers in many other industries to achieve lighter, stronger, more efficient and compact component designs.
IQ-Steel (Isotropic Quality) is a family of isotropic, ultra-clean steels with properties that match remelted steel. The pure and highly consistent quality of the steel is achieved without the complex remelting processes that add considerably towards energy consumption and material price. IQ-Steel can upgrade the performance of gears, camshafts or safety-critical components that are subjected to high, complex and cyclic loading.
The BQ-Steel family (Bearing Quality) is for high stresses in less complex load cases. Supplied for 100 years to high-quality bearing manufacturers, the steels have significantly smaller inclusions than conventional steels, which increases fatigue strength and creates new design possibilities in many high-stress applications. IQ-Steel represents the next level of performance.
IQ-Steel is designed so that inclusions remain below a critical size. The resulting isotropic properties give two or three times the fatigue performance of conventional steel grades. Its strong performance in all directions makes the steel family suitable for complex loading cases and opens possibilities for new designs.
