September 30, 2021
5 min read
Finland
R-taso
Building structures and infrastructure
SSAB Toijala mill has a long history of delivering cold-formed open sections to R-taso. R-taso is one of Finland’s leading manufacturers of industrial platforms, and it is known for its high-quality products. Both SSAB and R-taso have the same ambitious goal of reducing CO2 gas emissions as much as possible. This is reflected in the latest improvements and investments. Both R-taso and SSAB believe that sustainability is the foundation of a successful business.
Compared to traditional walkway and maintenance platform structures, R-taso offers staircases with about 1,5 times lower CO2 gas emission. The CO2 savings are achieved through intelligent design, modular product structure and using the low-emission steel produced by SSAB. Modular product structure and use of special profiles enable R-taso products to require significantly less steel, which reduces their carbon footprint by a third compared to traditional structures. By optimizing and streamlining the design, R-taso wants to save raw materials, minimize emissions and build a sustainable business. A well-designed structure is also easy to modify and reuse later. The long service life of the structure further reduce CO2 emissions. The long life cycle of the product is beneficial in order to lower carbon footprint for all companies involved.
However, it’s not a question of the carbon footprint of an individual product, but of everyone doing their part. The big picture is what counts.
Transportation plays a major role in environmental issues. The modular, lightweight systems offered by R-taso require less transportation capacity than traditional welded walkways used in industrial solutions. Safety and functionality are key topics to R-taso, but at the same time, products with low carbon footprint are an investment in improving tomorrow’s environment. It is essential to minimizing CO2 gas emissions in order to control global warming. Thanks to the intelligent design of R-taso, the products have the same excellent properties as before, but without negative environmental impacts. By using products with low carbon emissions, companies are committed to environmentally friendly solutions. Global warming is a challenge that we all must take actions to stop. R-taso is taking a step towards sustainable future and wants to be at the forefront of mitigating climate change.
The functionality and safety of industrial walkways are the most important values that guide our production, but it does not have to prevent the rational use of materials and to consider ecological aspects.
At the beginning of 2020, R-taso mapped the carbon footprint of production, of which 93% is formed of using steel as raw material. Therefore, the choice of steel is an important part in order to lower CO2 gas emissions. R-taso uses SSAB’s steel, which has low CO2 gas emission compared to other steel producers.
The cold-formed profiles used by R-taso in its steel structures are manufactured at the Toijala mill using room temperature. SSAB’s blast furnaces are among the most CO2 efficient in the world in terms of minimizing emissions from steel production. The coil material produced by the SSAB Raahe steel mill is formed into its final shape in steps in a roll-forming line. The small steps in the roll-forming line make the final shape accurate. Tolerances are similar from batch to batch, making it easy for customers like R-taso to use cold-formed sections and minimize waste in the next steps of the process.
Our cooperation with SSAB Toijala has been fluent. Their delivery reliability and customer service are on excellent level. Our modular product structure and production line require accurate tolerances in used materials, and we are satisfied in Toijala´s product quality. They are also very flexible in development projects, and we have improved some profiles especially for our needs.