Do they mean an entire bus made from stainless steel?

So a European tour to learn the ins and outs of the uses of stainless steel in public transport. Maybe it’ll be a step up from sending the new lad to panel beating night school 101 at Nelson and Colne College. I’m sure Jasper will tell you it certainly beats the hell out of beating the hell out of the side of some bus that’s been driven into some rubbish bin on Burnley Road.

Stainless steels have innovative solutions to offer for public transport. Their mechanical properties help designers to reduce weight, enhance impact resistance and improve fire safety. Stainless steels combine intrinsic corrosion resistance with excellent reparability. And they can be surprisingly cost-effective.

Innovative solutions in bus building and in the design and manufacture of metro or other rail vehicles have been investigated in recent research projects. Their results will be presented to a larger circle of industry experts in a series of seminars, which will take place in autumn 2008 in various places in Europe:

25 September 2008, Berlin, Germany
in cooperation with Informationsstelle Edelstahl Rostfrei
Contact: caroline.bresink@arcelormittal.com

30 September 2008, Lille, France
in cooperation with Institut de Développement de l’Inox (I.D. Inox)
Contact: contact@idinox.com

2 October 2008, Rome, Italy
in cooperation with Centro Inox
Contact: g.gelati@c-s-m.it, phone +39 06 5055 20, or l.rizzo@c-s-m.it, phone +39 06 5055 292

7 October 2008, Warsaw, Poland
in cooperation with Polska Unia Dystrybutorów Stali (PUDS)
Contact: pawel.kiepel@outokumpu.com, mob. +48 600068 331 and adam.zymelka@outokumpu.com, mob. +48 602 347997

10 October 2008, Labein (Bilbao), Spain
in cooperation with CEDINOX
Contact: rsanchez@acxgroup.com

16 October 2008, Gustavelund, Tuusala (near Helsinki), Finland
Contact: hilkka.eronen@outokumpu.com

INSAPTRANS is a valorisation project, which is supported by the European Union from the Research Fund for Coal and steel (RFCS). It involves the following companies and organisations: Acerinox (Spain), ArcelorMittal Stainless Belgium (Belgium), Centro Sviluppo Materiali (Italy), Euro Inox (Belgium), OCAS (Belgium), Outokumpu (Finland) and VTT in cooperation with Helsinki University of Technology (Finland).

Persons who would like to be on the mailing list for the full programme are invited to select a convenient seminar and contact the respective INSAPTRANS partner.

And please don’t ask me any questions as what I’ve quoted above is all I received in the email - you’ll have to get in touch with the person running the seminar you happen to be interested in.

A curious instinct tells me I should make Steph get out more. Whether I give her a key or up her housekeeping are a couple of options I’m pondering.

The problem with her doing bits and bobs for me is that she’s very easily distracted. I should know seeming I’m forever having my tract dissed. Once in a while she’ll concoct a scheme or get diverted by an online interest that is, well, remotely interesting.

Of late, she’s been getting into all things Tesla - the first time she mentioned a Tesla Coil I replied that they wouldn’t come cheap at the Family Planning Clinic. Then again, cracking woofers like that and I should be slightly worried about her tapping me up to be the hamster in this particular Tesla cage:

If you like electrical and scientific wonderments - and if you don’t then you’re a bit odd - the Tesla site I found that on has loads of other amazing Tesla-related stuff you can replicate (or not) in your back garden.

I may show you some of the more exciting stuff at a later date, but something I did come across was these Bernoulli Balls:

And this stainless steel Bernoulli Ball:

Now the weird thing is, round about the same time I was being Tesla’d 24/7 by Steph and checking various Tesla sites out, we received an inquiry at Butler Sheetmetal about a stainless steel ball sculpture that bored little oiks kept knocking off its perch:

Stainless Steel Ball Sculpture

And they wanted to know if the boys could do something to ensure the thing remained upright for long enough for people to enjoy it. It’s not too much to ask, is it?

Obviously, with Bernoulli Balls in mind, I suggested an oversized leaf blower and some elongated industrial straws for balance. Personally I thought it was a bit of inspired genius.

They just told me to stick to the blogging. Fair enough fellas.

Hopefully I’ll have something to show you once it’s done to show you how they did it.

I really don’t anticipate any Benny Hill-esque chase routines as they try to fix it and it goes hurtling off down some field.

Not that any of them would catch it, mind.

It looks like one of my favourite steel buildings in the history of building stuff out of steel has had a bit of a makeover. The Atomium in Brussels has had a bit of a spit and a polish.

Atomium post-renovation

But it ain’t the only one. According to a recent Euro Inox email, the following have been done-up as well.

Content:
- In renovating the Brussels Atomium, the spheres were made from electropolished stainless steel grade EN 1.4404/AISI316L to ensure long-term low maintenance.
- A pedestrian bridge at Cala Galdana, Menorca, was fully designed in Duplex stainless steel to withstand the high corrosive stress in a coastal location.
- Vauxhall Cross Bus Interchange was clad in pattern-rolled stainless steel to ensure high mechanical resistance.
- Wales Millennium Centre involved electrolytically coloured stainless steel to highlight the dramatic architecture of the building.
- The Milan Trade Fair is a convincing example of the sober elegance of polished stainless steel.

Format:
- PDF Files, colour

Click below to view or download:

Renovation of the Atomium in Brussels (8 pages, 760 KB)
- Dutch: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_132_NL.html
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_132_EN.html
- French: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_132_FR.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_132_DE.html

Bridge in Cala Galdana on Menorca (4 pages, 560 KB)
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_131_EN.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_131_DE.html
- Spanish: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_131_SP.html

Milan Trade Fair (4 pages, 460 KB)
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_130_EN.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_130_DE.html
- Italian: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_130_IT.html

Vauxhall Cross Bus Station in London (6 pages, 665 KB)
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_129_EN.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_129_DE.html

Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff (4 pages, 530 KB)
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_128_EN.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_128_DE.html

Vauxhall Cross Bus Interchange, eh? Expect breaking news of us powder coating a new dog dipper bin on Hallam road anytime soon.

Bloody expensive, that’s what.

But besides me stating the obvious, this pdf is well worth downloading if you’re asking or have been asked about what stainless steel is.

And if you are fully conversant in all its ferritic properties and whatnot, it’s worth it to take a look at the pictures of gummi bears on different types of stainless steel sheets.

The official communication:

To give a concise overview of the most common stainless steel options, a compact 6-page folder has been produced, entitled:

What Is Stainless Steel?

Target audiences:
- Designers
- Fabricators
- Stockholder

Content:
– What is stainless steel?
—- Main families
—- Main properties
—- Commonly available finishes and process routes
- How are austenitic grades interrelated?
- What are the ferritic options?
- And how about Duplex?

Download or get a printed copy here and enjoy.

It’s always good to get an email from Euro Inox about one of their new pdfs about stainless steel and its respective design or fabrication. This time they’ve managed to place 120 of them onto a single pdf that you can scout through and download to your heart’s content.

The email itself reads:

About 120 different publications are available now on the Euro Inox website, some of them in up to 11 languages. To provide a systematic overview, a “List of Online Publications on Stainless Steel” has been produced. It groups the information by areas of interest:

- Stainless Steel, its Fabrication and Use
- Architecture, Building and Construction
- Automotive Applications
- Stainless Steel in the Home
- Environment and Human Health

So, have a gander, see if there’s anything you might find of interest and then download the corresponding pdf.

Download here.