Ovako SP-Bar Steel Boosts Efficiency and Cuts Waste for French Manufacturer

Special steel supplier Ovako has developed its SP-Bar technology to enhance production efficiency and reduce costs for its clients. French industrial manufacturer BSA Groupe has successfully improved its operations by switching to Ovako's SP-Bar as a raw material.

BSA Groupe processes specialty steels and other alloys for manufacturers in sectors including automotive, pharmaceutical, construction, aerospace, nuclear, and defense. Its workshop in Vougy, southeastern France, performs cold-forming processes such as peeling, grinding, cutting, and chamfering on specialty steel bars, enabling its customers to focus on their own high-value production steps.

Victor Asensio, CEO and owner of BSA Groupe, stated that the company began using SP-Bar in 2019 due to its unusually tight dimensional tolerances and near-perfect roundness. He noted that the minimal variation in bar diameter has allowed them to reduce waste and improve production yield.

SP-Bar's key benefits lie in three areas: dimensional tolerances, mechanical performance, and surface finish. Gregory Navarre, Ovako's General Sales Manager for France, explained that precise control at the rolling mill results in steel with defined and stable properties, leading to less waste, reduced downtime, and fewer production interruptions. This consistency also enhances mechanical performance throughout a product's lifetime.

Developed at Ovako's Boxholm mill, the SP-Bar technique involves finishing rolling at precisely controlled temperatures in the austenitic phase. This ensures dimensional stability, promotes finer grain sizes, reduces residual stress compared to cold rolling, and minimizes scale. The process is applicable to both low and high-alloyed steels, improving properties like impact strength and hardenability.