Customer case

Waste containers by Wong Fong in Hardox® HiAce prevent accelerated wear

September 22, 2021 6 min read

A sleek yellow steel waste container built in Hardox® HiAce steel.

Case details

Product Hardox® HiAce

Country Singapore

Company Wong Fong Engineering

Industry Trailers and body builders

Brand program Hardox^® In My Body

What to do in a hot and humid climate when ordinary steel doesn’t cut it? Wong Fong seized the opportunity when the new corrosion-resistant wear steel Hardox® HiAce was launched. Now they can rely on their waste containers to stand up to acidic and corrosive wear from wood chips and other acidic loads.

A dump truck tipping a bright yellow waste container body that is built in corrosion resistant steel.

Case details

Product Hardox® HiAce

Country Singapore

Company Wong Fong Engineering

Industry Trailers and body builders

Brand program Hardox^® In My Body

No time to waste when fighting corrosion in waste containers

Wong Fong Engineering supplies Singapore and other countries in the region with a wide range of transportation and load management solutions. Its open top containers (OTCs) and other equipment for waste, biomass, wood chips and other acidic and low pH loads are some of its specialties. The climate in this part of the world is particularly challenging, with high humidity and rain. By introducing Hardox^® HiAce as the steel of choice in its open top containers, wear resistance, service life and customer satisfaction took a great leap forward.

Tested and approved for waste container production

Wong Fong began with a trial batch of Hardox^® HiAce to test the steel’s performance in manufacturing. No design or processing changes were needed when switching to Hardox^® HiAce. Testing confirmed that cutting, machining, bending and welding worked the same as with Hardox^® 450, of which Wong Fong has extensive processing experience.

“We trust SSAB’s quality products and when we heard about the new Hardox^® HiAce, we decided to give it a try. We use SSAB’s technical services, which give us great support. We’re very happy with the new material proposed by SSAB. It reduces the downtime for repairs. We’re also looking forward to using the material in other products, such as waste compactors, “ says production manager Eric Wong.

Two yellow open-top containers filled with corrosive wood chips and bearing the Hardox® In My Body sign of quality.

Wood chips are a material that can cause corrosive wear, which Hardox^® HiAce successfully fights in waste containers like these.

A gray waste container body with tailgate and door made in Hardox® HiAce, a corrosion resistant steel.

The waste container body with tailgate and door is made of Hardox^® HiAce, and the subframe and side rail of Hardox^® 450.

Reduced steel gauge thickness saves about 10% of container weight

Before Hardox^® HiAce was introduced, Wong Fong used mainly Hardox^® 450 – which itself was a major performance upgrade from the previously used mild steel. With Hardox^® HiAce, Wong Fong was able to reduce steel thickness of the container and improve the container’s wear life even further.

The open top container body is now made with Hardox^® HiAce. This new wear steel for acidic environments allows Wong Fong to use a 4 mm (0.157”) wall thickness and 5 mm (0.197”) floor thickness, compared to 5 mm (0.197”) and 6 mm (0.263”) with Hardox^® 450. This 1 mm (0.039”) thickness reduction reduced the container’s weight by 300 kg (661 lbs.), from 3,900 kg (8,598 lbs.) to 3,600 kg (7,937 lbs.).

Where there's wear, there's Hardox^®

Hardox^® HiAce fights corrosive wear

Hardox^® HiAce meets the challenges of corrosive wear in municipal and industrial waste management, waste-to-energy plants, in mining and in other industries with acidic environments.

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When BRE got wind of the new wear steel for corrosive environments, the Australian company saw the potential and ordered the wear steel straight from the mill to start manufacturing its first trailers in Hardox^® HiAce.