High strength steel in furniture
Fact sheet about environmental benefits of high strength steel in furniture.
In English.
2015. 2 s.
High strength steel has many different applications. To use high strength steel in furniture makes it possible to reduce the weight of the furniture and frequently, moreover, to adapt the design to use of the stronger steel. This leads to reduced environmental impact since less material needs to be produced and transported.
In a case study, an estimate was made of the environmental benefit of upgrading the steel in the chair frame of an IKEA chair model to high strength steel. Steel’s environmental impact has been quantified
with the aid of life cycle assessments.
Through upgrading 1.2 million frames of a certain chair model to high strength steel, greenhouse gas emissions during the life cycle of the chairs can be reduced by about 720 tonnes CO2e.
The weight of each chair frame declines by 11 %. For 1.2 million chair frames the total weight reduction is 216 tonnes. The weight reduction makes it possible to change the design of the frame so that more chair parts can be packed in each container load when the frames are transported. This makes it possible to reduce the number of containers required to transport the chairs, from 500 a year to just 200 a year.
The fact sheet is a summery from a case study within the environmental research program The Steel Eco-Cycle.
Learn more about the program.
