WHICH steel is best-suited for a particular application?
With the different varieties of steel available to truck-equipment consumers these days, it's one of the most confusing and vexing issues.
Crysteel Manufacturing Inc's group of presenters - Joe Paulsen, Bob Miller, Pete Jones, and Vonda Herding - will try to cut through the confusion in "Selecting the Best Steel for Your Truck Equipment Application," scheduled for Thursday, March 1, from 9:15 to 10:30 am.
They'll explore the various types and grades of steel and how they are best used to maximize the performance of a piece of equipment. They'll also explain the difference between Brinell hardness, tensile strength, and yield strength, as well as the differences between high-strength, low-alloy, abrasion-resistant, and exotic steels, and they'll look at the wear characteristics of the different types as well as their ability to resist the damaging impact of other materials.
"In the past, when a customer wanted a stronger, more durable piece of equipment, he or she simply requested thicker steel, from which the equipment was built," Paulsen says. "While this solution gave the consumer a stronger and more durable piece of equipment, it could significantly restrict the amount of payload he or she could haul due to the increased weight.
"Today's consumer is much more weight conscious and aware of every factor that can influence his or her efficiency and income. Therefore, with the advent of high-strength and exotic steels, the consumer is able to increase the strength of equipment without increasing its thickness, and likewise, its weight, ultimately improving profitability.
"Our presentation will explain steel in layman's terms, using various visual aids showing the differences between each grade of steel. We'll take some of the mystery out of deciding which steel is correct for your various equipment applications."
For the past four years, Crysteel's team has made dozens of steel presentations at sales meetings and open houses.
Steel is their game. It's even their name. Eldon Jones, who founded the company in 1969, coined the name Crysteel (pronounced kris-TEEL) Manufacturing. The word is a combination of crystal (after the home base in Lake Crystal, Minnesota) and steel.
Crysteel has become one of the world's leading hoist, platform, and dump body producers, with over 400 distributors worldwide including all 50 states. In 1995, it introduced the ParadoxBox, a revolutionary body made from lightweight, high-strength steel and designed to compete with the aluminum dump body.