SENSE 600® – more than a decade in the making

The innovative team behind a new Australian steel product with lower embodied carbon says they’ve spent the last decade developing a product that would benefit the industry.

InfraBuild’s SENSE 600® range of reinforcing steels uses up to 16.7% less raw material to produce a lighter product with the same load capacity when compared to our standard Grade 500N reinforcing bar.

“I actually think I was first asked about 600 MPa high strength steels probably just over 10 years ago and at that time my response to what I thought about it was I think it has to be sustainable, and it has to be easy to use,” Engineering Solutions Manager Anthony Ng said.

“We set out to try and improve or reduce the carbon footprint of construction in Australia. But we’ll only be successful in helping reduce that carbon footprint if that product is taken up by the construction industry.”

Anthony says at the time international manufacturers were developing 600 grades, maintaining the traditional bar diameters but resulting in higher load capacities which meant end users and designers could not directly substitute it into projects, making the task complex.

What began as a side project with colleague Graeme MacGregor gained momentum as the duo undertook research into the idea with the University of NSW and championed changes to Australian Standards to incorporate higher grade steels.

More than 200 people which included experts within and external to InfraBuild, were part of the journey.

SENSE 600® is made from 100 percent scrap through InfraBuild’s two electric arc furnaces in Australia.  

Combined with the fact that SENSE 600® also uses less raw materials; it delivers a lower embodied carbon solution of up to 39% when compared to our standard grade 500N reinforcing bar.

The reduction in raw materials and the fact it is a lighter bar can also deliver additional benefits.

Anthony says making it easy for designers and end users has been key.

“An engineer will usually have to do a simple design check, but when they do, they’ll find SENSE 600® can be a direct substitution for our conventional 500 MPa bars.”

Anthony says this ease of use has seen customer take up of a product which is now award-winning.

“It’s a proud achievement… you come up with new things all the time, but the difference is it’s something the market wants to run with.”