Steel in the City: How ‘attractive’ can steel be?
For 2 weeks, the citizens of Gent, Belgium, have been discovering the innovative power of Research and Development in steel. The city invited ArcelorMittal’s Global R&D Gent (OCAS) to organise a feel-hear-watch exhibition, designed to stimulate youngsters to study science and technology. Find out how the event was organised and what visitors had to say.
“With this initiative, we wanted to show how steel research can bring affordable comfort to daily life,” explains OCAS colleague Katrien Meseure. “We didn’t want to take a ‘museum like’ approach using a traditional exhibition. Instead, we chose to illustrate the innovative use of steel with a collection of watch-feel-hear showcases.
For example, walking on plywood and light weight steel skin sandwich panels to compare the deflection or stiffness is fun, and illustrates the remarkable properties of steel in an interactive way. By introducing an embossed side panel, discover how a washing machine is made quieter. Measuring weight reduction of a gas cylinder by means of an old fashioned balance demonstrates the advantages of advanced high strength steel. These and other display examples opened up fascinating discussions with visitors of all ages.”
Was the OCAS team successful in showing the properties of steel in an interactive way? According to messages in the guest book, yes: “Steel, simply the best”, “Great that this is accessible for children too, they are the future”, “I didn’t know that steel could be so fascinating”, “Didn’t know I could learn so much about steel in so little time”.
Want to know more? Check out the article on our intranet (employees only) or visit www.sterkstaaltje.be (in Dutch)
Collaboration: Sven Vandeputte, General Manager of OCAS, Katrien De Vleesschauwer, OCAS Customer Communication and Support, Sylvie Gindre, Global R&D Communications
November 24th, 2009 by Raquel Córdoba