Nippon Yakin Kogyo’s entry won the Bronze Award in the Stainless Steel Industry Awards 2025 organized by worldstainless

The Environmental Improvement and Efficiency Enhancement in Slab Penetrant Testing Work, Nippon Yakin Kogyo’s entry to the Stainless Steel Industry Awards 2025 organized by worldstainless, won the Bronze Award in the Sustainability Category.

worldstainless consists of the world’s major stainless steel manufacturers and related organizations. It is an international nonprofit that aims to enable the stainless steel industry to grow through surveys and promotional activities.

The Industry Awards are held every year. Awards are presented in four categories, Market Development, Technology, Safety and Sustainability.

In the penetrant testing work for checking the surface quality of slab (a semi-finished product made by solidifying molten steel in a continuous casting machine after the chemical composition adjustment), the tasks of applying penetrant by wearing protective gear and attaching a chain (weight: approx. 20 kg) to the slab, which is a heavy object, to turn it over with a crane for checking the reverse side, have to be done by humans. This is a significant workload for onsite workers, which was a problem.

Nippon Yakin Kogyo has automated these two tasks. This has reduced the workload of onsite workers and alleviated the problem caused by disparities among workers in their experience. It has also reduced the use of penetrant and led to a reduction in the amount of waste liquid.

These measures to reduce the workload and environmental impact were highly evaluated from the viewpoint of sustainability.

■Click the following link to see the worldstainless webpage related to this article.

https://worldstainless.org/media/press-releases/stainless-steel-industry-awards-2025-the-winners/

Applications Award 2025(worldstainless.org)

For a detailed description of the project which received the award, see the Environmental Improvement and Efficiency Enhancement in Slab Penetrant Testing Work on pages 36 to 37.

Going forward, Nippon Yakin Kogyo will continue to seek ways to reduce workloads and environmental impact in its efforts to build a sustainable manufacturing environment.

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