Wear-resistant steels for the circular economy – impulses for IFAT 2026

This year’s IFAT in Munich – the world’s leading trade fair for environmental technologies – once again focused on the further development of the circular economy. A current technical article in Recycling aktiv sheds light on the growing challenges facing the recycling industry and the central role of the right choice of materials for efficient and durable system components.

The requirements in the recycling industry are constantly increasing: higher throughput volumes, strongly fluctuating material flows and increasing cost pressure are presenting operators of processing and recycling plants with ever more complex tasks. In this environment in particular, it is not only the plant technology that determines economic efficiency, but increasingly also the material used: wear-resistant steel for the recycling industry.

Wear under extreme conditions

In applications such as shredding, crushing, screening or conveying, the components are permanently exposed to extreme loads. Abrasive materials such as building rubble, scrap metal or crushed asphalt lead to intensive wear, while at the same time impact loads, temperature peaks and changing load conditions affect the systems.

The consequences are increased maintenance costs, unplanned downtimes and rising operating costs – factors that directly affect the profitability of the entire system.

Material solutions for greater efficiency

This is precisely where UnionStahl’s wear-resistant steels come in. With materials such as Creusabro, UnionStahl offers solutions that have been specially developed for these extreme operating conditions. Its special work hardening property increases the surface hardness under load, while the core remains tough and resistant. This ensures a significantly longer service life and high resistance to cracking and breakage.

Especially in applications with combined abrasion and impact stress – such as in crushing and mixing processes – this results in clear advantages over classic wear-resistant steels.

Proven solutions for the circular economy

A practical example shows the use in crusher linings in construction waste recycling: Here, high impact energies and changing material sizes lead to extreme loads. The use of Creusabro enables a significant increase in service life and simultaneously reduces maintenance intervals and downtimes.

Even at elevated temperatures, for example when processing demolition asphalt, the material impresses with stable properties up to well over 450 °C – without any significant loss of hardness.

Contribution to the sustainable use of resources

Longer service lives not only mean economic benefits, but also make an important contribution to sustainability. Fewer wearing parts, reduced maintenance cycles and higher system availability lead to lower material usage and support the goals of a resource-conserving circular economy.