Recently, a number of domestic steel companies and construction research institutions have jointly launched a new type of weather-resistant steel for large-scale application in modular housing projects, marking a key step in the innovative application of steel products in the field of green buildings. This steel, which combines low-alloy components and surface passivation technology, not only has the high-strength characteristics of traditional steel, but also has a corrosion resistance that is more than 3 times higher than that of ordinary carbon steel. It can reduce at least 2 times of rust removal and painting maintenance in its entire life cycle, greatly reducing the cost of later maintenance of the building.

In a modular housing industrial base in Suzhou, Jiangsu, the first batch of prefabricated components using this new type of weather-resistant steel have been assembled. According to the on-site engineer, the cold bending forming technology used at the joints of the components has increased the steel utilization rate to 95%, reducing material loss by 15% compared with traditional welding processes. What is more noteworthy is that this steel reduces energy consumption per ton of steel by 8% and carbon emissions by 12% through the waste heat recovery system during the production process, which fully meets the national green building evaluation standards.

According to the project partners, the new steel has passed the scientific and technological achievement evaluation of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and has been applied to modular construction projects such as affordable housing, cultural tourism homestays, etc. in 12 provinces and cities in China, with a cumulative supply of more than 8,000 tons. Among them, the mountain homestay project in Dali, Yunnan, successfully resisted the rust test in a high humidity environment by using this steel, and the life of the main structure of the building is expected to reach more than 70 years.

Industry experts analyzed that with the continuous advancement of prefabricated building policies, steel products are transforming from single structural materials to "functional composite and low-carbon". The application breakthrough of the new weather-resistant steel not only expands the application scenarios of profiles such as angle steel and channel steel in modular buildings, but also promotes the steel companies and the construction industry to form a closed-loop innovation model of "R&D-production-application". In the next step, relevant companies plan to extend this technology to bridges, municipal pipe networks and other fields to further tap the innovative potential of steel in infrastructure construction.