24 nations, a round leather ball and pure emotion: the first match of the European Men’s Football Championship kicked off last Friday. Sport-loving Europe and the world are looking to Germany via TV and stream. Reason enough for us to take a look at the soccer highlight of the year. Because some of our products are definitely relevant for the game, for getting there and back home, for sitting comfortably in the stands, for the stadiums and so on.
The tens of thousands of national and international fans often choose the train to travel to and from one of the ten stadiums throughout Germany, which is environmentally conscious and logistically logical in terms of transportation. Within the city, the streetcar is used from Berlin to Munich. The voestalpine Railway Systems Group supplied, for example, the BVG in Berlin and the operating companies in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Leipzig, Frankfurt and Munich with high-performance streetcar turnouts. Over the past three years, the Berlin and Leipzig transport companies have each received 112,400 m (BVG) and 76,700 m (LVB) of rails for local transport in the city under framework agreements. Turnout diagnostic systems from the voestalpine Railway Systems Group are in use in Munich, for example, as well as a large number of streetcar turnout drives in most major German cities.
Fans arriving or departing on Deutsche Bahn (DB) and an ICE 3 will do so on a high-speed train in which bogie tubes from voestalpine Tubulars are installed. In addition, the prestressing wires and bearings from voestalpine Wire Technology in track and turnout sleepers in the Deutsche Bahn network ensure a safe journey to UEFA Euro 2024 and a safe return home.
voestalpine Wire Technology’s high-quality products ensure safety not only in rail transportation. Renowned automobile manufacturers rely completely on the quality of our products – e.g. for the torsion bars in seat belts, ignition mechanisms for airbags, chassis components, brake systems or for elements of the Isofix child seat fastening system. Products from voestalpine Wire Technology are also installed in buses, such as tie rods, components for seat fastening systems or ball and roller bearings. We also secure road traffic routes with products from the Metal Forming Division, which are used in the manufacture of guard rails, impact absorbers and terminals.
Our products are also used directly in stadiums. For static stadium constructions, connecting elements such as anchor bolts from the Metal Engineering Division are used. Or as in Linz: façade elements made of greentec steel from the Steel Division – even if Linz is now less relevant for this year’s European Championships, the athletes will be chasing the leather in Austria, as they did in 2008, and then probably also in the new Raiffeisen Arena.
voestalpine Böhler Profil supplies lock part profiles that are used in circular knitting machines. These machines are used, for example, to produce jerseys and (sports) functional clothing. In this way, we support the players in their top performance on the training and playing field.
The players of the national teams travel by plane, if not by train or road. Countless parts from voestalpine Böhler Aerospace are installed in the airlines’ planes. Our products are used in the fuselage, engine and landing gear. From the seat track to the suspension that connects the wing to the engine. So practically every airplane flies with a piece of voestalpine.
There are also other possible areas of application for our products: Seat shells in the stands, for example, can be produced using injection molding tools that require plastic mold steels from voestalpine Böhler Edelstahl or cold work steels for forming wire or molded tube seats. This would also be similar for soccer boots, which are produced using injection molding tools, for example. The high-performance materials from voestalpine Böhler Bleche can be used to manufacture tools for beverage cup production or knives for the packaging industry, e.g. for snacks. Not forgetting the high-quality cutter and slicer knives that are used in the production of countless bratwursts, hamburgers etc. and thus delight hungry fans in stadiums and on fan miles.
Die voestalpine ist ein weltweit führender Stahl- und Technologiekonzern mit kombinierter Werkstoff- und Verarbeitungskompetenz. Die global tätige Unternehmensgruppe verfügt über rund 500 Konzerngesellschaften und -standorte in mehr als 50 Ländern auf allen fünf Kontinenten. Sie notiert seit 1995 an der Wiener Börse. Mit ihren Premium-Produkt- und Systemlösungen zählt sie zu den führenden Partnern der Automobil- und Hausgeräteindustrie sowie der Luftfahrt- und Öl- & Gasindustrie und ist darüber hinaus Weltmarktführer bei Bahninfrastruktursystemen, bei Werkzeugstahl und Spezialprofilen. Die voestalpine bekennt sich zu den globalen Klimazielen und verfolgt mit greentec steel einen klaren Plan zur Dekarbonisierung der Stahlproduktion.
