Steel built to protect
The fundamental shifts in the geopolitical landscape mark a turning point in security policy. The protection of people and property is becoming increasingly important, and specialty steel plays a crucial role in this regard. Protection steels with special protective properties are used in both civilian and military applications.
A prerequisite for adequate protection against ballistic threats is exceptionally high steel hardness. Generally speaking, the higher the hardness, the better the ballistic protection provided by the steel.
An excellent combination of toughness and hardness
High hardness is essential for protection steels, but hardness alone is not enough. Reliable protection requires a carefully balanced combination of hardness and toughness.
While hardness contributes to resistance against penetration and external forces, toughness ensures that the material can absorb energy and maintain its microstructural properties under extreme conditions. The interplay of these two properties determines the actual performance of our SECURE Protection Steels.
The centerpiece of our heat treatment line is the state-of-the-art multifunctional quenching line, which went into operation in 2021. Thanks to this line, the microstructural properties of our steels are precisely controlled through defined cooling strategies with water distribution specifically tailored to the plates. Blasting the plates prior to heat treatment, as well as heating them in an energy-efficient furnace under a nitrogen atmosphere, prevents re-scaling and ensures homogeneous properties and excellent surface quality.
Discover our SECURE grades
Each SECURE Protection Steel grade represents a different performance level and supports different protection concepts depending on the application requirements.
- SECURE 300® and 350® combine high resistance with outstanding formability, providing protection against explosions and pressure waves.
- SECURE 400® offers a balanced combination of protection performance and processing flexibility, making it suitable for applications where weldability and formability are important.
- SECURE 450® provides increased hardness while maintaining reliable fabrication properties for more demanding protection structures and vehicle components.
- SECURE 500® designed for high - performance protection concepts, enabling weight -optimized designs for military vehicles and advanced protection systems.
- SECURE 600® represents the highest hardness level within the SECURE portfolio, developed for applications where maximum protection and minimal material thickness are key design parameters.
This graded performance structure allows engineers and designers to select the right material based on threat scenarios, structural design and manufacturing strategy.
Your Contact Persons
In order to provide you with the best material solution and processing of SECURE steels, the experts of our Technical Customer Service are at your disposal. With great commitment, they offer you comprehensive assistance in construction and processing. Here you can get answers to joining and forming questions, product training and, of course, technical support in optimizing production processes.
Contact us. Our experts will be happy to advise you!
A sense of responsibility
ENSURING A SECURE FUTURE
SECURE Protection Steel is by no means Salzgitter AG’s only contribution to a resilient European security policy. As part of a group-wide initiative, we offer a broad range of products. As a leading European steel and technology group, we are therefore consolidating our security-related activities under Salzgitter AG Defence.