Sparta Engineering’s design work focuses around creating mobile equipment that is specifically designed around the strict weight limits that comply with North America’s road regulations.

That means we are constantly looking for ways to design innovative pieces of new equipment, that are not only more sophisticated than their predecessors but also stronger, lighter and cheaper at the same time.

Since steel structures usually increase in price as their weight is reduced, the above philosophy is no easy task. However, through the use of high tensile plate steel such as QT-100 we are able to deliver state-of-the-art products to our customers at respectable prices.

What is high tensile steel?

High tensile steels are a group of steels that by their properties can be alloyed with other materials. This type of steel requires more strength to pull apart than some other steel, and they have superior toughness when subjected to quenching and tempering.

One of our favourite high tensile steels here at Sparta Engineering is QT-100. QT-100, which stands for quenched and tempered, is a high-strength quenched and tempered steel that has good formability, weld ability and yield of at least 100,000psi.

The steel gains its characteristics from the process of quenching and tempering. This is a process steel suppliers will use to control grain structure of steel by heating the steel up to a specific temperature and controlling the rate of cooling in order to improve certain qualities.

This results in the steel possessing improved strength and flexibility, while at the same time maintaining its weld-ability. QT-100 is perfect for engineers who are looking to design high-performance equipment.

As a result, Sparta Engineering extensively uses QT-100 material in order to increase the strength to weight ratio of our equipment.

High tensile steel comes with a range of benefits for our engineering designs, we have listed just a few of those here:

1 – Cost savings

The biggest advantage of high tensile steel is the cost savings that it gives back to our customers. By using high tensile steel we save money on a plethora of factors, including:

  1. The number of parts we use
  2. Reduced weight
  3. Reduced fabrication time
  4. Fewer welded connections
  5. Lower weld time
  6. Lower material usage
  7. Fewer labour costs

2 – Design freedom

By designing with QT-100 high tensile steel, engineers are able to be creative and design equipment parts that perform a variety of functions. This simply isn’t possible with structural steel as it has far too many limitations, and the fact it has to be cut with a saw greatly reduces its precision.

3 – Material flexibility

When designing with structural steel the addition of material must also include the addition of parts, making it a complex and costly process. However, high tensile plate steel makes adding or taking away new material an incredibly simple process. With just a few clicks of a button a high stress corner can become a smooth fillet.

Interested in learning more about the benefits of using high tensile steel in mobile equipment, or simple want to learn more about some of the pieces of equipment we have engineered? Contact us today.