Sustainability Enhanced through Development of Railway Sleepers Combining Steel Slag and Waste Plastics
POSCO Moves to Build a Robust Industrial Ecosystem Together with Its In-House Venture Companies
EOMTech, a POSCO in-house venture company, has successfully developed a new type of railway sleeper by combining steelmaking slag and waste plastics. This achievement was realized through POSCO’s Performance-Sharing System, one of its shared-growth programs, and is being praised for accomplishing both environmental improvement and cost reduction simultaneously.
A railway sleeper is a beam that supports the rails on which trains operate.
Launched in 2019 as part of POSCO’s first in-house venture cohort, EOMTech developed a composite material called “Slastic,” which uses slag and waste plastics as its main materials. The company succeeded in replacing part of the expensive glass fiber materials traditionally used in sleepers with Slastic, thereby maximizing cost efficiency. At the same time, the sleepers are 100% recyclable, further enhancing their environmental value.
During the early stages of Slastic development, EOMTech faced difficulties, including repeated test failures caused by the extreme high-temperature and heavy-load conditions of steel plant environments. However, through technical collaboration with POSCO, the company redesigned the sleepers and continued its R&D efforts, ultimately succeeding in developing the Slastic composite material. The technology has since been applied at railway sites within POSCO’s Pohang Steelworks.
The success of this project is also being recognized as a case that simultaneously achieves the virtuous circulation of waste resources and improved durability of railway infrastructure.
Young-jun Park, CEO of EOMTech, stated, “Through the development of Slastic sleepers using steelmaking byproduct slag and waste plastics, we are helping to create a sustainable future,” adding, “Building on this technological capability, we will move forward with the development of a wider range of products.”
