Celebrating 5 ton weight saving of the Vasa ship

June 2016 marks the halfway of a long-term research and development partnership between Sandvik and the Vasa museum. The collaboration project aims at replacing more than 5,000 bolts at the historic royal warship Vasa by the end of 2017 to save it from corrosive damage.

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The successful exchange of bolts on Vasa was celebrated on June 1 with a ceremony at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Roughly half of the bolts are exchanged so far and the specially designed bolts made in advanced material from Sandvik have made the Vasa ship more stable and also lighter.

Petra Einarsson, Head of Sandvik Materials Technology and Jan Haraldsson, Manager for the machining laboratory at the business area’s R&D center, received a symbolic elephant plaque during the event in honor of the significantly lighter load Vasa, with weight savings of five tons, corresponding to the weight of a full-grown elephant.

“Sandvik has been an invaluable support, and we feel confident in the material and the design. We expect these bolts to remain in place for at least 150 years,” says Anders Ahlgren, engineer at the Vasa Museum.