The windbreaker in IJmuiden with our profiles is now fully completed! 

Around the storage fields at Tata in IJmuiden, there is now a windscreen approximately 1 kilometer long and 18 meters high. It is the largest mural in the Netherlands—and it’s functional too, as the wind now has less impact on the raw material storage, which helps reduce dust dispersal.

SAB-profiel had the honor of manufacturing and supplying the 4,800 profiles for this large project. Holes about three centimeters in diameter have been punched into the steel. The panels are five meters long and have a coating in five different shades of gray.

“We at SAB-profiel were involved in the design and the choice of coating and color from an early stage, and we are particularly proud that we could help our parent company,” says René Timmerman, manager of Product Services at SAB-profiel.

The desire to paint the windscreen made the process even more complex. Apart from the logistical puzzle of placing 4,800 individual panels in the correct order, a hall had to be rented, and several aerial work platforms were required—after all, how do you paint a screen at such a height? “It is 44% transparent,” explains Leonard Batenburg (manager at Tata Steel). “This was done to reduce wind speed. The holes ensure that the wind has less impact on the material, which reduces the dispersion of material. In combination with other measures, we expect that the deposition of dust in the immediate residential area will be significantly reduced.”

Together with the slag pits and the roofs at the steelworks, the windscreen will ensure that 65% less dust ends up in the surrounding area.