Santa's sleigh, already the highest performing vehicle ever seen, just got a serious upgrade.
The upgraded sleigh's skis, bumpers, and other hard-wearing components are custom-made from wear resistant boron steel, personally chosen by Santa himself from our WR-Steel® range.
The catalyst for change was the sheer volume of presents the sleigh now has to carry – and the even greater number of visits in one night.
“It was starting to be a real Claus for concern,” stated one of Santa’s helpers. “With so many gifts in the sleigh, it was gettingg a bit Claus-trophobic.
“No but seriously, it was becoming a major elf and safety issue.”
A (Christmas) star performer
In his trademark hands-on style, Santa personally supervised the design and refit of the airborne delivery craft. "I'm a traditional fellow," the jolly old chap chuckled, "but even I had to admit it might be time to move on from wooden skis, held together with melted candy canes and wishes."
One specialist recognises another, so the big man hopped down from Lapland to Smedjebacken to begin his collaboration with Ovako. We rolled out the red and white carpet and brought out samples of the whole WR-Steel range – more than 30 different types of boron steel and special grades, offering hardness intervals from 350 to 650 HV – to begin the process of developing a specialized steel alloy fit for Santa's sleigh.
After all, it's a unique engineering challenge. A vehicle that lays dormant most of the year but then must withstand more in a single night than any delivery bike, van, train, or plane will in its entire life.
This Christmas Eve, Santa's sleigh will perform in the region of 238 million landings and lift-offs, each one involving acceleration and deceleration from a standstill to speeds approaching 0.44% of the speed of light.
The annual Christmas Eve delivery run is when Santa makes good on his brand promise. Every year, he stakes his reputation on his ability to perfectly perform this miraculous feat.
If key sleigh components suffer wear on the way – if a runner were to become deformed or damaged, for example – Santa could be grounded or prevented from making a safe landing.
To the man they call the Chimney CEO, that's unthinkable.
No(ël) time to lose
Santa worked closely with our engineers to balance wear and cold resistance, strength and hardness, as well as keeping everything as light as possible.
Each piece of specialized WR-Steel needed for the sleigh upgrade was supplied to the Lapland workshop as a 'special profile', already as close as possible to its final shape. With hundreds of years of toymaking experience, Santa and his elves are, of course, no strangers to metalforming (though the WR-Steel sleigh runners made a refreshing change from tin toy trains).
Santa returned to Sweden to test his upgraded sleigh in the RISE-KIMAB lab: the independent facility we trust to simulate the extreme conditions needed to really put WR-Steel through its paces.
Beaming at his new ride with tearful pride, Santa was heard to whisper, "This model might even make it two Christmas Eves in a row."
A spokes-elf from Santa's workshop later clarified that there are no plans to upgrade or replace any of Santa's reindeer at this time.
We wish happy holidays to all our customers and suppliers – both mortals and superheros.
