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Olympics-France styles slender Paris 2024 torch from raw steel

It takes just four cars and trucks from the scrapyard or the steel from about 50 washing makers to make the 2,000 torches needed for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, however the process needs a specific savoir faire.

6 tons of steel were melted by producing corporation ArcelorMittal, a Paris 2024 official partner, before being formed into 0.7-millimetre plates that were shipped to the Normandy factory of French silverware and cutlery company Guy Degrenne.

There, it is laser-cut, welded and assembled by a couple of lots workers who delivered the torches at the end of January, marking the end of a nine-month process.

It's a bit like my child, our child, Delphine Moulin, Paris 2024 director of celebration, informed amid the sounds of metal being cut, bent, sleek and sprayed with micro-particles of steel.

The outcome is a slender-looking torch, with a wavy touch which represents the Mediterranean Sea and oceans that carried the Olympic flame from Greece and will take it to the French abroad areas.

We wanted it to be distinct. You can see that it's various from the usually flared shape of the Olympic torch, Moulin added.

The torch, which is 70 centimetres high and weighs 1.5 kilos, is water and windproof as it is created so the flame can hold up against a sustained wind of 20kph and gusts at 60kph.

It likewise went through a crash test, withstanding a three-metre fall, stated ArcelorMittal's Franck Wasilewski, the project manager.

It requires a lot attention to details, initially to make the perfect steel. You don't utilize the exact same type of steel to make rails and to make this torch, ArcelorMittal France president Eric Niedziela stated.

It is also our pride to have this French product made with our partners (Guy Degrenne), their savoir faire is unique.

Some 1,500 torches will be used for the Olympic relay, with the other 500 going to the Paralympics' relay.

There will be 11,000 torch bearers to bring the flame to its final location in Paris, suggesting the exact same torch will be carried by practically 10 different people.

This is a sustainable option, Moulin said.

Paris 2024 authorities and ArcelorMittal have been tight-lipped on the budget plan of the torches' fabrication, decreasing to provide a quote of the general expense.

The Games will be held from July 26-Aug. 11 and the Paralympics run from Aug. 28-Sept. 8.

(source: Reuters)