Advanced High-Strength Steel Integral Part of New Car Launches
Automakers Promote Its Usage
When the UltraLight Steel Body Structure (ULSAB) was presented to world automakers back in 1999, it demonstrated the use of advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) never before seen in the auto industry. Today, AHSS is not only reaching upwards of 40 percent usage in vehicles on the road today, automakers are now featuring its use in their own marketing messages. We have many examples in our Applications > Vehicles newsroom on this website, but here are just a few of the most recent.
Jaguar XF Features New Brand Look and Steel Insides
Hailed as “the beginning of a new era for Jaguar,” the XF adopts the latest generation steels, especially in the upper body – including high carbon steels, dual-phase, hot-formed boron steels, and bake-hardened steels. As stated in Jaguar’s media release, “As well as combining strength with lightness, these steels improve corrosion resistance, by making best use of zinc and improving e-coat paint flow – and new thinking means that in spite of their strength, the XF’s A and B-pillars are impressively slim, to the benefit of both visibility and accessibility. Similarly, the lower sills are the first component on any Jaguar to use incredibly strong, dual-phase DP600 steel.”
That’s the kind of story we at WorldAutoSteel like to hear, especially since the XF is the first steel-intensive sedan to come out of Jaguar in a while. Jaguar designers seem to be discovering that you don’t have to resort to aluminium to reduce vehicle weight.
Daimler’s Diminutive Smart Car
Daimler’s Smart car is perhaps the most extreme small car available today at only 2.69 meters long, making it nearly a meter shorter than another small vehicle, the Mini Cooper. But Daimler boasts that the high-strength steel safety cage is configured to divert crash energy down towards the bottom of the car, below the passenger compartment. With AHSS, small doesn’t mean weak.
Audi Uses High-Strength Steel in New Q5 Compact SUV Design
The Audi Q5 builds on the foundation established by the Audi Q7, and strengthens Audi’s presence in the SUV segment. Much of the body of the Q5 is made of high- and advanced high-strength steel components assembled with maximum precision. Says Audi, “They reduce weight while at the same time improving crash safety, as well as rigidity and vibration patterns.”
Mercedes Calls AHSS “Indispensable”
The 2008 Mercedes C-Class includes 70 percent high-strength steel alloys in its body structure, used, according to Mercedes, because they “provide maximum strength for minimum weight and ensure the greatest possible safety.” Twenty percent of the body structure is made of advanced high-strength steels. Mercedes states, “A special mention should be given to the latest, ultra high-strength steels which have only been developed in recent years. These achieve an extremely high tensile strength which exceeds that of conventional steels by a factor of three or four, making them indispensable when it comes to meeting the stringent Mercedes requirements with respect to durability and safety.” The 2008 C-Class received a coveted Environmental Certificate for its high performance in a Life Cycle Assessment, which showed a nine-metric tonne reduction in CO2 emissions per vehicle.
Mitsubishi Lancer Improves Performance with AHSS
The 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer utilises high- and advanced high-strength steel in its body-in-white, improving torsional rigidity by 56 percent and bending rigidity by 50 percent over the previous model. Engineers used AHSS for constructing the rocker panel between the A- and C-pillars, resulting in improved side-crash performance. High-strength steel makes up the B-pillar, roof joints and cross-car structure, adding to the safety credentials.
Steel Sets the Pace
Automobile development means a constant effort to reconcile a variety of aims. Conflicting safety requirements, cost restrictions, structural performance demands, not to mention the increasing environmental pressures, all contribute to the challenges that face automotive design engineers today. Advanced high-strength steels are helping automakers meet the performance demands with affordable solutions, a good reason why they are the fasting growing automotive material.
But the automobile never stops evolving and changing and with the rising climate change concerns, the next generation of automobiles will include alternative power trains, such as hybrids and fuel cells. It is key, therefore, that steel continues to re-invent itself to address the changes in vehicle architecture that these new powertrains will evoke. Just like ULSAB and the other UltraLight projects illustrated the realm of possibilities available with AHSS applications in traditional powertrain vehicles, WorldAutoSteel is continuing its heritage with the Future Steel Vehicle programme which aims to develop steel architectures for these new vehicles. WorldAutoSteel launched the Future Steel Vehicle project at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Bali last December.
Just as the application of the UltraLight projects’ research findings is seen globally in many vehicles on the road today, the Future Steel Vehicle project is expected to stimulate the same development in upcoming alternative vehicles.
