The Future Of Steel In The Automotive Industry
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- August 10, 2022
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- Steel In The Automotive Industry,
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We are the automotive group of the World Steel Association and our program is comprised of 18 global automotive sheet steel producers from around the world.
The purpose of our organization is to pool resources to demonstrate the most advanced steels for the automotive industry. With our combined resources we’re able to show the best of what can be done with these steels to produce lighter and safer vehicles with lower emissions. That’s our main purpose for getting together.
Could you give a brief explanation how the steel is commonly utilized within the automotive industry currently?
Around 65% of every vehicle is made of steel, mostly in what is called the ‘body in white’, which is the skeletal structure of the automobile plus the closures. People differ on their definition of ‘body in white’, but that’s how we define it.
Manufacturers use steel because it is the strongest, most affordable material out there for the application and can be engineered in a lot of different ways to meet the needs of crash safety and the performance of the vehicle, such as how it handles.
There are a lot of opposing requirements for materials in the automotive industry. For instance, for front end crash requirements, the material has to be able to absorb crash energy so that it stalls that energy from getting into the passenger area and keeps you safer. However, if the vehicle is involved in a side collision, the material has to be strong enough to deflect energy as you don’t want it to crumple.
Steel has the kind of flexibility and qualities that mean it is able to meet these requirements, and able to meet them affordably. And now newer steels, such as Advanced High-Strength Steels, are doing this with less steel at a lighter weight.
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