Structural automotive body components — also known as “body-in-white” components — continue to benefit from the high-energy absorption, low weight, and cost-efficiency of advanced high-strength steels. Collaborating closely with your AHSS supplier allows your BIW components to achieve optimal designs for both automotive performance and crash safety.
Developing a car with low weight is easy; developing a car with high safety and stiffness is easy; doing all three simultaneously is a challenge.
To achieve lightweighting, 5-star safety ratings, and superior handling means optimizing all your model’s structural components. Best practices include early involvement with your AHSS/UHSS manufacturer, who best understands how their steels work – as well as new grades under development you might want to use in the near future.
The roof rail in Docol® CR1700 martensitic steel is first roll formed and then 3D bent into its final shape (Left image courtesy of Shape Corp., right image courtesy of Ford Motor Company.)
An existing roof rail was a hydro-formed tube in CR100DP steel. The Tier 1 supplier, Shape Corp., proposed to Ford Motor Company a new roof rail using roll-formed and 3D bent Docol® CR1700M. The new roof rail costs less, improves crash performance, reduces weight, and increases visibility – earning it the Swedish Steel Prize.
Always looking to reduce costs, an auto OEM took a serious look at the hot-forming process used to make its car sill reinforcements – the specialized presses and furnaces, the material handling, the energy use, the CO2 emissions, and the extra production time.
Looking for a material with performance that was comparable to the press hardened steel, the OEM chose Docol® CR1400M. The cold-rolled 1400 MPa martensitic steel could be cold roll formed in a conventional forming line – eliminating all the disadvantages of PHS – and resulting in significant overall cost savings.
Car sill reinforcement with 1400MPa tensile strength, made by conventional cold roll forming of Docol® CR1400M steel.
Front bumper beam: M AHSS ≥1500
Crash box: CP AHSS ≥590
Front side member: DP AHSS ≥780
Upper front member or shotgun: DP AHSS ≥780
Front side member extenstion: M AHSS ≥1500
Firewall reinforcement: AHSS ≥1180
Frontside reinforcement: AHSS ≥1180
A Header: AHSS ≥1180
Cowl: AHSS ≥1180
A pillar upper: AHSS ≥1180
A Pillar lower: AHSS ≥1180
B Pillar inner: AHSS ≥780
B Pillar outer: PHS ≥1500
C Pillar: AHSS ≥1180
C Cross member: AHSS ≥1180
Cant rail: AHSS ≥1180
C Header: AHSS ≥1180
In just one to two weeks, you can get trial samples of most of our commercially available AHSS/UHSS steel grades – plus some of our newest, not-yet-released steels.
Our steel grades serve specific design purposes and are chosen by designers for a wide range of automotive applications.
What do auto designers need to know about upcoming developments in the making, forming, and use of martensitic steels?
