The world’s largest steel company, ArcelorMittal, is supplying Volkswagen with a new type of steel to help make their cars lighter and more fuel-efficient.
The steel, called Usibor 1500P, is lighter than standard steel and is able to retain its strength through the various forming processes – particularly hot stamping.
Because of this, automakers can then use a thinner gauge of steel in the vehicle construction, which can create weight savings of up to 50 per cent, decreasing fuel consumption in the process.
Greg Ludkovsky, the head of global research and development at ArcelorMittal stated, “Despite their lower gauges, high strength steels offer the same or better performance for cars than conventional steels in terms of mechanical behaviour.”
“High strength and ultra high strength steels contribute to significant weight saving of the vehicles without sacrificing the safety requirements. For most of them, they even contribute to increased crash performance.”
Currently, applications for Usibor 1500P are typically used in the body of the vehicles, such as the front and rear bumpers, door reinforcements and the floor and roof of the car.