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Kobe Steel, voestalpine form Alliance for Automotive Steel

09/12/2008 - Kobe Steel and voestalpine Krems sign a cooperation agreement covering the application of ultra high strength steel and roll-forming technology in auto parts.

Kobe Steel, Ltd. and voestalpine Krems GmbH, a company of voestalpine Group, have signed a cooperation agreement covering the application of ultra high strength steel and roll-forming technology in auto parts. Kobe Steel and voestalpine Krems anticipate that the agreement will enable them to jointly contribute to automotive lightweighting in 2011 car models and beyond.
 
Kobe Steel and voestalpine Krems plan to make proposals to Japanese automakers on the advantages of using ultra high strength steel (UHSS) and roll forming in auto parts. They intend to encourage automakers in the application of UHSS and roll-forming technology in their effort to produce lighter cars, with Kobe Steel supplying the steel sheet and voestalpine Krems providing the processing know-how.

Under the agreement, Kobe Steel, as a materials producer, will benefit from the increased supply of UHSS to carmakers in Japan and Asia. voestalpine Krems will gain from the growing need for roll-formed parts made of UHSS to Japanese automakers in Europe, North America, and South America.

The quest to produce lighter car bodies has rapidly grown critically important, as automakers strive to meet increasingly stricter CO2 emissions regulations. The growing importance of vehicle lightweighting has resulted in a sharp increase in the need for parts made of UHSS. Although the strongest steels currently used in the production of car body structural parts has a tensile strength of around 980 Mpa, carmakers now want to use structural parts with higher tensile strengths. As the leading company for automotive UHSS, Kobe Steel is completing the development of highly formable UHSS with a tensile strength of 1470 MPa.

Automotive lightweighting is most effective when steel with outstanding qualities is combined with parts of optimum shape and structure, as well as applying processing methods and manufacturing technology that can achieve those shapes and structures. However, in press forming, a widely used method, conventional presses do not have sufficient capability to press-form UHSS. As a result, the processing of large parts has been problematic, and manufacturers have been seeking new methods to form UHSS.
 
Roll forming is a highly advantageous method for the production of UHSS parts for several reasons, including its ability to manufacture parts with complex cross-sections parts and length variations that other methods cannot. Because roll forming can be carried out on relatively simple equipment, it can be implemented for a relatively low investment. Roll forming also results in retention of the outstanding properties of high strength steel even after shaping due to an extraordinary soft forming process.

voestalpine Krems is a company in the voestalpine Group, and its roll-forming technology is outstanding. The company boasts the top share of the European roll-forming business. Since 2002, Kobe Steel also has a cooperation agreement with voestalpine Stahl GmbH, one of the leading European steel suppliers, aiming to provide automotive UHSS worldwide.

Focusing on the combination of Kobe Steel’s UHSS and voestalpine Krems’ roll-forming technology, the two companies have jointly undertaken the development of roll-forming technology using UHSS of over 980 MPa. The cooperation agreement will make use of the UHSS technology, outstanding parts manufacturing know-how, and structural design expertise of the two companies.