Steel will Keep Drivers, Passengers Safe this Summer Driving Season
05/23/2008 - With the start of the summer driving season, the strength and energy-absorbing ability of steel will help to protect countless drivers and passengers during the increasing number of collisions that inevitably occur over the summer months.
The strength of steel and its unique ability to absorb increasing amounts of energy under impact saves many lives each year during collisions, particularly during the collision-prone summer months.
This Memorial Day weekend—considered by most to be the official start to the summer driving season—families across the country will take to the roads on their way to summer getaways. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), traffic volumes will be at their highest during the 101 days between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day. This, in turn, implies the highest incidence of car crashes during this period—and an increased reliance on steel’s strength.
“The steel structure of a car, designed to act much like the steel safety cage of a race car, absorbs the energy created in a crash by both deforming under crash loads and resisting intrusion into the passenger compartment,” AISI Vice President of Automotive Applications, Ronald Krupitzer, said. “Because today’s high-strength and advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) are very strong, and get even stronger as they are deformed through work hardening and strain rate hardening, they provide improved protection for passengers. In today’s vehicles, steel comprises 62% of the mass.”
Today’s AHSS grades, including dual-phase and TRIP (transformation-induced plasticity) steels, are today’s most sophisticated automotive grades and are in use around the world. AHSS grades provide mass reduction and, thus, help reduce emissions, while exhibiting a superior combination of high-strength, crash energy management, excellent formability and dent resistance.
A recent study conducted by Ducker Research demonstrates that high-strength steels of all types now make up an average of 415 pounds per vehicle, representing a 44.6% increase in the past 10 years—making these new steels today’s fastest-growing automotive materials.
Today’s steels have made automobiles safer and more fuel-efficient. They have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions for a wide range of vehicles because of their mass-reduction potential, which has proven to exceed 25% in many applications. According to AISI, if currently available advanced high-strength steels were applied throughout the current U.S. automobile fleet, greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles would be reduced by approximately 12%.
AISI serves as the voice of the North American steel industry in the public policy arena and advances the case for steel in the marketplace as the preferred material of choice. AISI also plays a lead role in the development and application of new steels and steelmaking technology, including research directed at making automobiles safer and more environmentally sound. AISI comprises 31 member companies, including integrated and electric furnace steelmakers, and 130 associate and affiliate members who are suppliers to or customers of the steel industry.
