Current Applications of FutureSteelVehicle Technologies
For many years, steel has been the preferred material in automotive body and chassis applications. Just like other materials, steel continuously reinvents itself to remain the lead contender in the progressing automotive materials lightweighting battleground. This means developing new advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) grades and manufacturing technologies to keep up with the ever-
changing automotive industry.
In May 2011, the global steel industry launched the FutureSteelVehicle (FSV) project, which delivered auto body concepts with radically different structures for advanced powertrains, such as advanced hybrid, electric and fuel cell systems. The goal of the research demonstrated strong, lightweight steel structures for future vehicles that reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the entire life cycle.
FSV’s manufacturing and design optimization technologies proved significant gains in vehicle structural efficiency through steel innovations. Using 97 percent high-strength steel and AHSS in the body structure design resulted in a 29 percent mass savings with no manufacturing cost penalty. FSV also introduced advanced steel and steel technologies to its portfolio, including more than 20 new AHSS grades of materials commercially available today.
This project is an example of steel’s continual evolution and shows the high value of using steel, while increasing fuel efficiency and strength. Now, four years later, vehicles released in the 2015 and 2016 model years have implemented several of these technologies. The newly developed AHSS grades have increased in tensile strength, innovative steel processes have made application of these AHSS grades more effective and the application of the 3G (geometry, grade and gauge) design optimization has generated significant mass savings at a high value, as projected by the project.
My presentation at FABTECH will review the technologies introduced in the FSV project, highlight examples of vehicles on the road today implementing these advanced steel technologies and demonstrate how a vehicle is able to successfully lightweight with steel.
Be sure to catch Dave’s full presentation at FABTECH in Session S50: NEW! Advanced High-Strength Steel (AHSS) Technology Tuesday, Nov. 10: 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Learn more here. With more than 30 years of experience, David Anderson serves as senior director, Automotive Market and Long Products Program for the Steel Market Development Institute, a business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute. In this position, he is responsible for leveraging his expertise to support SMDI’s Automotive Applications Council’s (AAC) – a consortium of major North American steel producers – expansion into chassis and powertrain programs, as well as serving as the liaison between the AAC and its partner organizations. In addition, he is responsible for coordinating efforts to grow steel long products in the North American automotive / heavy equipment and construction / infrastructure markets.
