Advanced Steels

Next Generation of Automotive Steels helping Lightweighting

The automotive industry has been using steel as a de facto material since the very first commercialized car designed by Karl Benz in 1885. The car had tubings made of steel while the driver compartment was created with wood panels. Since then the usage of steels has increased exponentially in automotive. Currently the automotive industry accounts for more than 12% of the global steel production and is a major customer for the various grades of alloy steels produced specifically for automotive usage. The reason for the high usage of steels across automobiles lies in the mechanical properties of the material. Steel not only offers designers a very good option for material strength and torsion rigidity, as required for body strength and crash worthiness, but arguably also provides the cheapest material option. Thus, the safety and design requirements are met at lower costs vis-à-vis other material options with steels.