NanoSteel, Providence, R.I., a leader in nanostructured steel materials, delivered its first advanced high strength steel (AHSS) to General Motors, Flint, Mich., for initial testing. Designed to provide automakers with a new standard in material performance, the sheet steel is poised to accelerate vehicle lightweighting initiatives focused on affordably meeting rising global fuel-economy regulations.
Production of the material, targeted to the $100 billion-plus automotive steel market, is the result of a multi-year joint development program between NanoSteel and AK Steel Corp.
NanoSteel’s commercially produced automotive sheet steel overcomes the historical tradeoff between strength and formability by delivering exceptional levels of both properties at the same time (approximately 1200 MPa tensile strength and 50 percent elongation). The high strength allows designers to create parts using thinner-gauge material (less weight) while the high elongation allows manufacturers to produce newly designed parts without expensive processing techniques, employee retraining, or additional capital costs. The unique combination of properties also allows engineers the design freedom to create novel part shapes, which further reduces weight.
“Many advanced materials with outstanding properties end up abandoned because they are too hard to use or too expensive to make,” says NanoSteel CEO and president David Paratore. “NanoSteel’s advanced high strength steel is designed to be both easy to produce—using conventional alloying elements with standard slab casting equipment; and easy to use—enabling the stamping and forming of parts at room temperature without additional manufacturing infrastructure or investment, such as that required for ‘hot’ stamped parts.”
Image caption — NanoSteel advanced high strength sheet steel.
