AK Steel, Westchester, Ohio, launches Nexmet 440EX high-strength steel, which provides improved ductility, strength, and formability for automotive applications. The steel is designed for automotive light-weighting in all types of structural and exterior parts. The products are especially designed to help original equipment manufacturers meet their U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy targets for the year 2025.
This new exposed-surface-quality product combines high yield and tensile strength at thinner gauges to facilitate lightweight designs. This results in enhanced performance where surface appearance and dent resistance are critical. Nexmet 440EX is currently available and is being qualified by automotive OEMs as a steel solution for exposed body panel lightweighting needs.
AK Steel will launch its other next-generation Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) products, Nexmet 1000 and 1200, in early 2017, following completion of upgrades at AK Steel’s Dearborn Works hot-dip galvanized line. These AHSS steels will offer significantly improved ductility at tensile strengths of 1000 and 1200 MPa, and will serve to help lightweight automotive body structures.
