Steel is up to the AUTOMOTIVE CHALLENGE
Appears in Print As: Steel is up to the AUTOMOTIVE CHALLENGE
April 5, 2012
Stephen J. Mraz
There’s a reason steel has remained the dominant material used in cars and light trucks. The same reasons will let steel survive the CAFE crunch of higher fuel economy
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In the early 1900s, the dominant structural material used in cars and trucks was wood. By the 1920s, however, carmakers had switched to sheet steel and the industry never looked back. The decision to go with steel was an easy one. Steel made it possible to build stronger, stiffer, and more-durable bodies and chassis. More importantly, stamping and welding steel was adaptable to mass production and the assembly line. So, steel cars could be made in greater volumes and at lower cost.
For the last 100 years, the clear choice for automakers around the world has continued to be steel. And steel’s share of the average North American vehicle on the road today has been estimated to be nearly 60% by weight.
In fact, if one were to look at a coil of steel today headed for a car plant or a processor, it would look pretty much the same as it did decades ago. So how is it possible that one material can continue to satisfy the needs of such a dynamic industry for so long? And will it continue to meet those needs for another 100 years?
The anticorrosion challenge
Specifications for materials in vehicles are considerably more demanding than they were in the early days. What exactly has the steel industry done to satisfy these tough demands?
One good example involves corrosion. In the 1970s, automotive sheet steel was simply cold rolled, primed, painted, and put on the road. Corrosion resistance wasn’t very good. By the early 1980s, however, carmakers decided it was time to eliminate rust failures in their vehicles. Ten years later, steelmakers had installed continuous electro and hot-dip galvanizing lines, and carmakers switched to two-sided galvanized steel for cars and light trucks. These steps improved the corrosion resistance of steel bodies so much that companies began offering corrosion-perforation warranties.
Rusted bodies soon become a distant memory.
What few people realize is that the steel industry made the changeover to galvanized sheet while still maintaining class-A surface requirements, not an easy task.
© 2012 Penton Media Inc.
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