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By Tony Whitney
    Although there’s been much talk in recent times about alternative materials for vehicle bodywork (some of it in this column), steel remains the primary ‘material of choice’ in the auto industry Rival materials may come and go and some of them have a real future, but steel remains rugged, easy to stamp and form into complex shapes, long-lasting and crash-resistent.
    Rust will always be a problem with steel, but almost all modern cars, vans and pickups make extensive use of galvanized panels to provide corrosion resistance. On some vehicles, the entire bodyshell is made up of galvanized steel components, although you’ll never see evidence of this on your new car because of the paint job.
    Traditionalists will also argue that steel vehicles are easier to repair after accidents than those made from aluminum or composites. It would, perhaps, be easy to believe that companies supplying steel to automakers are sitting on their laurels and regarding vehicle manufacturers using aluminum and composite body panels as a fairly stagnant minority Actually, this is far from the case.
    The global steel industry has a project in place called UltraLight Steel Auto Body — Advanced Vehicle Concept. The aim of this initiative is to design very lightweight vehicles that are also exceptionally safe. Steel will always be heavier than aluminum, of course, but if auto body structures can be designed to combine lightweight with crashworthiness, the future of this material in the auto industry is assured. There are also fuel economy benefits associated with this plan for lighter steel vehicles.
    According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, which represents steel producers in Canada, the US and Mexico, the steel industry’s ULSAB-AVC consortium has defined a set of safety (crash) standards that are much more demanding than current government
standards anywhere in the world.
   Steel is an excellent material for managing crash energy, according to the Institute. The material is inexpensive and strong and offers designers great flexibility in packaging engines, passengers and cargo. Also worth mentioning is the fact that steel is the world’s most recycled metal.
   The study is being conducted by Porsche Engineering Services in the U.S. Much of the research is aimed at reducing the weight of steel vehicle structures while enhancing their ability to withstand collisions—either with other vehicles or with stationary objects like lamp standards or road signage. One key issue is the problem of large, heavy vehicles like SUVs colliding with small, light economy cars. By the laws of physics the heavier vehicle will perform better in such a collision, but the study aims at evening up the odds and making both types of vehicle come out reasonably intact.
   In addition to bodywork, the study will look at other automotive components such as suspension parts and engine cradles. The ultimate aim is to have these improved steel bodies with enhanced crash safety rolling off the production lines by 2004. Other prime objectives include ‘significantly improved’ fuel efficiency, optimized environmental performance (reduced emissions from vehicle and at manufacturing source plus better recyclability) and the ability to produce the vehicles at high volume for an affordable cost.
   If this plan succeeds, new cars with steel bodywork we buy from 2004 onwards will be lighter, more fuel efficient and far more crash-resistent than today’s vehicles. There’s not much doubt that the use of materials like aluminum and composites will keep growing, but it’s good to know that steel manufacturers, whose products will continue to be the mainstay of vehicle production, are hard at work making tomorrow’s vehicles even better than today’s.
                                                         THE FREE PRESS AUTO JUNE 8, 2000
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