AHSS Archives - Page 3 of 4 - National Material Company

29 05, 2019

Steel Service Center Spotlight: National Galvanizing

andre2019-06-19T19:06:59+00:00May 29th, 2019|News Blog|

National Material L.P. and its metal service centers have a long history of quality and service dating back to 1964. Since its founding, N.M.L.P. has grown to over 30 business units and is now one of the largest suppliers of steel in America. The National Material group of industrial businesses consists of five groups; Steel, Stainless and Alloys, Raw Material Trading, Aluminum, and Related Operations.

National Galvanizing, located in Monroe, Michigan is an ISO 9001:2008 certified leader in the heavy gauge galvanizing industry. Their 245,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility offers multiple services including pickling, galvanizing, galvannealing, and slitting, all in one location. This combination of capabilities provides customers with unparalleled responsiveness to meet the ever-changing demands of today’s steel market.

National Galvanizing is a joint venture between National Material L.P. and Heidtman Steel, and has been leading the heavy gauge galvanizing industry since 1984.

Advantages of Galvanized Steel

Galvanized Steel is treated with zinc to create a long-lasting alloy that is resistant to rust and corrosion. This process creates a final material with the strength and formability of steel plus the corrosion protection of zinc-iron coating. Zinc protects the base metal by acting as a barrier to corrosive elements, and the sacrificial nature of the coating results in a long-lasting and high-quality steel product.

Rust Resistance: The iron elements in steel is incredibly prone to rusting, but the addition of zinc acts as a protective buffer between the steel and any moisture or oxygen.

Easy Inspection: It’s easy to tell how strong a galvanized coating is just by looking at it. There are also quick stress tests that can determine how thick the zinc coating is.

Sacrificial Anode: This ensures that any damaged steel is protected by the surrounding zinc coating. It doesn’t matter if the steel section is completely exposed; the zinc will still corrode first.

Longer Life: With galvanization, a piece of industrial steel is expected to last more than 50 years in average environments, and can last over 20 years with severe water exposure. No maintenance required.

Galvanizing Advanced High-Strength Steel

In addition to leading the heavy-gauge galvanizing industry, National Galvanizing also provides complex galvanizing chemistries that allow for the galvanizing of advanced high-strength steel.

Galvanizing advanced high-strength steel, versus galvanizing regular steel, is a more sophisticated process. First, the coils of steel are cleaned and put through both a zinc pot and chemical treatment to passivise the rust. Afterwards, the steel is tempered and tension-leveled to produce a high surface quality on the galvanized steel.

In addition to the material durability described above, Galvanized Advanced High-Strength Steel is a remarkably strong material. Because AHHS is both light-weight and exceptionally strong, advanced high strength steel is becoming the go-to material for the growing regulatory needs of the automotive industry and beyond. Its concentrated properties allow manufacturers to easily reach their emission, safety, and fuel […]

4 03, 2019

AHSS Infographic: Advanced High Strength Steel Matters

andre2019-04-12T01:55:29+00:00March 4th, 2019|News Blog|

5 02, 2019

Advanced High-Strength Steel Rules the Road in 2019

marshall2019-02-05T17:59:41+00:00February 5th, 2019|News Blog, NMC Media|

Advanced High-Strength Steel is a new generation of steel revolutionizing the automotive industry. The widespread use of advanced high-strength steel doesn’t seem to be slowing down as we move into 2019. This high-performance material offers high-strength and low weight, all while maintaining formability that is crucial to the automotive manufacturing process.

Strong and dependable, steel continues to be the frontrunner when it comes to car manufacturing. A recent survey showed that steel is the preferred material in automobiles, with 90% of consumers saying they believe steel is stronger than other materials used by automakers. 75% said that a car’s crash safety, and other safety features, were the most important factors when buying or leasing a vehicle.

Various automotive manufacturers have announced intentions to increase their use of AHSS in automobiles, and several 2019 and 2020 models made with higher proportions of the advanced high-strength steel have already been unveiled.

SUV’s

Source: Repairer Drive News

Last month, a large automotive manufacturer “…revealed its brand-new “flagship” three-row SUV, describing a steel body with a 13.7 percent higher average tensile strength than its next-generation 2019 coupe.”

The article continues to highlight the SUV’s new build, saying it has “…a very rigid structure, with strategic use of Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) in key suspension and crash areas to provide increased tensile-strength. Use of Advanced High Strength Steel has several benefits: lighter overall vehicle weight and greater vehicle strength and rigidity without the excessive costs of more exotic lightweight materials.”

The SUV “…is expected to achieve TSP+ from the IIHS and a 5-star NHTSA rating. Robust underbody and side structures are designed to increase energy absorption and cabin intrusion in a severe collision, especially in the small overlap test. Further, its underbody uses multiple load paths to better disperse potential crash energy in the event of a collision.’”

Sedan

Source: Repairer Drive News

Another automotive manufacturer announced that “The 2019 sedan model ‘strengthens its bones’ for its third generation, describing a body made up of 54 percent advanced high-strength steel.”

The vehicle also added “hot-stamped components”, a reference likely to indicate ultra-high-strength steels.

This new configuration is likely to restrict what auto body shops can do to the popular sedan. Higher-strength steels tend to carry heat, sectioning and repair restrictions because of their metallurgy or role in crash protection.

“Because body stiffness plays a major role in NVH performance, engineers worked to increase rigidity for a quieter cabin and better handling tuned to match the car’s sporty and dynamic exterior appearance, resulting in a 16 percent stiffer body in white,” the automotive manufacturer wrote in a news release Wednesday.

“New subframe designs help to improve lateral responsiveness, while steering feel is upgraded compared to its predecessor’s thanks to enhancements within the Motor Driven Power Steering (MDPS) system that reduce artificial steering feel and friction.”

Throughout the last year, we shared information on the […]

25 11, 2018

The Life Cycle of an Ultra High-Strength Steel

marshall2019-09-12T20:09:19+00:00November 25th, 2018|News Blog, NMC Media|

In recent years, the automotive industry has benefited greatly from the integration of advanced high-strength steels (AHSS).

Each step of the manufacturing process of a new advanced high-strength steel, the different configurations of chemical composition, and achievable microstructures, is a result of a closely controlled heating and cooling process. During these processes, several strengthening mechanisms are employed to achieve different levels of strength, fatigue tolerances, and toughness.

Among the advanced high-strength steel family are Dual Phase (DP), Complex Phase (CP), Transformation-Induced Plasticity (TRIP), Martensitic (MS), and Ferritic-Bainitic (FB). They are all produced by controlling the chemistry and cooling rate in the austenite-ferrite phase during the hot rolled phase or in the annealing furnace.

But, what are the steps that are taken to create each of these materials? What are all the factors that metallurgists are searching for when they undertake such a task?

Here’s a checklist:

Designed for mass production

The driving force behind creating any variant of AHSS is to produce it on a mass scale. Therefore, starting from day one, full-scale processing concerns are addressed in the design. Different compositions are simulated and tested to achieve the most optimal composition.

Forgeability

The materials’ forgeability refers to the total fatigue, fracturing toughness, and tensile strength tolerances of the steel alloy.

Machinability

Tests are rendered on the material to observe its boring, tapping, milling, threading, drilling, and turning capabilities. Everything is tested, from the optimal insert and cutting tool configurations to the best feed speed.

Heat treatment

The material will be tested for the mechanical differences between their annealed and hardened states.

Combination of properties

There are an incredible amount of possible alloying compositions using elements such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper, carbon, chromium, and more. Rigorous testing is done on the different alloy compositions to achieve the optimal desired properties.

Strength

What’s the key factor in any structure material? Its functional strength. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is the most important aspect of weight-limiting designs, so this property is the among the most crucial in the creation of new AHSS steels.

Fracture toughness

Another important element of the steel is its fracture toughness. This measures the materials’ ability to resist fracturing under stress.

Yield strength

As opposed to fracture toughness, yield strength refers to the point at which the fibers of the material begin to break down, and its form becomes plastic, instead of elastic. A higher yield strength will allow part designs to endure more stress before becoming disfigured.

THE RENEWABILITY OF ADVANCED HIGH-STRENGTH STEEL

Once the material is created and tested for mass production, it begins its life as it is machined into a useable part for the automotive industry. What happens as it’s made, put out into the world, and comes to the end of its life cycle?

Efficient steel production

Though AHSS is, at the moment, more expensive overall to produce than traditional steel grades, it […]

4 04, 2018

The Differences Between Hot and Cold Rolled Steel

marshall2018-04-04T18:33:39+00:00April 4th, 2018|News Blog, NMC Media|

When approaching your project, it is crucial to know the type of steel that is best suited for your needs. Different types of steel manufacturing can produce material that performs better for the specific applications. The hot and cold rolled steel manufacturing methods specifically have a great effect on the overall performance of the steel.

Prior knowledge of distinctions between the two methods can help your company save on time, raw material cost, and additional processing. This article aims to explain the differences between hot and cold rolled steel and discuss the advantages (and limitations) of each.

NOTE: Hot-rolling and cold-rolling should not be mistaken for different grades of steel. Steels of different grades can be produced as hot-rolled or cold-rolled.

HOT-ROLLED STEEL

Hot-rolling refers to a mill process in which you roll the steel at a temperature above its recrystallization temperature; a heat that typically exceeds 1000° F.

When steel is heated past its recrystallization point, it becomes more malleable and can be properly formed and shaped. It also allows for the ability to produce larger quantities of steel. The steel is then cooled at room temperature, which “normalizes” it, eliminating the worry for stresses in the material arising when quenching or work-hardening.

When the steel cools off, it will shrink non-uniformly, which gives slightly less control on the overall size and shape of a finished hot-rolled product.

Hot-rolled steel typically has a scaly surface finish. For situations in which the appearance of the material is a concern, the scales can be removed by several techniques: pickling, grinding, or sand-blasting.

These properties make hot-rolled steel most suitable for structural components and other applications where incredibly precise shapes and tolerances are of less importance, such as:

Railroad tracks
I-beams
Agricultural equipment
Sheet metal
Automotive frames

COLD-ROLLED STEEL

As you might suspect, the manufacturing process behind cold-rolled steel is a bit different. Despite the name, this process refers to steel that is pressed with the pressure of a roller at room temperature.

Compared to hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel has a nearly 20% increase in strength through the use of strain hardening. It’s through a series of breakdown, semi-finishing, sizing, semi-roughing, roughing, and finishing that cold-rolled steel shapes can be created.

Cold-rolling steel allows for the creation of very precise shapes. Since the process is performed at room temperature, the steel will not shrink as it cools, as it does in the hot-rolled process.

The exterior finish of cold-rolled steel is very desirable when aesthetics and visual appeal are a priority in your project.

However, the applications of cold-rolled steel are somewhat limited to a couple of shapes – square, round, flat, and variations thereof.

Typical uses for cold-rolled steel:

Strips
Bars
Rods
Home appliances
Roof and wall systems
Metal furniture
Aerospace structural members

HOT AND COLD ROLLED STEEL. WHICH DO I NEED?

If you require large structural components, you will most likely need the hot-rolled steel process to create the parts. For smaller parts that require more precise and durable qualities, then the cold-rolled steel process is the way to go. If you have questions about […]