Page 20 - MetalForming February 2022 Special Automotive Issue

Steel’s Role in
the Migration
to Electrification
Steel—in all of its newfound alloys, including 3rd Gen advanced high-strength grades— still rules the roost in automotive applications, and that won’t change with the migration to electric vehicles. Here we discuss some new-wave applications for these newer steels, and some breakthrough metal forming technologies enabling their use.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
The steel and automotive indus- tries have a long history of col- laborating to develop highly optimized, cost-effective and mass- efficient solutions. As both industries work toward a migration to electrifi- cation, the steel industry continues to support the automotive industry with forward-looking innovation by:
• Supporting EV battery packing by helping to accommodate more batter- ies within a vehicle, which will allow longer travel distances per charge. As noted in a recently released white paper from the American Iron and Steel Insti- tute (AISI), “the most significant archi- tectural feature of BEVs (battery-elec- tric vehicles) will be the integration of the battery enclosure into the under- body structure, often referred to as the skateboard by new battery electric vehi- cle (BEV ) manufacturers. It is impor- tant to focus on promoting efficient steel enclosures that are developed in unison with the full body structure and contribute to enhancing both vehicle crashworthiness and its noise, vibration and harshness characteristics.”
• Providing the strength and forma- bility to allow vehicle designers to cre- ate a door ring and structure which
does not rely on a B-pillar for occupant protection, which we’re seeing men- tioned as design possibilities in mobil- ity-as-a-service (MaaS) vehicles. Here’s how the AISI white paper describes this potential door-ring structure, based on work conducted via the Steel E-Motive program at WorldAutoSteel:
“Although the program assumes a fully autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel, it is essentially focused on the development of a highly efficient steel body structure with an integrated steel battery enclosure. The design calls for no center pillar and a consistent steel side-closure design concept to enhance entry and exit. The program will leverage a broad portfolio of steel grades and manufacturing technolo- gies (forming, joining and assembly) to produce a credible steel-intensive solution within the framework of vehi- cle technical specifications consistent with contemporary BEV performance requirements.”
For additional insights, we spoke with John Catterall, vice president, AISI Automotive Program, who, on the sub- ject of EV battery packing, notes: “OEMs will treat the battery pack as a safety-first item, opting to build a safety
cage around it as they do for the pas- senger compartments. Battery packs can be sensitive to intrusion, so we see very strong sections on the side of the battery packs, and strong cross-mem- bers. Also, with steel we can create smaller sections and get a much better load pack than with other materials. This provides for more space for the battery cells and makes the vehicle more space-efficient.”
Also of note with EV designs: shorter vehicle front-end compartments, hous- ing numerous control modules rather than a big internal-combustion engine. “This requires a completely different structural design,” Catterall says, “and a more package-efficient design. In addition, we’re seeing some mobility- as-a-service vehicles with no B-pillar, which requires an extremely strong door ring that’s interlocked with the roof rail and rocker.”
Of course, meeting the evolving material needs of automakers requires continuous development of stamping and welding technology. To wrap its arms around some key technology enablers—some already in use and some in development—AISI recently commissioned an automotive-industry
18 MetalForming/February 2022
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