Development of Lightweight Steels for Automotive Applications

The automotive industry plays a determinant role in the economy of developed countries. Sheet metal forming is one of the most important processes in car manufacturing. Recent trends in car production may be characterized by the application of lightweight principles. Its main priority is to fulfill both the customers’ demands and the increased legal requirements. The application of high strength steels may be regarded as one of the potential possibilities. Applying high strength steels has a positive response for many of the requirements: increasing the strength may lead to the application of thinner sheets resulting in significant mass reduction. Mass reduction is leading to lower consumption with increased environment protection. However, increasing the strength can often lead to the decrease of formability, which is very unfavorable for the forming processes. In this chapter, an overview of recent material developments in the automotive industry concerning the use of new-generation high strength steels will be given. In this paper, the material developments are emphasized from the point of view sheet metal forming; therefore, our focus is on the body-in-white manufacturing in the automotive industry.