Seat crossmember
Steels are increasingly utilized in new vehicle generations, which require both high strength and good formability. Dual-phase steels meet this objective particularly well.
Thanks to a component-appropriate design and a reduction of the material thickness, this new generation of materials makes considerable contributions to lightweight automotive engineering and construction.
For a seat crossmember, a feasibility study was carried out in cooperation with Volkswagen AG on the use of dual-phase steel. By replacing the series material CR340LA-GI with a hot-dip galvanized dual-phase steel (CR330Y590T-DP-GI), a sheet thickness reduction of 0.23 mm was achieved.
This results in a weight savings of 19% or approximately 280g per part. The overall weight of the vehicle was consequently reduced by 0.560 kg in mass.
| Component: | Seat crossmember |
| Series material: | CR380LA+GI |
| Material: | CR330Y590T-DP-GI-xpand® |
| Sheet thickness: | 1.23 mm (series), 1.00 mm (reduced) |
Coating: | Hot-dipped-galvanized (Z100) |
Weight savings: | 19 % per component compared to series component |
Material characteristics: | Reduced edge cracking susceptibility, proven by increased hole expansion capacity (High Hole Expansion = HHE) |
Reduced carbon equivalent for improving the failure behavior of the weld seam (C ≤ 0.1 by weight %) | |
ST 1 =micro-alloyed material (e.g., niobium or niobium + boron + titanium) | |
ST 2 = silicon-alloyed material |
