Sustainable transport solutions

Recyclability

Over 99% of the 60 million cars made globally each year have a steel-intensive body. Steel is safe, affordable and is the world’s most recyclable engineering material. Steel has a vital role to play in achieving the 95% recyclability target required from 2015 by the European Union End-of-Life Vehicles Directive.

Safer vehicles

Our continuing development and improvement of steel rolling technology for tailor-rolled blanks is just one example of how we are actively helping our automotive customers to engineer lighter, stronger and more stable platforms within which safety devices such as front-end crash structures, air bags, knee bolsters and antisubmarining seats (preventing crash injuries caused by passengers sliding forward) can function effectively.

Safer roads

Tata Steel Europe has been manufacturing highway barrier systems for over 40 years, producing and testing the safety fences and bridge parapets on the UK’s major road network. Our range of Protect 365™ highway bridge parapet systems offers robust solutions for elevated roadways and complements our award-winning Vetex™ safety fence system, which reduces installation time and in turn the exposure of road workers to the hazards of moving traffic.

Emissions challenge

There is a direct link between vehicle weight and CO 2 emissions, and legislative pressure is increasing in the EU and US to reduce vehicle emissions. Our Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) are a key material in the toolkit used to reduce vehicle weight. The average car is already 60kg lighter thanks to the use of AHSS . Our VA/VE (Value Analysis/Value Engineering) approach is a proven method for evaluating and optimising the gauges, grades and coatings of vehicle body and chassis components in order to reduce the weight and costs of prototype and production vehicles.

Life-cycle assessments by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) show that for every 1kg of AHSS used, 8kg of CO 2 is saved over the life of the vehicle – which equates to a total reduction of 2.2 tonnes of CO 2 for an average car. This more than offsets the total CO2 emitted in the manufacture of the AHSS used. Our latest grades of AHSS steel, such as DP800 HyPerform®, are targeted at pushing these CO 2 and weight-saving opportunities even further and are configured for easy adoption by car makers.

We are also applying our expertise to freight vehicle design, and have successfully assisted an LG V trailer manufacturer to identify up to 350kg of potential CO 2 savings by specifying a different grade of steel (Ympress®) in its chassis.

Our nickel-plated steels offer the automotive industry added flexibility when it comes to designing alternative fuelled vehicles. The superior corrosion resistance of our nickelplated steels allows them to be used for fuel lines in vehicles where the engine is designed to run on bio-fuels, or a mixture of gasoline and ethanol or methanol.

Innovations

Our continuing investment in research and development has produced an array of innovations and engineering analysis tools to help engineers select the right material grade for their vehicle structures. We developed Forming to Strength®, for example, a software tool to optimise the use of steel in components. Such tools are helping to reduce weight and thereby reduce CO 2 emissions from vehicles.

When manufacturers need to bring a new design into full production rapidly, we offer technologies, services and advanced computer-aided engineering tools, such as In-Form™, an innovative simulation technique that helps customers to reduce material and energy wastage and save on start-up costs.

Our new product MagiZinc® is a hot-dip zinc coating to which small amounts of aluminium and magnesium have been added. Tests have shown that MagiZinc® offers at least four times more corrosion resistance than conventional galvanised steel for the same coating thickness. Work is ongoing to reduce the coating thickness even further. This opportunity to reduce metallic coating weight, while giving improved material properties, is attracting growing interest from customers in both the automotive and construction markets.

Our AHSS range already provides vehicle weight savings, and through our successful collaborative product development of High Strength and Ductility (HSD ®) steels with Salzgitter AG , we will further help our customers to build lighter yet safer vehicles emitting lower volumes of CO 2. HSD® steels represent a new era in material application for the automotive industry and will enhance future designs, such as electrical and hybrid alternatives.

The rail option

Corus is also playing a part in helping to meet the increased demand for rail – one of the most sustainable forms of public transport. A £2 million (US$2.86m) investment in our Rail Service Centre in 2008/09 has helped to secure orders for the expansion of railway infrastructure in Europe. Our plant in Hayange, France, is a major supplier of rails to the high-speed network  that carries passengers swiftly and safely throughout Europe. Profiles for switches and crossings, made at both plants, are being used in major renewals and upgrades, helping to increase rail safety. Our Silent Track solution is helping to cut noise pollution on railways, reducing vibrations through a system of dampers on rails.

Looking to the future

Corus is participating in the World Steel Association’s multi-million dollar ‘Future Steel Vehicle’ project, which will develop steel auto body concepts that address alternative powertrains such as advanced hybrid, electric, and fuel cell systems.

The goal of the research is to demonstrate safe, lightweight steel bodies for future vehicles that reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the entire life cycle.