AISI Chairman Challenges PNGV to Develop Lightweight Steel Bodied Mid-size Car
4 March 1998
AISI Chairman Challenges PNGV to Develop Lightweight Steel Bodied Mid-size Car
DETROIT, March 4 -- As the North American steel industry
rolled out its $22 million UltraLight Steel Auto Body (ULSAB) today, the
chairman of the industry's trade association challenged the Partnership for a
New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) supercar program to commission the design
and production of a steel bodied, affordable mid-size car weighing just
2,000 lbs.
"Today we have demonstrated with our ultralight auto body that steel has
enormous potential to reduce weight while improving structural performance and
crashworthiness, and costing less, than today's car bodies," said Robert J.
Darnall, chairman of American Iron and Steel Institute. Darnall also is
chairman, president and CEO of Inland Steel Industries.
"We have shown that lightweight and steel are not an oxymoron. Now we
want to take weight reduction to the next level, and test the true potential
of steel."
Darnall pledged the support of the U.S. steel industry for development of
a steel 2,000 lb. mid-size by PNGV.
He noted that today's mid-size cars weigh about 3,300 lbs., and an ULSAB-
bodied car would weigh about 2,960 lbs., without allowing for secondary weight
savings. By contrast, he said, the 1974 VW Beetle, a very small compact car,
weighed just less than 2,000 lbs.
A steel body optimized for a 2,000 lb. curb weight mid-size car could
weigh as little as 300 lbs.
"To design a steel body for a mid size car that weighs only 2,000 lbs.
will be a huge undertaking, but the steel industry is up to the challenge,"
said Darnall.
"With the impetus of the PNGV federal government-auto industry partnership
behind it, along with implementation of advanced powertrain research,
construction of a 2,000 lb. mid-size car with a steel body that people can
afford is definitely possible."
Begun in 1994, the ULSAB initiative was funded with $22 million by a
consortium of 35 of the world's largest steel producers, including 11 from
North America. It set out to show both theoretically and physically that a
steel body in a family sedan could meet or exceed a wide variety of exacting
performance and cost targets, while maintaining the highest standards of
vehicle safety.
The resulting ULSAB structure weighs merely 203 kg (447 lbs.), up to 36
percent less than the mid-size sedans benchmarked in the concept phase of the
study. Torsion and bending tests of the structure showed dramatic
improvements over benchmark of 80 percent and 52 percent, respectively, and
first body structure mode indicates a 58 percent improvement.
The ULSAB body was designed with a "holistic," clean-sheet-of-paper
approach, so that the entire body could be treated as a single part and
optimized as such. "ULSAB engineers had the same advantage as the people
doing PNGV cars for 2004, except, of course, that we wanted to show what steel
could do," Darnall said.
"We have always believed that the there will be a lot of steel in the
ultimate PNGV, especially because of the mandate that the PNGV be affordable
and recyclable," he continued. "Now we've established with ULSAB that a
lightweight steel structure can provide technical performance superior to
anything on the road today or in the near future."
A steel intensive PNGV body would be manufacturable using a good deal of
the current automotive infrastructure.
Although it was not intended to be an explicit response to PNGV, the
independent ULSAB weight reduction study dovetails effectively with the PNGV
program, Darnall said.
The ULSAB project already meets basic goals one and two of the PNGV
program: to significantly improve manufacturing competitiveness, and implement
innovations from research in conventional vehicles. Development of a body for
a 2,000-lb. car would address PNGV goal three, namely up to triple the fuel
efficiency of benchmark mid-size sedans, approaching the 80-mpg mark.
There is no powerplant in the ULSAB structure unveiled this week, but the
design assumed use of a V-6 engine, typical of today's family sedan. However,
Darnall added that steel could provide even better performance in a body
structure optimized for low or zero emission powerplants -- such as diesel-
electric hybrids and fuel-cell electrics -- that are on the near horizon from
GM and other automakers.
The Automotive Applications Committee (AAC) is a subcommittee of the
Market Development Committee of AISI and focuses on advancing the use of steel
in the highly competitive automotive market. With offices and staff located
in Detroit, cooperation between the automobile and steel industries has been
significant to its success. This industry cooperation resulted in the
formation of the Auto/Steel partnership, a consortium of Chrysler, Ford and
General Motors and the member companies of the AAC.
American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) is a non-profit association of
North American companies engaged in the iron and steel industry. The
Institute comprises 48 member companies, including integrated and electric
furnace steelmakers, and 168 associate and affiliate members who are suppliers
to or customers of the steel industry. For more news about steel and its
applications, view American Iron and Steel Institute's web site at
http://www.steel.org.
This release and other steel-related information is available for viewing
and downloading at American Iron and Steel Institute/Automotive Applications
Committee website at http://www.autosteel-ulsab.org. Saving the releases as a
text-only file is recommended to avoid formatting difficulties.
Automotive Applications Committee member companies:
AK Steel Corporation
Acme Steel Company
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Dofasco Inc.
Inland Steel Industries
LTV Steel Company
National Steel Corporation
Rouge Steel Company
Stelco Inc.
US Steel Group, a unit of USX Corporation
WCI Steel, Inc.
Weirton Steel Corporation
SOURCE American Iron and Steel Institute
