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NEW ULTRA-HIGH STRENGTH STEEL FOR IMPROVED CRASHWORTHINESS
SSAB Tunnplåt is one of the world's leading developers of advanced high strength steels. The company's latest steel, Dogal 800 DPX, opens new opportunities for developing compact, lightweight and strong crash protection components for passenger cars. "Formability is of critical importance in the manufacture of reinforcing beams, and this material has superior forming properties that allow it to be bent to very tight radii and also to be re-bent," explains Johan Broback, Product Manager for metal-coated products at SSAB Tunnplåt. "Dogal 800 DPX is the first hot-dip galvanised material with properties approaching those of our advanced uncoated, cold-rolled high strength steels." The direct effect of the new steel is that it enables reinforcing beams to be of more complex design and leads to more efficient production of protection components. As an example, the number of forming operations can be reduced and more compact beams can be produced for use in the confined space within a car door. Hot-dip galvanising normally causes some deterioration of the properties of a steel, but this is counteracted by the special new production method developed by SSAB. "Our new products have been tested by customers and provided very satisfactory results," reveals Johan Broback. "We have set up full production capacity for the new steel, and we can now offer a product that meets a huge demand, offering new opportunities to the users." The market is growing robustly, and forecasts indicate that the proportion of advanced hot-dip galvanised, high strength steels in a passenger car will grow from the current 15 percent to 50 percent or more in the space of the next five years.
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