ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel and mining company, has unveiled the new ultra lightweight car door systems in Maizieres-les-Metz, France.
The company's research and development (R&D) automotive team claims that by using the existing steels and technology about 27% weight and cost can be reduced without effecting safety and structure of the doors.
Compared to the current steel car door systems, the new advanced high strength steels and technology scheduled to arrive in the market over the next few years will be capable of reducing about 34% weight.
ArcelorMittal global R&D vice president Greg Ludkovsky said, "By applying the present solutions, a car door can be 30 percent less expensive than an aluminium door."
Advanced high strength steels (AHSS) can be combined with the ultra high strength steels (UHSS) to reduce the weight of the baseline C-segment door from 18.3kg to 13.3kg, the company said.
The new door systems use new steel grades that are currently under development including Usibor 2000 for some non-visible parts and other AHSS for the outer panel in order to reduce the outer panel thickness to 0.5mm.
The new doors follow the implementation of laws under which carmakers need to reduce the weight of their vehicles to address the future emission standards as reducing the weight of the vehicle by about 12kg will save CO2 emissions of one gram per kilometer.
