02.04.19 | Message of the Salzgitter AG

  • Symposium on 'Materials and Concepts for the Vehicles of Tomorrow' launched in cooperation with Volkswagen AG, Salzgitter AG and ITS mobility
  • Around 90 experts discuss new materials in vehicle construction - presentations, exhibitions and plant tours
  • Lightweight construction of the future: selection of specific materials for the concept itself

Automotive manufacturers are increasingly paving the way for sustainable mobility with new materials and component design geared to these materials. High-strength steels, light alloys and (carbon fiber) plastics can do a great deal more than simply reducing the weight of a vehicle or the individual components. The 'Materials and Concepts for the Vehicles of Tomorrow' symposium that begins today in Hotel am See takes a critical look at how new vehicle concepts can be created with a targeted selection of materials. Around 90 materials experts from the business and scientific community will be exchanging ideas on the topic of current lightweight engineering technologies - especially on vehicles with new or alternative drive systems - at the premiere of this event on two days.
The organizers of the symposium are Volkswagen AG, Salzgitter AG and mobility network ITS mobility. 'The new series of events is intended to encourage the exchange of ideas between research, industry, decision makers, materials and development engineers. The groundwork for efficient lightweight can therefore be done early in the product development process,' explains Dr. Andreas Gebauer-Teichmann, Group Technology Strategy & Management at Volkswagen AG. 'Particularly the southeast region of Lower Saxony is a mobility innovation hub. The materials-oriented and cross-application conference is intended to show the developers new aspects,' adds Dr. Joachim Kroos, Head of Technical Customer Service of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH.
To mark the opening, Ulrich Grethe, member of Salzgitter AG's Group Management Board, and Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn, Head of Corporate Research and Development at Volkswagen AG, presented an outlook on the forward-looking topics that the symposium will address in presentations, plant tours, a moderated discussion and an exhibition. In his keynote speech, Wolfgang Müller-Pietralla, Head of Future Research at Volkswagen AG, outlined the lightweight design of tomorrow.
The experts agree that no single material will determine this design. A range of different materials are suitable for building the vehicle body as well as for manufacturing individual components. These include high-strength and other steels, lightweight metals (fiber-reinforced) plastics and carbon fiber reinforced plastics. 'The question is always the right material in the right place and the right volume,' is how Dr. Gebauer-Teichmann explains the practice of selecting materials. The kind of material used is determined by properties such as hardness, strength, temperature stability or formability depending on where and what the component is needed for in the vehicle. Dr. Kroos explains that steel is a good starting point for lightweight construction in all areas of mobility: high-strength steels can, as their name implies, cope with huge forces, thus contributing to making construction leaner. The use of materials is minimized in the sense of conserving resources, and smaller masses are moved in the vehicle. Moreover, steel as a material is generally infinitely recyclable. 'In the bodywork, we focus on press-hardened steels, with other tensile strengths in demand and currently under development.' Similarly, multi-phase steels with increased formability are more in demand than ever, even in hitherto atypical thicknesses of more than 2 mm for the load requirements of modern vehicles.

The selection of suitable materials is an exciting topic for electro-mobility in particular. Under the title of Energy Storage and Sustainability, the first two main topics of the symposium today underscore the significance of new materials in developing electric motors, batteries and their housings. Even vehicles with alternative drive systems are set to become more than just lighter with the new materials. A targeted selection of materials can affect the storage capacity, the charging capacity and the life of vehicle batteries. 'We are meanwhile seeing the discussion focus much more on the costs incurred in lightweight construction and electric vehicles,' explains Dr. Kroos. Steel offers very promising cost-effective solutions here as well.
This afternoon participants will be given a practical insight into materials selection with tours of the plants of Salzgitter AG and MAN Trucks & Bus. A reception in the evening welcomes them back to the Hotel am See where Dr. Peter Meyer, acting head of the MAN Salzgitter plant, will shed light in his speech at dinner on the evolution of the factory from a truck to components manufacturer.
Following an introductory keynote speech by Dr. Elmar Beeh, research field head at the DLR Institute of Vehicle Concepts, the second day of the event will be held under the heading of overall vehicle concepts, powertrain and manufacturing processes. If, when designing a vehicle, developers are aware of the strengths of various materials right from the start, new vehicle concepts and production processes can be created. 'Efficient lightweight construction is much less about simply replacing one material by another,' Dr. Gebauer-Teichmann points out. It is always a question of having 'the right material in the right place, but not at any price' Dr. Kroos adds. Moreover, 'the most effective and most cost-effective lightweight construction still consists of avoiding components, for example through integrative engineering,' states Dr. Gebauer-Teichmann in support of rethinking vehicle concepts.
The final highlight the program tomorrow afternoon will be a presentation on the drivers of the developments of lightweight body construction for electro-mobility given by Prof. Christoph Wagener, Kirchhoff Automotive GmbH, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Udo Müller, Würzburg Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences, followed by a moderated discussion. 'We are always keen to look at the current trends of intelligent mobility from all angles and to let various experts have their say and to combine research findings with practical examples, to consider the financial aspects, as well as the issue of customer acceptance,' says Florian Rehr, Managing Director of IDS mobility.

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Salzgitter AG published this content on 02 April 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 01 April 2019 22:11:13 UTC