ArcelorMittal’s low carbon steel products and processes, EV battery enclosure and protection and Multi Part Integration™ solutions were all featured at IABC in the Motor City, Detroit, on September 27 and 28

The two-day event kicked off with ArcelorMittal’s Jean-Martin Van der Hoeven, Vice President ArcelorMittal, Chief Marketing Officer Global Automotive, and Mobility Solutions and Head of Sustainability Development, Climate Action Team, ArcelorMittal Europe presenting “Changes, Challenges and Opportunities.” 

The annual IABC event began in 1993 and provides a forum for discussion at an engineer-to-engineer level. The two-day agenda is heavily focused on the transformation of the automotive industry from internal combustion engines to battery electric vehicles. 

Jean-Martin set the stage for ArcelorMittal’s role in the conference, addressing ArcelorMittal’s priorities and strategies to address climate change. “The single impact of climate change is profound,” Jean-Martin contends. “We are at a crucial moment in developing the battery electric vehicle.”  

The BEV discussion today, contends Jean-Martin, is about the underbody structure. He points to the most important factors for the structure including lightweighting, sustainability (CO2 impact), responsible sourcing of raw materials, geopolitical impacts from raw material sourcing, the vehicle operating cost for the buyer (insurance, repairability), the vehicle’s circularity and the capital and operating expenses for manufacturing. 

He stresses that ArcelorMittal steel solutions offer the best technology for the BEV underbody structure, with weight savings over megacasting structures. Ultra-High Strength Steels (UHSS) and ArcelorMittal Multi Part Integration™ technology remain key for passive safety, weight savings, range optimization, sustainability of BEV’s, low CO2 intensity, affordability and repairability.  

Jean-Martin emphasized ArcelorMittal’s leading technology position amongst steel companies, sharing with attendees that 10 out of 12 ArcelorMittal major North American OEM customers share with our teams that ArcelorMittal is the top technology steel company.  

Steel: The Sustainable material

Peter Leblanc, Chief Marketing Officer, North America Automotive took the baton from Jean-Martin to give conference attendees a North America view of ArcelorMittal’s offering. He reviewed ArcelorMittal’s suite of projects to lower process GHG emissions in the region, highlighting a shift from blast furnace to basic oxygen furnace steelmaking at the Hamilton, ON, CA plant; direct reduced iron to electric arc furnace steelmaking and the acquisition of Texas HBI near Corpus Christi, TX; and an investment in ArcelorMittal Mining Canada to convert the plant’s blast furnace iron ore pellets to direct reduced iron pellets. 

Peter shared that ArcelorMittal’s flat steelmaking in North America will be 100 per cent via Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking by 2030 thanks to a more than $3B USD investment in decarbonization in the region. He further emphasized the evolution of vehicles over the past 30 years in terms of weight, horsepower, and fuel efficiency.

"We are obviously doing some pretty amazing things as our progress is very impressive. Even though weight has steadily increased, and horsepower has increased dramatically, fuel efficiency continues to improve."

Peter Leblanc, Chief Marketing Officer, North America Automotive

Peter points out that steel currently makes up 57 per cent on average of a vehicle and ArcelorMittal has played a key role in the advancements over the decades by providing lightweight, crash resistant, and affordable steel solutions, first for internal combustion engine vehicles and now for battery electric vehicles. Battery electric vehicles are now projected to make up 45 per cent of new vehicles in 2030, which signals a “massive transition over a short period of time” according to Peter. 

ArcelorMittal’s response is an S-in motion® catalogue of steel solutions for BEV, its latest ultra-high strength steels (UHSS) including new multi-phase grades, as well as the Usibor® and Ductibor® press hardenable grades used in the latest ArcelorMittal Multi Part Integration™ solutions that combine existing hot stamping and laser welded blanks technology. 

Rounding out Peter’s presentation was a look at current XCarb™ offering, including XCarb™ Recycled and Renewably Produced steel and the XCarb™ Innovation Fund, which most recently invested in CHAR Technologies, based in Canada. The XCarb™ Innovation Fund was recently named Impact Fund of the Year, 2023 at the Hydrogen Impact Investment Awards. 

The conference also included ArcelorMittal presentations on Multi Part Integration™, a steel protection shield for battery packs and battery pack cold plates in steel. 

Yannis Kheyati, Senior Research Engineer, Global Research and Development, Automotive Product Applications, presented his investigations into a steel protection shield for battery packs. “In electric vehicles, cells are a key part of the car and protecting them from damage caused by rough roads and debris is a critical safety requirement,” Yannis says. “ArcelorMittal has developed a steel solution to preserve cells from such hazard events – a protection shield with MartINsite® 1500 steel.” 

The steel design fulfilled underbody impact load case requirements and compared it with two different aluminum grades: 6XXX-Series and 7XXX-Series. CAE simulations and crash test experiments with physical demonstrators showed that at the same mass and same load, the MartINsite® 1500 solution has lower intrusion, better force resistance and better failure resistance compared to the aluminum 6XXX-Series and 7XXX-Series.  

"With an increased number of automotive manufacturers developing battery packs in steel, there is a strong need to develop validated solutions for cold plates in steel which will serve to avoid the complexities of multi-material joining and realize all the cost savings of a steel intensive design."

Ram Iyer, Manager, Co-Engineering, Global Research and Development, Automotive Product Applications, presenting battery pack cold plates in steel.

Recognizing this need, ArcelorMittal has been working on aspects of materials, coatings and manufacturing methods that are suitable and optimized for cold plate applications. “Our studies show a clear feasibility for using steel for this application,” Ram says. He shared a presentation on this study and shared that the team is continuing its path to bring innovations in materials, coatings and manufacturing solutions that enable customers to use cost-effective and sustainable steel in their designs. 

The final ArcelorMittal presentation at the conference came from Nachiket Gokhale, Product Development Manager at ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks. Nachiket’s “Side Structure design for Coach-style Doors using ArcelorMittal MPIs (Multi Part Integration™)” introduces the Coach-style Door Ring (CDR) system part of the ArcelorMittal Multi Part Integration™ (MPI) catalogue of solutions. “The CDR system includes an inner and outer ring structure without a B-pillar which enables coach-style (rear-hinged) doors to be developed to keep future autonomous vehicles mind,” Nachiket says. CDRs provide spaciousness and better ingress and egress, as well as all the benefits of MPIs like improved structural strength, part consolidation, assembly simplification and CO2 emission reduction. The CDR combined with an integrated door reinforcement creates a safety structure that ensures passenger and battery safety. 

ArcelorMittal’s presence at the 30-year IABC anniversary event signaled a continued commitment to innovation and technology at a pivotal time in the automotive sector. 

 

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