Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’m now writing the monthly Science of Forming article for Metalforming Magazine – it’s a great honor to be taking over from Dr. Stuart Keeler. See my first article, The More You Know, on page 36 at http://metalformingmagazine.com/magazine/digital-issue/?/2017/Dec “Optimizing sheetmetal … Continue reading →

Introduction / Summary The type and depth of knowledge required to form sheet metal changed along with the industry. Experience is no longer the only measure of an employee’s capabilities. During the past 25 years, thousands of new grades of … Continue reading →

Tim Worstall, a contributor to Forbes magazine, recently wrote an opinion piece, “It’s Not China Or Trade That Killed The Steel Jobs But Recycling.“ The crux of the piece was that the job losses in the steel industry over the … Continue reading →

One of the challenges with direct hot forming a galvanized PHS is the risk of microcracks in the coating and an associated restricted process window. Steel company voestalpine has with their phs-ultraform® product developed a process that they have termed … Continue reading →

Nissan just announced the expanded use of an Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) that has a tensile strength of 1.2GPa (= 1,200MPa = 175 ksi = 175,000 psi). This follows their initial announcement in October 2011. Things we’ve learned: The … Continue reading →

We all hear frequent discussion about Advanced High Strength Steels, increased use of aluminum, and carbon fibres. Much of the discussion in automotive focuses on materials and processes to increase product strength and reduce mass.  A pamphlet published by Volvo … Continue reading →

Honda has developed a production manufacturing process that lets them join steel to aluminum skin panels. The first application of this will be on the 2014 Acura RLX, which will have an aluminum door skin joined to a steel door … Continue reading →

Through my website, someone asked about the deformation modes in sheet metal forming. My response: The three deformation modes in three-dimensional forming are draw, plane strain, and stretch. These can be visualized by imagining a circle of known diameter etched … Continue reading →

Sales of the 2013 Dodge Dart were lower than initially projected in 2012 because only manual transmissions were available at launch, with a six-speed automatic sourced from Hyundai serving as a stopgap until a promised nine-speed automatic is available. In … Continue reading →

Bloomberg article highlights: * Morgan Stanley predicts a 29 percent gain in aluminum prices by 2018. * At current aluminum prices, which are more than a third below 2008 highs, at least 30 percent of aluminum companies aren’t making money. … Continue reading →

Global brewing company SABMiller has developed a bottle crown that reduces the crown thickness to 0.17mm from a typical thickness of 0.22mm to 0.24mm. This thickness change of 50 microns reduces the standard crown weight from 2.38g to 2.14g, corresponding … Continue reading →

Through my website, someone from a manufacturing company asked how to calculate thinning in a sheet metal part made from 2mm thick high strength steel. My response: First, I assume the nominal or expected thickness is 2mm. But this is … Continue reading →

2013 Honda Accord body structure is made of >55% high strength steel with tensile strengths starting at 440MPa. Of this, >17% is ultra high strength steel, with tensile strengths of 780MPa, 980MPa, and a martensitic grade 1500MPa. This 2013 model … Continue reading →

The next meeting of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Fuel Economy of Light-Duty Vehicles, Phase 2 will be a lightweighting workshop focused on lightweighting, mass reduction and their impact on fuel economy. On the agenda for the meeting … Continue reading →

Currently, around half of China’s total steel capacity is owned by the 10 biggest steel firms; the government aims to bring this to 60% by 2015. Also by 2015, targets call for 90% of automobile production and 90% of aluminum … Continue reading →

In one of the first uses of AHSS for automotive skin panels, POSCO is supplying Hyundai with an exposed quality advanced high strength steel with 490 MPa minimum tensile strength. Hyundai was able to reduce the mass of the door … Continue reading →