4. Nano und Material Symposium: Materials and process innovations for intelligent lightweight construction

On November 16 and 17, 2011 the fourth NMN Symposium took place at the Guest House of Salzgitter AG in Salzgitter. This year's Symposium, which was conducted in cooperation with Salzgitter AG and Volkswagen AG, attracted some 180 participants. Highlights included guided tours of the engine plant at Volkswagen AG as well as the manufacturing operations at Salzgitter Flachstahl. The topic areas addressed included lightweight construction, new materials and surfaces, and were backed up by parallel sessions with plenary presentations. The event was accompanied by a specialized exhibition on the latest developments in these areas.
Innovative lightweight construction concepts are of great significance for the automotive sector, aerospace, as well as machine building and plant engineering. Consequently "Materials and process innovations for intelligent lightweight constructions" was the central topic of the Nano and Material Symposium. Innovative material developments such as HSD and various examples of hybrid construction concepts and fiber-reinforced materials were presented.

Ulrich Grethe, Chairman of the Salzgitter Flachstahl management board, discussed intelligent lightweight engineering with steel in his presentation. Innovative steel materials such as bainitic hot-rolled strip SZBS600 and SZBS800, hot-dip galvanized dual-phase steels (LH800 and LH900) ensure materials and cost savings. In addition, the new continuous casting facility at Salzgitter Flachstahl will enable the production of new, high-strength steels such as HSD (High Strength and Ductility) in future. In addition to exceptional formability, HSD®-steels offer high strength and are therefore predestined for applications in automobiles. These properties allow the construction of lighter, fuel saving vehicles, as lightweight steels achieve greater weight savings by comparison with conventional steels. Consequently, steel as a material is absolutely competitive with carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CRP) in terms of costs, recycling capabilities and the CO₂-balance. "Each material is justified for specific application cases. CRP, for example, as a highly innovative anisotropic material enables extreme lightweight engineering and construction thanks to its specific mechanical properties. From economical and technological standpoints, steel with its diversity of alloys and scope of variations will continue to remain an attractive material for lightweight construction with shaping manufacturing processes," as Professor Werner Hufenbach of the Institute for Lightweight Construction and Plastics Technologies of the Technical University of Dresden commented. And Prof. Wolfgang Bleck from the Steel Department of the RWTH Aachen University is convinced: "Steel will continue to hold its position in the environment of other lightweight materials in future, especially given the further development of ultrahigh-strength steels through to TWIP- or MBIP steels,"

Accompanying the Symposium the student competition "NMN Junior Contest“ was staged in cooperation with the Ministry of the Economy, Labor and Transportation of Lower Saxony. Four selected school groups were presented with the task of constructing a bridge with a length of one meter out of Styrofoam and steel that would carry a weight of 1.5 kilograms and have a minimum clearance height of 10 centimeters. The team from Gymnasium Papenburg emerged as the winner. In addition to accompanying the student competition, Salzgitter AG was also represented with career information stand on location.