Aachen Body Engineering Days 2024

03.09.2024 | Initiative Automotive

Every year, international experts in car body, material and production technology meet up at the Aachen Body Engineering Days. Here, they discuss the latest developments and trends focusing on automotive applications and components.
This year, the Aachen Car Body Days will take place on the 24th and 25th of September.
Together with its customer Porsche, Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung presents the steel grade CR1900T-MB-UC and its potential for use in automotive sector. In order to be able to evaluate the material potential in detail, the complete process chain was analyzed experimentally and numerically on a B-pillar. All tests were carried out in parallel with the series material CR1500T-MB-UC and the CR1900T-MB-UC.

Boronalloyed Steels

Grade CR1500T-MB-UC (22MnB5) has been the standard in many areas of car body construction to date. The newer grade CR1900T-MB-UC (34MnB5) offers the user with its even higher strength an opportunity to further improve crash performance or lightweight construction.
The new product is included in the VDA239-500 standard and is in series production status in accordance with SEP 1245.
The “MB” in the material designation stands for the alloying elements manganese (Mn) and boron (B). These MnB steels were specially developed for the automotive industry. They have very good formability as supplied and are therefore also suitable for cold forming complex components. MnB steels only achieve their final strength during hot forming and the associated rapid cooling in the tool (press hardening). For this purpose, the initial blank is heated to around 950°C in an oven. The structure of the steel thus becomes austenitic. The blank is then formed directly using a significantly colder tool. Rapid cooling in the tool to temperatures between 100°C and 200°C gives the material a martensitic microstructure. This process significantly increases the strength of the material and therefore of the component.

Details of the event can be found here: www.aachener-karosserietage.de/en