Steel Axial Crash Testing Study Authors Win AISI/SAE 2005 Sydney H. Melbourne Award

Todd Link (left) and Jeff Grimm are furthering the knowledge base of the automotive industry by providing data related to crash safety utilizing steel, the material of choice by the automotive community.

The Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAE) announced Todd Link and Jeff Grimm, employees at the U. S. Steel Research and Technology Center in Monroeville, Pa., as the recipients of the 2005 SAE International/AISI Sydney H. Melbourne Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Automotive Sheet Steel.

Link and Grimm received the award for co-authoring a paper presented at the 2005 SAE World Congress titled, "Axial Crash Testing of Advanced High Strength Steel Tubes (SAE paper No. 2005-01-0836).

The authors, using a drop tower test and a cylindrical tube specimen, evaluated the axial crash performance of five conventional steels and seven advanced high-strength steels. Both dual phase and transformation-induced plasticity steels with tensile strengths of 600 MPa and 800 MPa were tested, as were the effects of tensile strength and sheet thickness on crash performance.

The results show that substituting higher strength steels of the same thickness can reduce crash deformation, or existing crashworthiness can be maintained and weight reduction achieved by substituting higher strength steels with reduced thickness.

Ronald Krupitzer, vice president, Automotive Applications, AISI, noted, "Through this lab experiment on crash testing, the steel industry is able to demonstrate that steel can absorb enormous energy in simulated crash and still contribute to mass reduction."

Don Pether, president and CEO of Dofasco Inc, augmented Krupitzer's remarks. "Sydney Melbourne promoted the advancement of steel applications through improvement in automobile production with steel. This award encourages engineers in our industry to reach beyond current standards to achieve steel technological advancements that benefit the automotive industry, the steel industry and the consumer. The research of Todd Link and Jeff Grimm is a timely contributor to our knowledge base as the demand for automotive safety increases," Pether said.

The authors will be honored at 5:00 p.m. during the SAE Awards Ceremony at the Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan.

Todd Link is a senior research engineer with U. S. Steel, since 1998, focusing on automotive product applications. In 2002, he received the Sydney H. Melbourne Award and the AISI Medal for his papers on fatigue performance, crash behavior, and formability of advanced high-strength steels. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from Pennsylvania State University.

Jeff Grimm is a senior technician with U. S. Steel, since 2002 and focuses on product technology in sheet products including static testing, dynamic testing, and fracture mechanics. He holds two associate degrees in metrology and electrical engineering technology from Butler County Community.

SAE is a nonprofit engineering and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of mobility technology to better serve humanity. Nearly 84,000 engineers and scientists who are SAE members develop technical information on all forms of self-propelled vehicles, including automobiles, aircrafts, aerospace crafts, trucks, buses, marine, rail and transit machinery. This information is disseminated through SAE meetings, books, electronic products and databases, technical papers, standards, reports and professional development programs.

AISI established this award through the SAE Foundation to honor the memory and accomplishments of the late Sydney H. Melbourne. Melbourne, who was director of market development and product applications with Dofasco Inc., was actively involved in enhancing relationships between the steel and automotive industries and participated in the formation of the Auto/Steel Partnership.

During his distinguished career, Melbourne served as director of DNN Galvanizing Corporation, chairman of the board at Forming Technologies, Inc., and as a past president of the Metallurgical Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining. He was a member of the Zinc Aluminum Coaters Association and the International Iron and Steel Institute.

Melbourne also actively participated on numerous committees within the AISI Automotive Applications Committee, the Auto/Steel Partnership and the UltraLight Steel Auto Body project.