Great Designs in Steel Featured in Automotive Engineering Article

The steel and aluminum industries are waging a new materials war that could determine which of the long-time competitors dominates EV structures in the next design cycle. Feeling the heat from new aluminum applications, steel companies are aggressively moving to defend their reign as the material of choice in vehicle body structures. They also aim to conquer the EV battery enclosures market, currently dominated by aluminum extrusions. (See AE March 2023 feature) Steel executives are bullish on their new technologies and their approaches to winning on both fronts.

“Today, many automakers are talking about high-pressure die-cast aluminum, especially for BEVs,” Brad Davey, executive VP at steel giant ArcelorMittal said. Speaking with SAE Media following his keynote address at the recent 2024 Great Designs in Steel (GDIS) conference in Novi, Michigan, Davey acknowledged that giant HPDC aluminum ‘gigacastings lend themselves to ‘skateboard ’EV platforms due to their potential to consolidate parts and simplify manufacturing. The end benefit, he said,“ is capital-expense assembly line savings,” particularly for EV companies.

“If you can reduce floor space and the number of welding robots in assembly, by using one large casting, it can be an attractive solution – compared with traditional processes, that is,” he said.

Read the full article here.