Hybrid Steel Sheet Trends for Automotive Stampings

Abstract

This study provides information on the hybrid steel sheets available for the use of carmakers. The automotive industry has been working on many different areas simultaneously to improve the performance of vehicles such as light-weighting, safety, clean energy resources, and noise-vibration-harshness (NVH). Steel is the dominant material for most vehicles. However, there are currently many alternative materials to steel such as aluminum, magnesium, titanium, plastics, carbon fiber, etc. Therefore, a lot of research has been done to keep steel as the material of choice for vehicles by the steel and material industries. Hybrid steel materials have been introduced to compete with these alternative materials. Hybrid steel materials are developed for light-weighting and/or acoustic insulation applications. They provide a good balance between cost and weight. In this study, the definition of hybrid steel materials is explained. Emerging and available products with their technical properties and possible applications are reviewed.