Dr. Heinz Jörg Fuhrmann - Schau Verlag Hamburg

In mint condition:
A Chevrolet Special Deluxe
from the 1940’s – spotted
on a street in San Diego
Mb 560 SL, good looking and low mileage. “rotten,” Stefan
grunts from under the car, “Another one rusted right through.”
It’s dark already by the time they get to the highlight of the day.
Their flashlight beam picks out first a stack of lumber, then a
blue plastic sheet. Isn’t that a cup rim? Could be a Porsche under
there. “do you mind?” they ask the seller as they shift the lumber,
pull back the sheet and – wow! A 1973 Porsche 911 T. A bit tatty
round the edges, with a lot of parts strewn inside. but no rust at
all on the body, and the engine sounds good. Now it’s down to the
price, they haggle – and shake hands.
11.00 p.m. in another motel. Thinking about the Porsche under
the woodpile, Stefan Meyer suddenly shivers. “do you realize,
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the wheel housings were full of black spiders? It’s lucky I had
gloves on, but if one of those things had bitten me…!“
The final day. jens Wolfram and Stefan Meyer stop off in Long
beach before catching the flight home. That’s where the vehicles
they have bought are loaded into containers and shipped back
to Germany. jens Wolfram lovingly runs his hand over a fender,
checks the new soft top on the red Mustang in the far corner and
casts one last glance over the paperwork.
jens and Stefan love their automobiles – which is why they
spread cat litter in every vehicle. It’s guaranteed to soak up the
moisture during the six-week sea voyage. “You wouldn’t want
mold on the roof lining, now would you?”
Dream Porsche at a
dealer in L.A.
An Austin Healey 3000, vintage 1962
PhoToS: Udo bojAhr
Steel makes cars lighter and more economical
From material design to components
There are many facets to the relationship
between steel and
the car. From the earliest days
when automobiles were little
more than motorized carriages, steel has
been the key to stability.
This symbiosis between steel as the
material and the car as the end product
has survived one technological development
after another, despite the fact that
our expectations of the car have risen
steadily over the decades. Progress has
been consistently driven by demands
for comfort, safety, economy of manufacture,
availability of resources and of
course ecological considerations.
In the meantime, a contest has developed
between materials, in which the
variety and versatility of steel play to its
advantage.
There are four aspects in particular
which stand out. Steel offers:
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an attractive price-performance ratio
greater rigidity than comparable materials
excellent formability, which in combination
with rigidity means that steel
can deliver substantial reductions in
weight
steel can be cost efficiently recycled
on the other hand, it is no longer
enough just to make and supply steel:
When developing new qualities of steel,
the manufacture and, to an increasing
extent, the processing to be carried out
by the customer must also be considered
at an early stage, in order to fulfill
market requirements for high-quality
steel products and successfully conform
with the product lifecycle envisaged by
the customer. Following a long-established
practice in the automobile industry,
steel makers are increasingly turning
to “steel prototypes” and “virtual
materials” in order to minimize the
cost-intensive field trials inherent in the
material design process. A fundamental
understanding of both the production
and operation of steel components
is essential in order to
use all of the properties of steel
to the fullest benefit of processing
users as well as end consumers.
Component trials conducted
jointly with customers at an early
stage deliver maximum information
and know-how gains needed
to exploit the potentials of new and
modified grades of steel.
Customer support extends from ini-
tial consultations on the development of
new components with particular characteristics,
via the creation and testing
of prototypes, and all the way through
to the approval of the material and/or
component for mass production.
Today, the steel industry plays a decisive
role in the design and
construction of lighterweight
motor vehicles.
In this field, the ScaLight project –
a cooperative undertaking by Salzgitter
AG and Wilhelm Karmann Gmbh –
is both an expression of this advanced
thinking and a platform on which to
present new ideas, material qualities
and production technologies and realize
these in steel.
ScaLight – the Scalable Autobody
Lightweight Concept – can be used by
automobile manufacturers to build a
variety of body styles such as soft-tops,
roadsters and sport utility convertibles.
This method combines a series of
benefits and options: The vehicles are
lighter and therefore consume less fuel,
which is an important consideration,
especially against the backdrop of current
discussions on climate change.
What’s more, they can also be produced
more cost efficiently.
The importance of this economic aspect
was underscored by dr. André
Kröff, project manager at Salzgitter AG:
“We have developed a complete production
plan, including a business case
and cost model, which extends from
Scalable autobody architecture
– exemplified
by an open-top SUV
Built-up prototype demonstrating scalable
architecture
the choice of materials for individual
components through to the production
plant itself.”
This proves that lightweight construction
need not be expensive, and that tomorrow’s
requirements can already be
met with high-strength steels today.
In partnership with Corus, Salzgitter
has also been developing what are
termed hSd steels. hSd stands for
high Strength and ductility. “These
new steels exhibit very high strength,
while also offering excellent formability,”
explained Prof. dr. Matthias Niemeyer,
Managing director of Salzgitter
Mannesmann Forschung. “In addition
they are also five percent less dense
than steels in use today, which helps to
save weight and opens up potentials for
lightweight designs.”
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