Innovations

Innovative ideas and new approaches to products and processes are key to the future of ThyssenKrupp as a technology group. Our success in the coming years will depend to a large extent on our developers coming up with ideas which will solve our customers' problems better than ever before. In the 1st quarter 2006/2007, scientists and engineers at over 80 ThyssenKrupp research centers worked on upwards of 2,000 projects, in many cases collaborating with external partners such as our eight partner universities. Highlights of our market-driven development work included further advancements in material and surface technologies, new integrated solutions for improved energy generation, greater safety in road traffic and innovative moving walks as an attractive alternative for short-distance passenger transportation.

As development partners to the international auto industry, Steel and Technologies initiated the INCAR project, presenting the full cross-segment capabilities of the ThyssenKrupp Group along the automotive process chain. Our integrative approach to body, chassis and powertrain systems promises to provide new, groundbreaking solutions for our customers. To better present the outstanding innovations and technologies available in the Group for this, our Automotive Lightweight Design and Innovation Center LIZA in Bochum will prepare corresponding demonstration objects. Using digital technology, a body and chassis structure will be designed as a technological "construction kit" integrating new steering and powertrain solutions and including an active suspension system. The development project follows on from the NSB® NewSteelBody concept – a complete, weight-optimized steel body-in-white developed by ThyssenKrupp for automotive lightweighting.

In the future, steel sheet can play an increasingly important role in the area of solar thermal technology, which converts the heat of the sun into energy. Our surface engineering center Dortmunder OberflächenCentrum DOC® is working on the development of a non-glazed, colored heat collector based on coated steel sheets. These sheets can convert building facades into solar collectors, while at the same time their variable and attractive design provides architects and owners with sufficient latitude for high-quality architecture.

Steel's development activities also included new processes to produce lightweight, low-cost tubular sections from steel sheet. The Thyssen Tailored Tubes® manufactured using T3 profiling technology – an in-house development – allow reductions in both cost and weight in auto manufacture. A pilot line for these new steel products is currently being started up in Duisburg.

Stainless is responding to customer requirements for cost-optimized, corrosion-resistant materials with an array of new ideas for high-performance materials and their applications. Significant improvements have been made to the production process for a ferritic stainless steel which is particularly suitable for use in water pipes and boilers. Our material experts are collaborating with a Swiss research institute on nanoporous nickel alloy films which can later be used to manufacture ultra-fine filters. Due to their excellent mechanical properties, their resistance to oxidation and their good weldability, nickel alloys have also been tested for use in efficient, environment-friendly steam power stations operating at temperatures over 700°C.

We continued our developments in the area of oil sands production, focusing on the design of cost-optimized machinery and equipment for the entire process chain. High capacity, low running costs and good efficiency are the goals of this development work.

Engineers from our Technologies, Stainless and Services segments also made important progress in the further development of a methanol reformer for fuel cell systems in modern submarines. They worked together to develop a new metal membrane for hydrogen separation which has now been successfully tested.

In the area of automotive construction, Technologies presented optimized door reinforcements as part of its Advanced Door Technology which increase side impact protection. The concepts are now being tested on the basis of prototypes made from various high-strength steels. Different cold- and hot-forming processes will optimize their production.

Elevator is currently launching a new moving walk. Passengers step on and off the Turbotrack comfortably at low speed, but cover the rest of their journey at higher speed. This makes such walks an attractive option with acceptable travel times for longer distances of up to 1,500 meters. The walks have a capacity of up to 15,000 passengers per hour. The first two systems of this kind, each with a length of 270 meters, have been sold to Toronto Airport.