Tailored tubes open new chapter in success story

The latest development in Thyssen tailored products are Thyssen Tailored Tubes® for lightweight automotive construction with steel. Thyssen Tailored Tubes® are made from steel sheets of different grades and thicknesses. Extremely thin-walled Thyssen Tailored Tubes® - boasting a diameter to thickness ratio of more than 60:1 - can now be used to make vehicle components which are just as light as their aluminum counterparts.

There is more to reducing weight than just using lighter materials. The right steel grade with the right strength and thickness has to be used in the right place. It is the engineer`s job to decide what is `right` in each case. ThyssenKrupp Stahl has taken the basic idea behind the tailored blank and developed it further. For example, the laser welds used to join the different sheets can now be made in complex shapes, not just in straight lines as in the past, a development ThyssenKrupp Stahl calls Thyssen Engineered Blanks®. Further products include Thyssen Tailored Strips® for use in wheel rims, and of course Thyssen Tailored Tubes®.

ThyssenKrupp Stahl has come up with a patented solution to the problem of bending thin-walled tubes. Pre-bending and subsequent hydroforming allow structural elements to be matched exactly to the body loads involved. This in turn clears the way for producing new body designs such as spaceframe structures from thin-walled steel materials.

Steel spaceframe structures will open up whole new possibilities for lightweight steel construction in the future, in line with the trend toward weight reduction. Moreover, steel offers cost advantages of 30 percent versus comparable aluminum designs.

For more information:
ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG
Dietmar Stamm, Public Relations
Tel: +49 (0)203-52-2 62 67
Fax: +49 (0)203-52-2 57 07
E-mail: stamm@tks.thyssenkrupp.com