Material advance

ThyssenKrupp Steel and Japan's second-biggest steel producer JFE Steel Corporation have jointly developed new multiphase steel for the automotive industry.

ThyssenKrupp claims the steel has a minimum strength of 780 megapascals (MPa), similar to that of the advanced ultrahigh-strength steels CP-W 800 from ThyssenKrupp Steel and NANO 780 from JFE.

The steel is said to possess significantly improved forming properties because it achieves up to 40 per cent higher elongation compared with conventional 780MPa high-strength steel.

The two companies have jointly filed a patent on the newly developed material, which they have called TP-N 68/78.

ThyssenKrupp Steel and JFE have been working since 2002 under a cooperation agreement aimed at securing the global availability of high-performance steel materials for the automotive customers of both partners.

Results so far include the definition of common specifications for high-strength automotive steels and the conclusion of a cross-licensing agreement for the steel grades CP (complex phase) from ThyssenKrupp Steel and NANO HITEN from JFE. Under the agreement, both companies can produce the other partner's material.