ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks (AMTB), a subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading steel and mining company, celebrated the production of three million laser-welded steel door rings for AMTB’s Americas region on July 1st. The three millionth door ring was made at AMTB Detroit at 3 P.M.
“I am immensely proud that we have produced three million door rings in our Americas region, with the record door ring happening at our state-of-the-art facility in Detroit,” said Todd Baker, president and CEO, ArcelorMittal Americas. “This achievement is a testament to how the door ring has become a key tool for automakers in improving vehicle performance and safety, while reducing vehicle weight and cost. It’s also a testament to the hard work, dedication and commitment of the entire AMTB team, who made this ‘first in the industry’ achievement possible.”
The ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks facilities that contributed to this incredible milestone are: AMTB Detroit, AMTB Pioneer (Ohio), AMTB Woodstock (Ontario, Canada) and AMTB Concord (Ontario, Canada).
ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks is the global leader in producing tailored steel blanks, or laser-welded blanks, for the automotive industry. Laser-welded blanks are stamped and assembled into critical components of a vehicle’s body structure such as door rings, as well as structural rails, door pillars, front and rear door inners, cowl sides and structural body sides.
A laser-welded door ring serves as a critical part of a vehicle’s safety cage, protecting both the driver and passengers, and replaces conventional multi-piece, spot-weld designs. The ability to weld together various grades of advanced steels into a single vehicle component improves both performance and safety, supports lightweighting goals and reduces overall production costs for the automaker. The door ring technology is most recently featured in the 2019 Acura RDX and 2019 RAM truck, as well as additional vehicles on the road today such as the Honda Pilot and Odyssey and the Chrysler Pacifica.
The “tailor made” process typically begins with ArcelorMittal’s patented press hardenable steels, Usibor® and Ductibor®, which are aluminium-coated high-strength steels used in hot stamping. The ability to combine Usibor® and Ductibor® offers several significant advantages to automakers including weight savings, improved crash behavior and cost savings through material and manufacturing optimization. The Usibor® and Ductibor® steel is blanked at one of several local blanking companies then shipped to ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks Detroit where the enabling technology, called laser ablation, takes place. Once ablated, the steels are welded together, with multiple quality control processes being to ensure precision. The blanks are then sent to a hot stamper to be stamped into the final part required by the automaker.
Source: ArcelorMittal USA Website
