Steel rules the body panel kingdom

The predominant choice for the armor of mass-produced cars and trucks, steel is not going unchallenged at a time when weight reduction is more important than ever.

A time may come when something other than steel is the material of choice for body panels, but it will not be any time soon, in the view of U.S. Steel Corp.'s Jody Shaw, Technical Marketing Manager-Automotive. “I don't know what the driver of that would be,” Shaw said of steel being displaced. A fully developed infrastructure, a “huge knowledge base,” and superior pound-for-pound strength give steel an advantage that will not easily be overcome, he believes.

Additionally, Shaw noted, steel has significant advantages in terms of the ease with which it can be processed. Aluminum, for example, “is more difficult to work with in a stamping environment and more difficult to weld and assemble.” But perhaps steel's biggest advantage is raw material costs.