Present Status of Cold-Rolled High Strength Steel Development

Interest in the use of high strength cold-rolled steel sheets is growing primarily because of the greater weight reduction that can be realized in automotive vehicles when the thinner gage, higher strength cold-rolled sheets are substituted for the heavier gage hot or cold rolled sheets currently used.

Today's steelmakers have considered and tried a number of metallurgical alternatives and philosophies which have resulted in the production and availability, either in commercial or developmental quantities, of formable, high-strength, cold-rolled steels with yield strengths in the range of 50 to 120 ksi. These steels have as good or better properties as the standard, lower strength, cold rolled steels.